Control room product manufacturers Winsted recently co-hosted the second of its consultants days, for an invited audience.
Topics included the role of ergonomics in improving control room operations. The event is part of a series planned, and consultants interested in attending are invited to get in touch via [email protected].
The day, sponsored by Winsted, together with display systems firm Christie and CCTV manufacturer Pelco, included presentations by the BBC’s Security Risk Manager, Les Wren, who described the challenges involved in protecting the BBC’s 600 building in the UK, plus facilities further afield such as those used for the Athens Olympics. John Wood, MD of CCD Design & Ergonomics, described the benefits of ergonomic principles applied to projects such as security control rooms, airports and rail centres. Charles Evett, General Manager of Winsted, described how, for example, the company can provide customers with virtual control room tours, offering a vision of how all will look when completed. This software enables you to see proposed designs of your own control room environment as it will appear, using ‘walk through’ moving animations and rendered images, rather than static line drawings.
Leroy Gillett from security engineering consultancy HMA Consulting, who attended one of the events with his colleague Mark Rowan, said afterwards: "I’m glad I went along because the presentations were well rounded, balanced and above all educational. Mark and I gained an insight into aspects of the various companies’ services that we weren’t previously aware of, and the day also gave us an opportunity to network with these firms’ personnel and share our experiences with other consultants." Mark Rowan, Vice President of HMA Consulting, who commissioned Winsted to supply equipment for a new control room project that HMA designed for Amiri Flight (operator of VIP air flights through Abu Dhabi International Airport), said: "Winsted’s animations proved to be a very useful tool for us recently when we presented different control room design options to senior management, who were better able to visualise the end product than if conventional 2D design drawings had been used. Instead, they were able to quickly see how the design proposals would work and make much more informed choices from the start, which also helps to eliminate problems further down the line in terms of design changes that might otherwise have to be made later in the project.”
