What is PACE and how does it work?
An overview of WISE Group’s legacy PACE software and how it acquires, processes, displays and logs monitoring data.
Overview
PACE, the Processing and Collection Engine, is WISE Group’s legacy real-time data acquisition and processing software. It was originally developed by Muir Matheson and remains in use within existing helideck and meteorological monitoring installations on offshore platforms and vessels.
PACE collects data from connected meteorological and motion sensors, processes the measurements and makes the resulting parameters available to local and remote displays. It also logs data automatically and can forward selected information to external platforms such as Orbalux.
PACE remains supported for existing installations but is not actively developed as the standard platform for new WISE Group monitoring systems.
What PACE does
PACE performs four principal functions:
- Acquires raw data continuously from connected sensors
- Validates and processes measurements into operational parameters
- Presents the processed information on local and networked displays
- Logs parameters automatically for historical review and export
Depending on the system configuration, PACE can process measurements including wind speed and direction, air temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wave data and vessel motion.
It can also calculate derived values such as mean wind speed, gusts, QFE and QNH for use within configured helideck and meteorological monitoring systems.
How PACE processes data
PACE uses a structured processing sequence. Each stage builds on the information produced by the preceding stage.
Driver
The Driver establishes communication with the connected instrument. Communication settings may include the relevant port, baud rate, parity and other instrument-specific settings.
Sensor
The Sensor converts the received signal into the appropriate engineering unit. Scaling factors, validity limits and invalid-data handling are applied at this stage.
Channel
The Channel applies sampling, averaging and other signal-processing rules. This may include the sample length, sample rate, data type and data-validity period.
Parameter
The Parameter produces the final value used for display, logging, reporting or alarms. This stage may apply correction formulae, averaging methods and configured alarm thresholds.
Each displayed value depends on the configuration applied through these stages. Changes can affect calculations, alarms and the information presented to operators.
WISE Group recommends that customers do not change an operational PACE configuration without first consulting our support team.
Displays and data logging
Processed parameters are shown on the local Weather Monitoring System computer and, where configured, on remote display clients connected to the local network.
PACE records configured parameters automatically in CSV format. These files can be used for operational review, engineering analysis and incident investigation.
See Finding and exporting historical PACE data for information about logged files and timestamps.
Alarms
PACE can apply high and low thresholds to displayed parameters. Warning, alert and alarm states are presented using configurable colour changes and optional on-screen messages.
See Understanding PACE alarms and thresholds for more information.
External data access
Existing PACE installations can forward processed data to approved external platforms. Orbalux provides the long-term WISE Group platform for remote dashboards, historical access and controlled data sharing.
See Connecting an existing PACE system to Orbalux for further information.
Getting help
WISE Group provides technical and lifecycle support for existing PACE installations.
Before requesting support, note the installation name, PACE version, affected display or parameter, when the problem started and any recent changes to the system.
Use the Submit Support Ticket option in the Knowledge Base to contact our support team.