Talking control
Your control room may look good, but does it bring out the best in your team? Security Middle East talks to some leading specialists about how to get new-design control room projects right
It´s easy to underestimate the importance of control room design, and it´s easy to get it wrong. In many parts of the world the big headache for planners is sheer lack of space, and for them there is always a compromise between the ´ footprint ´ requirements of the technology and the needs of the people using it.
But here in the Middle East that´s not usually the problem. Here projects are often new-build, and space is less of a constraint. But because it may seem easier, the temptation is to leave control room design until late in the day. It is, after all, not as expensive or as technically complex as other parts of a project.
But this can be a mistake because the control room is where all the technology has to perform. There’s little point spending big budgets on CCTV, communications, IT and integrated control systems if the human operators are then hampered by a poorly planned working environment.
It´s a point well made by Charles Evett, managing director of Lund Halsey, who´s company has completed control rooms for major projects such as Dubai International Airport Terminal Three and more recently Dubai World Central (At Terminal Three Lund Halsey completed more than 20 control rooms, all with different requirements, including the main police control room, CCTV, communications and customs).
"Our advice is to plan at the early stages and design the building with the control room in mind - do it before it´s built, not when it´s being built. If the control room is not designed properly you won´t get your return on investment."
If there are serious design errors - such as pinch-points, lack of storage space, poor operator access to information, bad lighting, difficult acoustics, or even exposure of individuals to too much information - those errors may not come to light until there´s a major incident.
It´s only when the control room is put under stress and tested in a rapidly changing emergency that the faults may become apparent, as staff struggle to handle the situation effectively. That´s a very bad time to find out that the workstations may look great, but the highly trained operators and their supervisors are struggling to work smoothly as a team. "Plan the working operation of the control room," cautions Evett. "Think about the different scenarios you may encounter."
Simulation exercises
John Wood of CCD Design agrees, pointing out that with larger projects it´s a good idea to take this a stage further (CCD have designed over 350 control rooms over 30 years, working in the security industry, emergency services, air traffic control, petrochemical industry, utilities and transportation; the company has handled several projects in the Middle East and is currently working on a major police control room).
"In larger control rooms we advise that it´s essential to run a simulation exercise to make sure your big ideas work - you can mock it up in full scale, with representative operators, and run through different scenarios. In this way you can test whether you system design and room layout works."
While it may take some effort and resource to do this properly, it´s a small investment when compared with the overall cost of the system and it allows you to quickly identify wrinkles that need to be ironedout. In fact John Wood has been closely involved in drawing up the ISO11064 standard for ´The Ergonomic Design of Control Centres´, which is well worth looking at.
The seven part standard covers all the main considerations for control room planners - including control suite design, workstation layout, environmental design, workstation equipment and ancillary areas – and buyers are advised to have at least a basic knowledge of it.
John´s advice is to be methodical, start by analysing the functions that your new control room may be required to handle and, work forward from there. Going into such detail sooner, rather than later, increases the chances of creating an environment that the clients will be proud of and that the users will want to work in. Of course these two aims should not be incompatible - but they sometimes are.
Supplier options
Control room furniture suppliers with experience in the region include Knotty, which designs and manufactures a range of custom--built furniture including flexible, future-proof desk systems, monitor racks and storage units in both timber and metal constructions, along with complementary accessories to make full use of all this equipment.
Knotty also installs and project-manages, and the company´s experience in the Middle East and surrounding region includes the kitting out of a TV station in Jordan. "We´ve recently introduced some new equipment, such as the modular Commander control room desk system, which is particularly suited to Middle East users with its benefits including ergonomic design, quick and easy assembly, and adaptable configurations to suit the requirements of any size of security operation," says Knotty´s director, Andy Brewer.
"Commander can also be easily integrated with our brand new Pro Display monitor stack system, which has been designed to hold a variety of LCD and plasma displays in bespoke arrays to suit the needs of control room operators and other security staff. Our engineers have produced a really clever attachment design to hold any type of size of monitor and this interesting feature combines with Pro Display’s aesthetically pleasing, lightweight aluminium frame, as well as its adaptable floor and wall mounting options."
Another supplier with good experience in the region is Winsted. The company operates worldwide and it has installed some impressive control rooms in the Middle East for customers including Dubai Mall, King Abdullah University (Jeddah), Burj Tower Dubai, Qatar National Bank and Enfidha Airport.
Winsted´s diverse product line includes custom and standard rack cabinets, broadcast and security consoles, command centres and tape/data storage systems. Among other options, the company´s new Sight-Line console features its Versa-Trak monitor array mounting system, which offers greater adjustability. The Versa-Trak system allows users to modify sight lines and monitor viewing angles to take account of changing operator needs.
Custom work surfaces and end panels are also available in laminated MDF or solid surfaces. Sight-Line is designed with Winsted´s Insta-Lock fastening system, which reduces the time necessary to construct and install the consoles.
Control room checklist
Things to bear in mind when either designing the control room or choosing your control room equipment
Remember that the furniture may take a lot of hard use. If the facility operates round-the-clock then it will be subject to double the ´wear and tear´ of a normal office so it needs to be durable
The comfort and well-being of operators should be a top priority. If staff are spending hours at their workstations then everything from the design, features and finish of their chairs, the amount of natural daylight they get, to the positioning of the screens they have to monitor is doubly important. These are among the factors, included in the ISO 11064 standard, that could affect how well they perform
Which ever control room supplier you chose, an important consideration is their willingness and ability to work smoothly with the other contractors.
Remember because the control room sits at the heart of all the other systems it can be an unexpectedly complex job.
The control room planner and installer has to be a master at the arts of both thinking ahead and collaborative working