There is no lack of information in our modern world. We now know more than ever before and can access it more readily. The true challenge is sifting the relevant from the random — a problem modern industrial processes face many times over as they grow more complex and production tolerances tighten. Monitoring is relatively easy; knowing what that information means, is hard.

17 processing plants

The Olmeca refinery is the largest oil plant in Mexico and a symbol of the country’s industrial transformation. A source of national pride since production began in 2023, it covers 556 hectares, has 17 processing plants, 56 storage tanks, and 34 spheres, generates 340,000 barrels of oil daily, and almost as much raw data.

But, like crude oil, raw data is of little value until it’s processed.

At Olmeca, a central control room and several satellite control rooms combine feeds from cameras, sensors, and monitors to form the heart of a SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) system. This allows highly skilled operators to extract meaning from real-time raw data and make minute-by-minute decisions that keep the refinery running at peak performance.

The best decision in the shortest possible time

In the central control room, eight Christie^® Core Series LED video walls, each measuring 27.9 x 10.5′ (8.5 x 3.2m), keep operators informed 24 hours a day to ensure everything runs smoothly. The tactical room and a satellite control room have two Christie LCD video walls in a 4×2 configuration and a 3×2 LCD video wall, respectively, both with HD resolution (1920×1080) and sub-1mm bezels. Thirty Christie video wall processing nodes allow teams to simultaneously view, hear, and, crucially, interact with information from multiple sources.

All that raw data is now refined data — part of an easily accessed chain of relevant information that links operator to events across the entire 556-hectare site. Dimas Lopez, general manager of Soluciones en Tecnologia de Mexico (STM), the Christie partner that acted as the project integrator explains more. “The video walls allow the different teams in the refinery to share critical information in different control rooms by combining several sources simultaneously to obtain an accurate view of what is happening at any given moment, and make the best decision in the shortest possible time,”

Fast, accurate decisions made with great confidence and complete coordination.

Clarity and context

There’s a huge difference between explanation and information, about knowing when something happens and what it means. The highly skilled operators at Olmeca need information — but they also need clarity and context. It’s a crucial part of modern control room philosophy, and it’s something that an integrated video wall solution does exceptionally well.