control rooms


Providing support for decision making


Mission-critical control centres around the world are facing an increasingly broad set of challenges to their traditional ways of working, fi nds Alun Lewis


that took place there – planners’ and managers’ minds are being concentrated by a diverse set of factors: technological, political and social. On one hand, there’s a growing drive in many


A


countries around the world to economize by simplifying and consolidating their emergency service operations, infrastructures and control centres. In many regions, these have evolved organically over the years, refl ecting the organizational and political realities of their time – but which are no longer so relevant in such an interconnected and cost-conscious time


s was illustrated by the high attendance at IIR’s recent Control Room Communications conference in London – and the wide ranging, enthusiastic debates


as now. T at said, decisions made on fi nancial or technical terms will inevitably have a political dimension if particular areas feel that they may lose out on the community-focused and relatively independent emergency organizations that have served them in the past. On the other – against that backdrop of fi nancial stringency


in an often politically and socially sensitive context – come a whole range of issues to do with technology change. For a start, the citizens themselves are now becoming interconnected and this will increasingly aff ect the public safety environment in numerous ways.


Technology changes Many local and national governments around the world are now opening up their systems and using the Internet to share information with the community – such as the geographic distribution of crimes in their areas. Citizens are far less passive than they used to be in expecting value for their taxes and, as part of the general ‘consumerization’ of society, are going to be much more active in monitoring and challenging the quality of service that they get from their local government and public services. Meanwhile, fl owing in the other direction, cheap but


powerful hardware in the form of CCTV systems, camera- equipped smartphones and digital homes running security and environmental monitoring systems will be adding to the fl ow of information and potential evidence fl owing into the control centre. In the emergency service environment itself, numerous


In the emergency service environment, changes are afoot 22


technology changes are afoot – the shift towards broadband, IP-based communication being only one. For example, the emergence of cloud-based communications and applications services, already popular in the enterprise sector as a strategic, cost-saving solution, also has a potential in this environment –


TE TRA TODAY Issue 6 2012


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