available data has grown through the roof, cameras have greatly improved, and additional information can now be integrated in the control room as well. But operators still work in the same way. Their tools have changed, the resolution of their monitors has improved, and they have an Internet connection, but the way they work has stayed pretty much unaltered. So, to bring the operator workspace into the 21st century, something verging on revolutionary was required. The amount of data generated in the


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world is huge. ‘Big data’ is an enor- mous understatement € the amount is in fact so overwhelming that, accord- ing to research firm IDC, only about 0.5 per cent is currently used and analyzed. That’s quite astonishing. In control rooms in general, and in traffic management centres in par- ticular, there are still heaps of useful information that remains untouched. That’s why ever-more powerful com- puters and software are being used to process and analyze the data. But, however powerful the machines and software become, there’s just one thing people want to keep as is: the final decisions must be taken by a human. The operator is still the cen- tre of the control room, and that’s where he or she belongs. The deci- sion to lock down a highway or close all routes into out of a city cannot be taen b a machine € and, most liel, it will stay that way for at least the next 10 years.


THE SECURITY DILEMMA However, even though operators are extremely important, their job is not easy or efficient. Things can get really complex € especiall when dealing with systems at different security lev- els. These systems need to be sepa- rate at all times, which means that the operator has multiple computers to operate € each with its individual


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ontrol room technology has changed tremendously over the past 25 years. The amount of


Station approach


The smart city operator workspace: Johan Bekaert charts the course from a source of frustration to the pinnacle of efficiency


keyboard and mouse combination forcing the operator to constantly move around to consult a particular piece of information. A very ineffec- tive way of working indeed, but nec- essary to get a complete overview of the situation.


SEARCHING FOR THE HOLY GRAIL OF OPERATOR EFFICIENCY So, is it the case that no manufac- turer has ever tried to come up with a


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solution for this situation? Well, many have € and all have failed for one rea- son or another. First, there were the KVM switches, allowing the operator to work on multiple computers with just one keyboard, mouse, and moni- tor. Although this sounds like a pretty decent solution, it has a number of flaws. First of all, it’s impossible to view multiple sources simultane- ously. This can be really trouble- some in emergency situations, when


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