Control room furniture manufacturer Winsted joined forces with partner service providers to stage a seminar for senior Prison Service staff.
The topic; control rooms for the 21st century. The seminar; at the Dartford office of Electrosonic.
Part of a three-day head of estates conference at Belmarsh Prison in London, the seminar began with an introduction by White Young Green (WYG), an international multi-disciplinary consultant to the built, natural and social environment.
WYG pointed out that many control rooms are drab environments that their operators do not find welcoming places in which to work. To counter this negative effect on operators’ performance, solutions include the application of ergonomics, including grouping together of disparate operating systems, and the adoption of flexible display arrangements and improved furniture.
Picking up on this theme, Winsted described how the use of photographic quality colour rendered images plus three-dimensional ‘walk-through’ moving animations can provide graphic illustrations of how control room furniture such as Winsted’s modular operator consoles, storage units and equipment racks will suit specific requirements in-situ – before any building work. The CCTV furniture firm’s experience in this area includes the installation of control room furniture at HMP Swinfen Hall in Staffordshire, and Frankland prison in Durham.
The company adds that its experience of ergonomics allows control rooms to maximise the potential ergonomic benefits contained in an international standard, ISO 11064. For the first time, the firm adds, this standard offers generic guidance on how the design of control workstations and the layout of the control room can contribute to the performance objectives set for the control centre. This can assist in making decisions on matters such as equipment selection, operating practices, working environments and furniture selection, the firm adds.
The limitations of the operator are automatically included and potential mismatches between operator capabilities and system demands minimised. In essence, this approach involves ‘user centred’ design. The standard can be applied to areas such as monitor viewing distances/positioning/ arrangements, lighting, ventilation, ambient noise levels, workstation finishes/design/heights, the overall control room layout and its surrounding environment
The presentation was followed by a further insight from audio-visual presentation and image management specialist, Electrosonic. In a session that featured the real-world examples of Bradford University and the Metropolitan Police, the company also provided an overview of control centre display wall systems including available technology and configuration options. This overview also featured a practical demonstration in Electrosonic’s demo room, where the invited delegates were also provided with a hands-on session from Integrated Security Manufacturing, manufacturer of integrated security control room management software, audio intercoms, telephone entry, custodial cell call systems and I/O network hardware.
