Is your team prepared for stigmas around shared surfaces in a new world of social distancing? Door handles, chairs, access control panels and touchscreens alike will face a new level of scrutiny. Without decreasing decision-making or risking operator health, we need to rethink shared surfaces. Touchscreens for control rooms has become a trending topic for our industry already.
We’ve been checking in with public safety clients throughout the spread of COVID-19. It seems that distributed user interfaces could be the new standard. Traditional control rooms rely on a single touchscreen to control video wall functions… meaning a shared surface regularly touched by multiple people. Like the remote control in your home, there is likely only one and it’s used by everyone… how often it is it cleaned?
By way of design, Haivision developed its CineNet user interface to run on common web browsers. This was done primarily to support enterprise level deployments and remote work initiatives. In Edmonton’s OICC (Operations & Intelligence Command Center), which monitors crime in real-time throughout the city, each of the twelve operators has independent access to CineNet. This allows a user freedom to access critical controls from their own police workstation. The byproduct is a decrease in the number of people interacting with a shared surface, if at all. The focal touch control in any room was sort of like a safety blanket from a suddenly bygone era of AV design. Like video conferencing, our ability to do it always existed. We just choose not to let go in lieu of a tangible experience.
Zoom and Microsoft Team meetings will become more common, but we cannot forget the human element that brought us here today. Control room design will take on a new lens as we begin factoring control room sanitation and more separated workspaces into our critical operations. Safety has been a primary concern across all industries, but we must now view it through a microscope. Both figuratively and literally.
Proactive thinking and planning can help keep organizations and teams from suffering the full weight of workflow setbacks like what we’re all facing now. One of the benefits of being ahead of the curve is already having a solution like CineNet’s browser interface accessible to your team at a moment’s notice while others work to catch up. Schedule a demo of this innovative platform today to learn more.