In mission-critical operations, details matter. Even small reductions in response times and efficiency improvements can help mitigate the impact of incidents and even save lives.
When setting up an operations center or control room, the approach needs to be both detailed and holistic to ensure maximum efficiency. It's vital to consider not just immediate needs but also future trends which will ensure your mission-critical infrastructure is set up for success today and for years to come.
When setting up your operations center or control room, don't wait until after the room has been designed to consider what technology is required. Design the space around the workflow and technology needed for it to operate, not vice versa.
Understanding the workflow of your organization is the first step. It's important to have a consensus on what critical information needs to be displayed or shared and who needs to see it for situational awareness. Your organization should be thinking not just about today's workflow, but also considering future needs. What advancements in technology can help improve efficiency?
When planning for a mission-critical environment, include the decision-makers in your IT department from the very beginning. This will ensure security considerations are brought up early. The IT department is going to be able to identify potential security vulnerabilities and risks and can advise on the technology infrastructure needed.
Spatial planning should be an operator-led discussion because operators are the end-users of the control room and the people who are most often in the space for extended periods of time. An operator's primary responsibility is to monitor, analyze, translate and make rapid real-time decisions based on the information being shown. it is paramount that they are able to stay focused at all times. Anyone in the planning phase of a control room should understand the spatial factors that can impact operators' ability to make critical decisions. Some considerations:
Planning around the factors listed above will set your operators up for success and help decrease operator fatigue (mental alertness, visual acuity, and stress) which will help reduce potential errors.
There are many things to consider in order to sufficiently set up your operator workstation including making sure they have the right equipment and connections. Other considerations include:
When consulting with your operators in the planning phase, it's important to design the workstation around their workflow and specific requirements.
In the past, the AV industry as well as the solutions offered to control rooms and operation centers have been dominated by hardware-centric solutions that are proprietary in nature. This has had a negative impact on security compliance, workflow management, and even Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) in control rooms and operation centers.
Because most AV hardware is proprietary in nature, it causes major security concerns. The IT organization responsible for managing it rarely has visibility into it and when they do it often raises red flags.
Flexibility, scalability, and interoperability are needed to support dynamic standard operating procedures and emergency response plans. Adding new sources, displays, add-on solutions and features can be severely limited by the proprietary nature of legacy AV solutions.
Hardware-centric solutions need to be refreshed roughly every five years. In many cases, newer hardware releases cause existing hardware to become the end of life. This may force a refresh of hardware before the normal five-year timeline. Keep in mind, opting for proprietary hardware creates vendor lock-in which limits customers' options for procurement, support, and future deployments.
Alternatively, standards-based, open technology software can be paired with commercially available off-the-shelf hardware and make it easier for an IT department to provide front-line support. This is the Userful approach and it makes it easier to integrate with third-party applications, ensures interoperability, and reduces security risks. A software-based approach gives an operation center scalability, security, and interoperability.
Any operations center that is using video data today needs to consider the addition of a computer vision solution. Given the rapid increase in video data, this is the only scalable way to ensure operators have true, proactive situational awareness.
Two challenges for any operations Centre considering computer vision: first identifying the right product and separating hype from reality and second making sure that any computer vision solutions added to the operation centers are truly interoperable.
If you are planning to build an operations center or upgrade your existing operations center, schedule a free consultation call with one of our Operation Center and Control Room Experts to help you understand how to achieve your goals and ensure your organization is able to scale with the ever-increasing volume of video data.
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) is a key metric in any technology purchasing decision. This calculation includes the upfront costs of deploying an operations center or control room and the total ongoing operating costs. Userful is an industry leader in reducing customers' TCO and does this in several key ways:
There is a lot that goes into the planning and execution of an effective and sustainable operations center or control room and reading the blog above is a good first step. Download our Control Room Planning Checklist to use as a guide for your next project. For even more resources and helpful information watch the on-demand webinar.
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