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Control roomCollaborationtools — GoinGbeyond systemHardwareby Destiny Heimbecker

Today’s control room is a direct reflection of theadvances being made in information technology andmobile devices. With an ever increasing number ofvideo and data sources available, efficient collaborationand decision-making is only possible if operators andkey stakeholders have easy and timely access to thisinformation. For this reason, when designing a moderncontrol room, collaboration software is now as importantas the screens on which the data is being viewed.

Control rooms historically include an array of largeformat displays driven by a display wall processor thataccepts inputs from a variety of sources, includingdesktop computers, broadcast, and security videos.There are, however, flaws with this traditionalconfiguration and the technologies used to create it.The number one issue being that all of the information isdisplayed on only one location, which means thatanyone not physically present in the control room cannotview the information and therefore act upon it. In otherwords, the very strength of the traditional control roomcan also be its weakness. Decision makers need to haveaccess to the critical tools that enable effectivecollaboration —such as the ability to create, combine,and share various user perspectives of data, images, andvideo. This means presenting information wherever it isneeded —not only on the control room's display walland operator workstations, but outside the control roomas well. This means that the information can be viewedin crisis rooms, meeting rooms, even outside of the

building, which literally means that it can be viewed bythe applicable people around the world — whereverdecisions need to be made. Collaboration software toolsare the game changer in this industry as they offer theability to push content from the control room to anadjacent war room, share content between operatorscreens, provide content collaboration on the main wall,or even share content with remote desktops and mobiledevices. The control room is no longer constrained to asingle location.

One example of this collaborative control center designis the Southeastern Pennsylvania TransportationAuthority. When it was time to upgrade its visualizationplatform with a grant from the U.S. Office of HomelandSecurity, the Southeastern Pennsylvania TransportationAuthority (SEPTA) had a long list of demands: enhancereal-time situational awareness, boost system reliability,and facilitate communication among all of itsstakeholders. Eight display walls are networkedthroughout the facility, centralizing all information whileproviding the ability for operators to share sources onany and all displays operators can launch visuals frommultiple desktops to create, save, and recall layouts onthe spot. Utilizing Barco’s control room and managementsuite collaboration is enhanced between operators,managers, and other personnel, featuring an intuitiveand easy-to-use sidebar utility. By bringing everyoperating system into the command center, SEPTA cannow view activity on all of the region’s subways,railroads, buses, and trolleys, while connecting with lawenforcement and media channels.

Ron Hopkins, Assistant General Manager of Operationsat SEPTA said, “The seamless screens give us muchmore flexibility in how we manage video, so we cancapture and display any feed or image to create acommon operational picture. This is especially usefulwhen a crisis arises and we need to coordinate withother agencies.” Ron added, “It’s proven its value manytimes already during inclement weather, equipmentbreakdowns, and service outages, giving us theinformation we need to quickly react and effectivelyremedy situations.”

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Security is another industry, among many, that reliesheavily on an efficient control room to achieve itsgoals. A security operations center (SOC) is acentralized unit in an organization that deals withsecurity issues, on an organizational and technicallevel. A SOC within a building or facility is a centrallocation from where staff supervises the site, usingdata processing technology. Typically, it isequipped for access monitoring, and controlling ofvideo, lighting, and often, alarms, and can monitoractivity at all campus facilities, including cameraand remote access controls for doors and gates.The role of the SOC continues to evolve over timesand as events escalate beyond the operationscenter, virtual operators are being brought onboard to deal with higher-level security events. Byadding this new virtual element, the SOC becomesdependent on the people who are called upon tostaff it in times of crisis or need, as well as on thetools and technology that will provide visibility intoincidents and that will help lead to quicker incidentresolution. Operators may be on the scene of thecrisis, reporting information via mobilevideoconferencing, which is being shared via warroom back at the hub. Another virtual operatorbeing utilized by the SOC of today is social media.Mobile connectivity to the control room allows forsharing of pertinent information about the currentstate of security incidents and assist peers inmitigating attacks. Companies will further benefitfrom heightened situational awareness, improvedvisibility, and access to a vast knowledge base.

Utility companies are also leaning on networkcollaboration to increase their level ofcommunication. As the sole electric utility for theisland of Bermuda, Bermuda Electric LightCompany (BELCO), is responsible for monitoringand managing electricity generation and delivery to36,000 metered connections throughout a 21-square-mile area. The video wall displays a highly-detailed, wide-area view of the island’s power grid,

providing real-time data and video on power usageand availability across numerous workstations in theoperations center — an especially critical capabilityduring hurricane season and other high-alertweather periods. The greatest benefit of the newvideo wall system is its information-sharingcapability, which enables managers, operators andcustomer service staff to simultaneously view real-time supervisory control and data acquisition(SCADA) information throughout their computernetwork. Another example of collaboration in autility company is through PPL, an energy companyheadquartered in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Thecompany currently delivers electricity to 1.4 millioncustomers in Pennsylvania. PPL wanted the abilityto bring real-time data from their OSIsoft® PISystem®, which lived on a separate server from therest of the control room.They were able to workwith their technology integrator to create thefirewall technology they needed to bridge theservers and allow their operators to view a wealthof additional data that was not available to thembefore. This has become an invaluable asset totheir operators in assisting with situationalawareness.

This media-driven age calls for a paradigm shift incontrol room operations. The optimum controlroom solution features an”any source, anywhere”networked visualization platform that can handleunlimited inputs and outputs to deal with theabundance of data and enable collaborativedecision-making across multiple functions andgeographies. This means presenting informationwherever it is needed — not only on the controlroom's display wall and operator workstations, butoutside the control room as well. Today’s controlroom design must think beyond the hardware toaccess the critical that enable effectivecollaboration and the ability to create, combine,and share various user perspectives of data,images, and video at any given moment.

Destiny Heimbecker is the Marketing Communications Coordinator at Vistacom Inc. He can be reached at dheimbecker@vistacominc.com

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