Ideas For a Great Control Room?

lewko writes "Our company is about to build a central monitoring facility and I'm looking for ideas/suggestions about the best hardware and the best way to make it comfortable for those manning a screen. It will be manned 24x7 and operators will be monitoring a variety of systems including security, network, fire, video and more. These will be observed via local multi-monitor workstations and a common videowall. This is going to be a massively expensive exercise and we only get one chance to get it right. The facility is in a secure windowless bunker and staff will generally be in there for many hours at a time. So we have to implement design elements which make it a 'happy' place. At the same time, it has to be ergonomically sound. Lastly, we will be showing it to our clients, so without undoing the above objectives, it would be nice if it was 'cool' (yet functional). Whilst Television doesn't transfer to real life always, think 'CTU' from 24."

Comments

if you need to ask

[Ubi_NL]

If you need to ask slashdot you're in over your head

WTF?

[Anonymous Coward]

Why don't you do your job and quit trying to pass the buck onto /. where you will just waste our time with your lack of imagination and incompetence. All you have to do is put yourself into the position and think of every eventuality -- sort of what you are asking us to do for you. Gawd the lack of hardworking young people these days ... hmm I need to look good shamming out on this project I've been assigned: BINGO! I'll post it on /.!!! PROFIT!!! Then I won't have to do any research -- they will do it for me -- and I won't have to even think for myself!! And cool be damned!! WHO GIVES A FSCK IF IT LOOKS COOL TO SOME DORK IN ADVERTISING???

Re:Natural light

[zippthorne]

Close. The internet was designed so that researchers could share data to plan world war three.

Actually, probably just the first part. Although the researchers were funded through defense funds, so ostensibly they were working on things that might be useful should world war three occur.

Anyway, there's no way to predict it would survive a disaster that big, and indeed even mere wind storms can knock it out over whole regions. But your plan of distributed authority is still not a bad one. They just need more communication forms than just "hope the phones work." And even then, only if their business plan contraindicates a disaster plan of "send employees home for a few days of unplanned vacation until the network is back up."

Re:Much harder than it looks in the movies

[badkarmadayaccount]

And what do male employees get? Zilch. What the hell can happen to a woman that can't reasonably happen to a man? Robbery, murder, even rape.