Draft27-12

Case Studies
continued ... from previous page
new facility has been designed with this in mind. The
Cabinet Office Emergency Planning College continues
to work with Bristol City Council to ensure that their
key managers are fully conversant in crisis management
best practice and methodology. Some events across the
UK this year have thrown a spotlight on the true level of
preparedness of responder organisations to work together
quickly from the initial response through to recovery
phases of a major incident or event this new facility
evidences Bristol City Council’s commitment to step up in
support of their communities.” The centre, 24-hours, 365
days, provides also telecare and assistive technology, alarm
and security monitoring and lone worker support. Over 200
junctions are monitored, almost 40 traffic and information
signs managed, and 46,500 welfare and telecare calls
handled every month. The fibre network link could let the
centre do waste management and energy monitoring. p
Consoles
The control room furniture specialists, Thinking Space
Systems installed 44 control room consoles for the new
ops centre. Some being height adjustable to allow for
sit-stand working practices and to meet DDA (Disability
Discrimination Act) law. After a design and development
process, four designs were chosen, with 33 of the consoles
designed in groups of three to aid communication between
teams. A further nine consoles, concavely-shaped to follow
the line of the large curved monitor wall, were also made
by Thinking Space.
‘Light and airy’
The firm’s MD Wayne Palmer said: “We worked alongside
the consultants, interior designers and building contractors
employed by the council to initially develop five styles
of console, from which four were chosen. Key working
practices carried out by the different operator roles were
identified, and each console type was custom designed to
meet the current operational requirements but also have
the flexibility to be adapted seamlessly to meet any future
requirements.” As an open plan room, the consoles had to
be grouped by areas of responsibility, and call handling
and telecare consoles work in a separate room. “A large
curved monitor support system was designed to enable the
monitors to be built into a partition wall and be the focus
of the room, where certain consoles needed to have sight of
the CCTV display for monitoring purposes. The completed
room looks light and airy, with attention to detail and cool,
peaceful colours chosen.” p
p52,3 Bristol 27-12.indd 2 18/11/2017 11:58