Heather Conover, Constant Technologies’ director of global business development, was featured as an expert in a recent Systems Contractor News article “Decentralizing Command and Control: Can Emergency Communications Hubs Survive COVID-19?”
The article discusses how the pandemic affected command and control: from increased demand on mission critical, to the emerging trend of de-densification, to AV over IP technology for multi site capabilities.
SCN quotes Conover: “Like any industry, command and control has had to pivot throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. If anything, these centers have become even more crucial during the pandemic, as everything from public safety to increased cybersecurity risks have been pushed to the forefront,” she says. “Ultimately these rooms deal with risk management, and the COVID-19 pandemic has been the largest-scale risk management response in recent history.”
The way to enable ongoing operations is technology with real-time collaboration. “While not completely new to the market, technologies like streaming and videoconferencing are seeing growth in the command and control environment, particularly after this last year,” Conover said. “The real trend that we are looking at is not necessarily exciting new technology so much as ensuring that the fundamental platforms used in these mission-critical systems are deployed with the highest levels of security and functionality.”
Integrators are eyeing the mission critical market after the pandemic made it clear that the command and control is here to stay regardless of disruptions. Still, the world of mission critical should not be a testing ground; these sites require very specific expertise — which Constant has. Life and death decisions are made in operations centers every day, meaning that successful integration requires a deep understanding of the required technologies.
“The last year has really highlighted the importance of remote collaboration and the need to share rapidly changing data with key decision makers,” said Conover. “It’s added another layer of complexity to an environment that’s already known for challenging and demanding requirements…The challenges of the last year have, if anything, made the need to have a highly functioning command center more important—and partnerships with skilled integrators are needed to make that happen.”
She concluded: “Moving forward, it is clear that organizations with highly functional command and control rooms are best positioned to deal with the unexpected.”
To read more about the future of command and control, take a look at the full article. If you are interested in learning more about video wall integration for your operations center, Constant offers a free design and budget consultation. Contact us today.
About Constant:
Constant Technologies, Inc. provides AV integration for 24/7 video walls and custom operation center furniture. With 30+ years of experience, we can work with sensitive environments in the public and private sectors. Constant designs and installs projects of all scopes and sizes around the world. We also offer long-term service and support. We create solutions with the highest levels of security, aesthetics and functionality in mind.
