OpSpace provides opera-
tors with a single, person- alized, concurrent view on applications, remote desktops and video streams – all freely combined onto a single, high- resolution unified display surface spanning multiple displays on their desk. Operators get a com- plete overview of the situation and can control all applications with a single keyboard and mouse. “The objective was to create a workspace that feels very comfortable to opera- tors,” Hendrickx says. “It doesn’t really make sense for operators to have to think about which security system a certain piece of informa- tion is located on. OpSpace provides all necessary applications and data in the same environment. All of the information the operator needs is instantly accessible, and can be con- sulted and manipulated with a single keyboard and mouse. This saves time in crisis situations, and leads to better decision-making.”
ENSURING A COMPLETE SITUATIONAL OVERVIEW Operators usually have a large num- ber of windows to monitor, typically more than one per display. OpSpace offers a large pixel space across mul- tiple monitors and allows the opera- tor to display multiple sources per phsical monitor € enough to eep all vital windows open at all times. In the blink of an eye, the operator has a complete overview of the situation. The concept of a unified pixel space allows the operator to move any win- dow to any location on the screens and to shape the window layout according to the needs of the situation at hand. Whenever required, the operator can create a ‘perspective’ of differ- ent sources by combining multiple applications or sources into one logi- cal view, and correlating information from different sources into a single view to handle a specific situation. Moreover, these perspectives can
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Keeping operations staff focused and comfortable is undeniably vital
then be shared with colleagues in the same control room, in a remote crisis room, and even in the field. “A very specific thing we learned
from our talks with operators was to employ the ‘Work Area’ concept,” Dirk Hendrickx says. “This allows the operator to copy any application to the work area in front of him or her. The operator can then interact with this application, while maintaining an overview of the other signals still pre- sent in her peripheral vision, without moving around. In this way, the over- all layout of the operator workspace remains constant – so the operator is never confused about the wherea- bouts of a particular piece of informa- tion – while the work he needs to focus on is always right of front of him.”
SLAYING THE LATENCY DRAGON With OpSpace, Barco has also found the perfect balance between secu- rity and fluid workflow. The system provides secure access to systems across multiple security domains via ‘uni-directional’ hardware encoders, integrating only at the presentation layer. As an extra security measure, OpSpace separates operators physi- cally from the back-end systems that host the actual operational content. “Creating a virtual work environment was a challenge we really wanted to tackle,” Hendrickx continues. “It gives us the opportunity to integrate all sys- tems in a logical way, and it removes all computers from the control room
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and eases maintenance by stor- ing all the hardware in a separate location. But we really needed to eliminate latenc € a dragon that has devoured so many vir- tual systems before. Operators should have the feeling that the computer is still located under their desk. We kept this crite- rion constantl in mind € and m happy to say we really nailed it!” Furthermore, OpSpace uses
standard networking technology, server and desktop virtualization infrastructure. It also allows integra- tion of legacy systems on the opera- tor’s desk by using high-performance hardware encoding technologies, allowing secure consolidation of information across multiple isolated networks. Plus, the system is fully scalable, so customers can adapt the solution to their changing needs, thus safeguarding their investment.
A NATURAL WAY OF WORKING When you watch OpSpace in action, it actually feels like the only natural way of working. It’s as if an operator workspace is supposed to work like this – and to think that years of R&D efforts were needed to create such a natural system! The user can select the number and size of the screens. This means that you can build a sys- tem with three or four monitors lined up on the desk; or you can have more – and larger – displays stacked on top of each other. The first configuration is handy when there is a large video wall in the control room; the second is most often used in smaller rooms without a video wall.
FYI
Johan Bekaert is Communications Executive at Barco
johan.bekaert@
barco.com
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