How to Select AV Tech for an Emergency Operations Center

When alarm bells are ringing, a crisis is underway, or whenever vital decisions need to be made in a control room or command center, then every second counts. Especially when everything depends on what you can see, hear, and which data points you have immediate access to. Simply put, you need to know how to select AV tech for an Emergency Operations Centre.

Effective visualization technology isn’t just a luxury; it’s a crucial necessity that can make the difference between a rapid, well-coordinated response and disaster.

Having the right tech in place is a critical component of effective EOC operations. It guarantees the ability to establish, maintain, and share situational awareness; facilitate long-term operations; improve continuity; provide ready access to essential information; simplify information analysis and verification; and promote resource identification and assignment.

This article will dive into the most important considerations to make when planning out an EOC control room design or selecting video wall solutions for EOCs.

Understanding Emergency Operations Centers

Emergency Operations Centers (EOCs) are central command and control systems responsible for emergency preparedness and management at a strategic level. An EOC is a physical or virtual location from which leaders of a jurisdiction or an organization coordinate information and resources to support incident management activities.

They usually consist of multiple departments that work together in tandem. EOCs typically use a smaller video wall than those in security control rooms, and commonly have secondary displays, likely LCD panels, that are installed throughout the facility.

Not only is each team responsible for their specific tasks reflected on a central video wall, they must also collaborate and assess the entire situation as a group.

Primary Functions of an EOC

EOCs play a critical role in every phase of emergency management. While Emergency Operations Center teams don’t directly manage incidents, they perform a variety of crucial functions:

• Collecting, analyzing, and sharing information: EOC teams gather large amounts of data from multiple sources, analyze it, and disseminate it to decision-makers and response teams.
• Supporting resource needs and requests: They also serve as a central point for requesting and allocating resources, ensuring that personnel on the ground have the support they need from the emergency operations center.
• Coordinating plans and determining current or future needs: Personnel use the video wall technology at their disposal to facilitate a standard planning process to achieve EOC objectives, address current needs, and anticipate future requirements.
• Coordination and policy direction: Emergency Operations Centers help senior officials to develop policy direction and ensure the dissemination of timely, accurate, and accessible information to the public.

Organizational Structures within EOCs

EOC team structure and composition can vary widely from country to country. In the United States, Emergency Operations Centers operate within the framework of the National Incident Management System (NIMS).

NIMS provides a consistent nationwide approach for federal, state, and local governments to work together effectively and efficiently to prepare for, respond to, and recover from domestic incidents, regardless of cause, size, or complexity. NIMS identifies several common methodologies for managing an EOC, each with its own benefits:

• ICS or ICS-like Structure: The ICS structure is familiar to those with ICS training and closely aligns with the structure used for on-scene incident management.
• Incident Support Model: This structure streamlines resource sourcing, ordering, and tracking by putting the EOC director in direct contact with those conducting situational awareness and information management.

• Departmental Structure: This structure allows department/agency representatives to function in the EOC with minimal preparation and startup time, as they operate within their normal relationships.

Interoperability and collaboration in the EOC

The EOC is often complemented by additional workspaces such as enterprise meeting rooms, crisis rooms, conference rooms, and offices. These are used for conducting strategic meetings for planning and assessing protocols and processes.

With so many teams using different tools to solve shared problems, it’s critical for anyone to be able to share information quickly with other teams, and share the information sources from the main, collaborative video wall.

The only way to ensure that is to deploy interoperable technology that can easily integrate with the various tools used in different areas of the facility. Whether working with the primary video wall, a secondary display, a desktop, or a display in a meeting room, the technology behind the scenes must be able to seamlessly handle (or route) sources and data from any source to any display throughout the EOC.

Architecture Needs in the EOC

When selecting the right technology and system architecture for EOCs, it is important to understand all the requirements for such a variety of visualization needs in multiple locations and for various use cases.

For example, during a disaster, internet connectivity may be intermittent or non-existent. Systems should be able to store data locally with the ability to sync when connectivity is restored. Considerations should be made for tools that provide some functionality without internet connectivity. Audiovisual display options range from simple projectors to elaborate closed-circuit television systems.

At VuWall, we work closely with our partners and customers to deliver to the architectural schematics that illustrate the EOC operations to meet all requirements. Our goal is to help guide our clients (the integrators) and end users, to understand the proposed workflow and ensure that it addresses their needs in the most efficient way.

A control room console in RoyalMountEOCs also need a robust solution to distribute source signals across all the displays in the facility with very low latency. More and more organizations are turning to next-generation AV-over-IP solutions to facilitate signal distribution to enable effective collaboration.

VuWall products provide interoperable AV-over-IP solutions for that exact reason – to facilitate the deployment and usage of visualization systems, for the most effective distribution of visual content from any source to any display.

Situational Awareness in EOCs

Situational awareness is critical for effective decision-making and response coordination in Emergency Operations Centers. In the context of EOCs, situational awareness refers to the ability to perceive, comprehend, and project the current and future state of an emergency situation.

• Perception: This involves gathering information from various sources, such as real-time data feeds, reports from field personnel, and monitoring systems.

• Comprehension: This involves understanding the meaning and significance of the gathered information, identifying patterns, and assessing the overall situation.

• Projection: This involves using the comprehended information to anticipate future events, predict potential outcomes, and make informed decisions.

By presenting complex information in a clear and concise visual format, it allows EOC personnel to quickly grasp the big picture, identify critical issues, and make timely decisions.

The Visualization Experience

Video walls can display a variety of data sources simultaneously, such as maps, live video feeds, and status dashboards, providing a comprehensive overview of the situation.

This is what will allow operators and decision-makers to see what they need to see, where and when they need to see it, and respond efficiently in a timely manner.

It comes down to a simple equation: you have to consider the size of the display, the distance at which the information is going to be viewed, and the type of content or source that is going to be displayed.

In other words, operators must be able to properly see the big picture AND also be able to clearly read the content and interpret any symbols or alerts from their physical location in the EOC.

Display Factors in an EOC

Selecting the right visualization technology is a critical decision for EOCs. The technology must be reliable, scalable, and capable of meeting the specific needs of the EOC.

• The size of the display should be appropriate for the size of the EOC and the number of operators who need to view it.

• The resolution should be high enough to ensure that all information is displayed clearly and legibly.

• A resolution of 1080p may be adequate in many control rooms and Emergency Operations Centers, but there are applications where 4K (or even 8K) is already necessary to avoid losing the ability to see important details that are displayed on a large video wall.

Consider, for example, a government intelligence centre that assesses a target area and observes information from high-resolution cameras or maps.

These would include visual details that are crucial for decision-making. The size, distance, resolution and ergonomics of the video wall are important factors to consider so that operators are able to interpret situations accurately and respond appropriately.

VuWall Solutions for Emergency Operations Centers

End users in EOCs must have high-quality tools that enable them to make well-informed decisions, especially in emergency situations. They must trust the technology: everything from the displays, the video wall processing, the collaboration tools, and of course the signal management.

VuWall provides a comprehensive ecosystem of visualization solutions designed to meet the unique and demanding requirements of Emergency Operations Centers.

• CASE STUDY: Sydney Trains Rail Operations Centre
• CASE STUDY: A new Emergency Operations Control Center in Prince George’s County

TRx Centralized Management Platform

TRx is a centralized software platform that combines advanced multi-video wall management, KVM control, and AV distribution. It allows users to configure, manage, and distribute virtually any source type to any display with an easy drag-and-drop interface, eliminating the need for complex programming.

PAK Video Wall and KVM Nodes

VuWall’s PAK KVM nodes are compact, networked multi-view processors that can power up to four displays each.

• Each nodes can operate as standalone devices or be stitched together to create infinitely scalable, IP-based video walls.
• They’re cost-effective and designed to simplify video wall deployments by reducing excessive connections with no single point of failure.
• PAK processors offer multi-format decoding of up to 32 HD streams per device, including H.264, remote desktops, and virtualized browsers.

Training and Support for EOC Personnel

VuWall recognizes the importance of training and support for EOC personnel. We provide:

• Comprehensive training programs to ensure that EOC staff can effectively utilize VuWall solutions.
• Ongoing support and resources to assist with implementation, operation, and maintenance.
• Dedicated pre-sales and post-sales support.

The Mission is All That Matters

For those looking to build a highly reliable and high-quality Emergency Operations Centre, working with a trusted integrator with proven experience in such environments is highly recommended.

There is no one-size-fits-all solution that is suitable for all EOCs or control rooms. The right technology and project design can vary considerably depending on the mission and the user’s workflow.

The focus should always be to find the best possible technology that will allow operators to focus on their mission and not worry about the technology.

Book a demo with VuWall