Designing the proper control room configuration can be a tricky task to undertake, even if you’ve done it before. More importantly, their environments have to be designed for efficiency and communication with no room for failure. If you have been tasked with creating the ideal control room environment, you know the pressure is on.
Don’t fret, though. With the insights from this guide and the assistance of Saraval Industries, you can simplify the process of creating an efficient, comfortable, and productive control room design.
Let’s start with the core elements that contribute to a successful control room design.
Understanding the Core Elements of Control Rooms
For planning purposes, think about replicating the following typical control room elements: Key functions, responsibilities, and importance.
Key Functions
Control rooms are indispensable to sectors like the military, transportation, public safety, and energy. Imagine the consequences and chaos that could result if these sectors were to shut down or didn’t function properly. To be sure, it wouldn’t be a pretty picture.
As the central hub for monitoring and managing critical operations, a well-designed control room is essential for preventing interruptions through key functions like real-time monitoring, data analysis, and coordinating responses to various situations.
Responsibilities
Control room staff each have distinct responsibilities that contribute to the control room’s efficiency, including:
- Operators who perform day-to-day monitoring of the environment and issue alerts when needed.
- Supervisors who handle the decision-making after an alert. They also supervise the overall workflow, conduct meetings, and daily management tasks.
- Analysts who interpret data to provide insights and support strategic decisions.
Together, these roles help maintain the operational continuity of the control room and public safety.
Goals
The primary goal of a well-designed control room is to optimize its core functions. This means creating a space that enhances:
- Situational Awareness – Operators need to quickly and easily grasp the current state of operations. This is achieved through clear information display, intuitive layouts, and ergonomic workstations.
- Rapid Decision-Making – In critical situations, delays can be costly. The control room design should facilitate swift analysis and response through efficient workflows and accessible technology.
- Operational Efficiency – As mentioned, smooth and continuous operations are non-negotiable. The layout, technology, and environment should minimize disruptions, reduce operator fatigue, and support 24/7 functionality if needed.
The Importance of a Well-Designed Control Room
Recent events, such as the IT disruption caused by a cybersecurity update from CrowdStrike, highlight the critical role of control rooms in maintaining operational continuity. Even minor disruptions can have cascading effects, potentially compromising public safety, causing financial loss, and eroding trust in organizations.
As these centers are often responsible for managing critical infrastructure and sensitive data, it’s clear that well-designed and reliable control rooms are essential to prevent such disruptions and ensure a swift and effective response to any incidents that may arise.
Types of Control Rooms
Control rooms come in various types, each tailored to specific industries and functions. Here are some common types of operator control room centers and the organizations that use them:
- Emergency Operations Centers – These centers are focused on crisis management and coordination during emergencies. Examples include FEMA’s National Coordination Center in Washington DC, The California State Operations Center in Mather, and New York City’s Management Center in Brooklyn.
- Network Operations Centers – An NOC is primarily used in telecommunications and IT to monitor network performance and security. Examples of these include AT&T’s Global Network Operations Center in Bedminster, NJ, and IBM’s Network Control Center in Raleigh, NC.
- Process Control Rooms – Found in industries like manufacturing and energy, these rooms monitor and control production processes. Examples of these include ExxonMobil’s Houston Refinery Control Center, Siemens Energy, and Tesla’s Gigafactory Nevada Control Room.
- Security Operations Centers – Dedicated to monitoring security events, including cyber threats and physical security breaches. Notable examples of SOCs include The National Security Agency (NSA), The United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT), Google, and Supermax prisons.
If you’ll notice, each type of control room has unique requirements, but all share a common need for an environment that supports high levels of concentration and situational awareness.
3 Main Factors to Consider When Designing a Control Room
When designing a control room, it’s important to consider factors that impact the operators’ comfort, health, and workflow. Three key areas to focus on are control room environment, technology, and design standards.
1. Control Room Environments
The environment of a control room significantly affects operator performance. A well-designed environment considers not only physical elements but also the psychological well-being of the staff. Factors to consider include:
- Ergonomics – Ergonomic furniture and workstations are crucial for reducing the risk of musculoskeletal disorders. Adjustable desks, chairs, and monitor stands can help accommodate different body types and working styles (see control room standards for more about this.
Our article on the importance of ergonomics in mission-critical environments provides more insights on this topic here.
- Color and Aesthetics – The use of calming colors and visually appealing designs can reduce stress and enhance focus. It’s essential to strike a balance between functionality and aesthetics to create an environment that is both pleasant and conducive to work.
- Noise Reduction – Implementing noise reduction measures, such as acoustic panels and sound-absorbing materials, can minimize distractions and improve communication within the control room.
2. Control Room Technology
Modern control rooms are technology hubs, equipped with advanced systems and devices that facilitate monitoring and control. The right technology can streamline operations, improve data analysis, and enhance decision-making.
- Control Room Hardware – Key hardware components include servers, networking equipment, and various sizes of flat panel screens. These need to be reliable, scalable, and secure. Additionally, built-in redundancy in hardware systems can help prevent critical systems from going down.
- Control Room Screens – Display systems are the most visible and interactive part of a control room. High-resolution screens with good contrast ratios are essential for clear visibility. Depending on the room’s size and function, options range from a single control room monitor to video walls. The choice of display technology—LED, LCD, or projection—should align with the specific requirements of the control room.
- Supporting Equipment and Furniture – All of that control room technology requires careful placement and organization. Saraval Industries offers a range of new and used equipment, including monitor arms, multi-tier technical workbenches, and other specialized furniture, to optimize your control room layout.
3. Control Room Design Standards
Creating a control room that is well-designed and passes ISO standards, starts with adhering to design standards that focus on functionality, safety, and user comfort. While it’s important to refer to industry-specific guidelines, certain universal principles apply:
- Space Planning – The layout should allow for efficient workflows, clear lines of sight, and easy access to essential equipment.*
- Customization – There should be a way to easily manage customization of the control room design. Over time, things change. Designers should create an environment that can be fully adapted to the work being developed.
- Ergonomics – ISO 11064 is an international standard for ergonomic control center design. It addresses workstation design, layout, furniture, and physical, visual, and auditory requirements. It can be used for designing new or refurbished control centers, or assessing existing ones.
- Acoustics and Lighting – Good acoustics help minimize background noise, while proper lighting reduces glare and eye strain. The use of indirect lighting and adjustable task lighting can enhance visibility and comfort.
- Temperature and Ventilation – Maintaining a comfortable temperature and ensuring proper ventilation are key to a healthy work environment. The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) provides guidelines for indoor air quality and thermal comfort.
*When designing your physical space, it’s always good to do a simulation of your operations before turning on the real thing. You can do this with simulation software which builds an animated and accurate mock-up of your control room operations.
You can easily see opportunities for improvement easily watching the animation run and seeing statistical analysis after it stops. No one will have to invest time or money into the setup until you have the optimal floor and equipment layout.
For a better understanding of control room design elements, you can explore our detailed article on control room design here.
Technical Furniture for All Applications
Designing a control room is never going to be as simple as it looks. As the decision-maker, you play a crucial role in this project, and Saraval Industries is here to support you throughout the process every step of the way. Whether you’re starting from scratch or reconfiguring an existing space, we’re here to help.
Why Saraval Industries?
Saraval Industries offers new and fully customized technical furniture solutions for several verticals including transportation, finance, public safety, and more. Most of our applications involve multiple monitor workstations for a wide range of control rooms and trading floors.
We integrate experienced project management with 25 years of ergonomic technical furniture design for these types of 7×24, mission-critical environments. The result is a technology-driven approach that offers clients responsive furniture planning solutions with equipment, cable management, and heat load accommodations in mind.
Work with a Proven Control Room Team Today!
To make sure you end up with a control room that’s truly useful and adheres to ISO standards, be sure to work with one of Saraval’s experienced specialists. They will design your control room to place worker ergonomics at the forefront, which will often save you money and time in the long run.
Saraval also offers our customers a responsive furniture planning solution with cable management, equipment and even heat load accommodations in mind.
Reach out to us today to discover more about creating your very best control room environment!
FAQs
What is a control room?
A control room provides one centralized location for analysts, operators, and supervisors to manage a company’s daily operations. Additionally, it serves as an organization’s crisis operating space. Whether you have an industrial control room design or a security control room design, it needs to be built with these things in mind.
Which three factors are most important for a control room?
- Control Room Environment – The importance of the control room environment cannot be overstated. Pay close attention to details such as noise reduction techniques, aesthetics, color, and control room ergonomics. These features have a big effect on each operator’s workflow, comfort, and health.
- Equipment – Selecting appropriate furniture, hardware, and technology is absolutely essential. For instance, you’ll need the right control room displays to ensure your employees are able to perform top-notch decision-making, data analysis, monitoring, and control functions.
- Design Standards – Rely on industry standards to plan your space, including temperature, lighting, ventilation, and acoustics. This is the best way to ensure a comfortable, safe, and properly functional control room.
What is the ISO standard for control rooms?
In most cases, ISO 11064 is utilized to address the lighting, layout, ergonomic needs, etc. of any control room design. This is broken down into seven sections:
- ISO 11046-1: Offers guidance on visual, auditory, and physical requirements. Intended for usage by designers, control room managers, and operators.
- ISO 11046-2: For control rooms with visual display units. Impacts the lighting, arrangement of equipment and furniture, acoustics, and the overall layout of a control room.
- ISO 11046-3: Provides guidance on the design elements of a control room, including the legibility of symbols and text, the positioning of displays and controls, and the use of color coding.
- ISO 11046-4: Offers recommendations for ensuring your control room is comfortable and effective to use. Key considerations include the air quality, level of vibration, and thermal environment.
- ISO 11046-5: This standard is concerned about the specific layout and design of your control room such as the arrangement, size, shape, lighting, colors, and location of displays, workstations, and controls.
- ISO 11046-6: Provides guidance on the overall design standards of your control room, including furniture, acoustics, layout, and lighting.
- ISO 11046-7: Recommends conducting a needs analysis, ergonomic design, ergonomic principles, and a risk assessment.
However, there are certain industries and functions of a control room that may rely on the following ISO standards instead.
- ISO 9001 (Quality Management Systems) – This standard can ensure your control room begins with a good framework for quality control. This is essential, as is allowing your control room processes to continuously improve.
- ISO 22301 (Business Continuity Management Systems) – If your control room will be required to regularly handle critical operations, then it’s a good idea to implement this particular standard. ISO 22301 can help guide and maintain plan development, and it also helps your staff resume operations quickly during a disruption.
- ISO 27001 (Information Security Management) – Is your control room meant to handle your company’s most sensitive data? Choose this standard to make sure the security of your information is fully integrated into the operations and design of your control room.