Introducing our Command & Control Solutions
By nature, emergency services command and control rooms are mission critical environments. They are the centre of operations for blue light organisations including police, fire, and ambulance services, helping orchestrate the strategy and responses required to protect and serve the public every day. The demand on these control rooms cannot be understated. As the variety of data sources that inform decision making and actionable intelligence grow, it’s vital that control room personnel can quickly understand problems, determine effective action, and provide situational awareness.
In any given scenario there is a lot of data that must be displayed, understood, and shared to all relevant stakeholders, especially when events are taking place and situations are fluid. Furthermore, these environments are often multifaceted spaces, with different teams operating in command suites and breakout rooms, in addition to those the main control room. To ensure these environments can function at maximum capacity the need for an experienced, trusted partner with a proven track record of working with the emergency services is crucial in supporting the ongoing operations of command and control rooms.
Cinos have a longstanding history of optimising and supporting command and control environments for the emergency services. We are recognised as one of the leading AV solution providers in the UK and have worked with some of the biggest names across the UK public sector. This extensive experience and expertise, underlined by an ethos of delivering excellence in everything we do sets us apart from other providers and this is not just a self-proclamation, it is backed up by our sector-leading customer retention.
If you are seeking professional guidance for your project and would prefer to speak directly with an expert, please do not hesitate to get in touch. Our team are on hand to discuss your requirements so why not get the ball rolling today.
Command & Control Solutions
Please see below for more information on the audio visual solutions we can deploy in command and control environments. If you have a requirement you would like to discuss, please do not hesitate to get in touch.
Video Walls and Displays
Video walls and displays are powerful visualisation tools which provide command and control centres with comprehensive situational awareness as incidents unfold. In the main control room video walls offer a bird’s eye view of operations, providing crystal clear visibility of multiple data feeds simultaneously to facilitate real time, collaborative decision making. When operators or specialist teams need to focus on a specific aspect of an event, data sources can be viewed on individual spot monitors, repeater screens, interactive displays as well as dedicated screens in command suites and breakout rooms.
Cinos have a proven track record of installing and integrating video walls and displays into mission critical command and control environments. We have access to the latest advancements in video wall technology, with solutions that offer 24/7 operation and utilise modular microLED technology for optimal viewing, ease of maintenance and unmatched expansion possibilities. We complement our video wall solutions with best-in-class display technology, with high resolution 8K screens which capture every subtle detail, easy-to-use interactive screens to facilitate real time collaboration and ultra-wide local spot monitors which optimise productivity during extended work hours.
AV over IP Distribution
In the control room, the ability to deliver the right data to the right teams as quickly as possible is vital for emergency services to effectively respond to incidents. As social media feeds, real-time video, street and body worn cameras, helicopters, observation posts, dispatch and tracking software, radio commentary and telemetry from drones come into the mix, the ability to transmit these feeds to video walls, displays and spot monitors in the control room, as well as to the devices of frontline personnel is crucial for real time collaboration and situational awareness.
To provide access to the plethora of data feeds used by emergency services, control rooms around the world are using AV over IP solutions and this is something that Cinos are well placed to deploy. Our proven track record of installing AV over IP solutions for emergency services in the UK means we understand the unique challenges and complexities associated with data distribution throughout command and control centres. Working with you to understand your key objectives we can design AV over IP systems which enable you to transmit high-quality audio and video in real-time over long distances, providing emergency personnel, both on the frontline and in the control room with access to real time data that improves situational awareness and speeds up response times.
Cinos Blog:
Designing Mission Critical Environments for the Police
As mission critical environments, police control rooms are at the centre of operations. They help orchestrate the strategy and responses required to successfully achieve operational objectives. But for forces up and down the country, the demand placed on their control rooms is increasing. Especially as the variety of data sources that inform decision making and actionable intelligence grow.
Steve Franklin, Executive Director at Cinos discusses the key considerations for designing, developing, and maintaining police control rooms, and the role technology plays to allow vital monitoring systems to continue supporting policing around the clock, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
User Interfaces
By nature, user interfaces in the command and control setting are required to deal with more complex tasks than those in standard meeting rooms. They must enable operators to easily display and analyse numerous sources of information simultaneously across video walls, spot monitors, interactive screens, and any other type of display technology. These interfaces must be intuitive to use, removing the complexities of controlling technology and enable operators to focus on the objectives at hand.
Our experience working in mission critical environments positions us perfectly for the more sophisticated requirements these user interfaces must deliver. We will work with you to understand your key objectives and design user interfaces tailored to your requirements. Our solutions enable operators to control and distribute the vast amounts of information quickly and intuitively. We can provide varying levels of user access as well as integration with conferencing and IPTV systems.
KVM over IP Control
KVM over IP technology empowers operators to remotely access and manage numerous computers and servers from a single workstation. This cutting-edge technology is particularly invaluable in emergency services control rooms, and Cinos has extensive experience in delivering it.
Working in partnership with emergency services, we design, install, and integrate KVM over IP to cater to a diverse range of operational objectives. Our solutions facilitate swift and seamless switching between different systems and devices, thereby enabling operators to effectively coordinate response efforts.
Our bespoke systems help optimise operational efficiencies and reduce costs by maximising the utilisation of available space in the control room. By facilitating control of different systems from the same workstations, we offer the flexibility required for various teams to lead operations based on the incident or event at hand. Additionally, our solutions are engineered with resilience and redundancy in mind, enabling operators to quickly switch control to another station in the event of a workstation failure, without any disruptions to ongoing operations.
Command & Control Maintenance Services
Mission critical command and control rooms must maintain 100% uptime with equipment and systems working at an optimum level. The last thing these environments need is for a piece of equipment to fail to the detriment of live operations. To ensure this does not happen, investment in maintenance services is of the upmost importance.
Cinos have extensive experience supporting mission critical control environments and we can provide a range of services that will ensure operations can continue with minimal disruption 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. These services include preventative measures, onsite support, and remote monitoring.
Our preventative AV maintenance services ensure the audio visual equipment and systems will continue to function properly and reliably across your command and control environment. Our engineers will proactively inspect equipment to ensure it is clean, free of dust or debris and that all connections are properly secured. We make sure that all software is up to date, asset lists are correct, and spares are available to minimise disruption should a component need replacing.
We can offer regular onsite support, both day to day and for specific high profile events and can deploy a range of remote monitoring tools from our Network Operations Centre. So, if something does go wrong, we know, and can rectify quickly. Furthermore, our systems are designed with flexibility in mind, providing the capabilities for emergency services to mirror their environments to a separate disaster recovery site, or in some instances, run rooms in parallel so that operations can continue amid any disruption or planned maintenance.
Why Choose Cinos?
AV Experts for
Command & Control Environments
Our experience in the mission critical command and control space means we understand the unique challenges and complexities that come with operating within these environments. We know the key areas that need to be considered; from the flow and control of information, visualisation of data and the uptime of systems, to ergonomic factors such as control room layout and operator comfort and wellbeing.
Our command and control solutions are designed to enable real-time collaborative decision making for the emergency services. We combine state of the art visualisation products with intuitive control capabilities, underpinned by best-in-class switching and distribution technology. Working in combination these systems enhance the workflow for operators and controllers, enabling them quickly to interpret information and provide real time situational awareness for faster and precise decision making. We put measures and services in place to ensure control rooms can function at peak efficiency and when something does go wrong seamlessly switching to failover systems ensures any disruption is mitigated.
Driving Digital Transformation for Emergency Services
Furthermore, and from a Managed Communications perspective, our extensive experience in delivering always-on critical communication solutions for public sector organisations positions us as the go-to partner for emergency services looking to enhance their contact centre, unified communications, and collaboration capabilities. We offer fully managed services covering telephony, UC&C and video conferencing with options to deploy on-premise, or via public, private or hybrid cloud, delivered from the UK’s most secure data centres.
To drive digital transformation for the emergency services, we believe in building strong, long-term relationships and we strive to be a trusted partner that you can rely on. Our expertise ensures we can provide the flexibility required to meet your communications requirements for the emergency services. Cinos ensures that your critical communications and control systems are integrated with your wide communications estate, including telephony and collaboration platforms, all with the intention that your communications can be seamless in every and any given situation.
