Since 2004, September has been recognized as National Preparedness Month in the United States. Sponsored by FEMA, National Preparedness Month promotes emergency and disaster preparedness for families and communities. The theme for 2020’s National Preparedness Month is “Disasters Don’t’ Wait. Make Your Plan Today.”

Preparedness should be practiced at multiple levels of society, from personal and family preparations to community, state, and even national scope as well as in corporate organizations. Making sure you are prepared long before a critical event occurs can make all the difference in ensuring an efficient, effective response. Whether a natural disaster or a security threat, critical events can be mitigated more swiftly when the time is taken to prepare for them ahead of time.

Preparedness is demonstrated on a large scale in 24/7 operations centers, with large video walls for sharing real-time data and space that allows for operator collaboration.

Emergency operations centers and disaster preparedness

Emergency operations centers (EOC) are one of the best-known types of command centers. With the use of a large-format video wall, operators in an EOC can track and predict weather patterns and measure the potential impact of a storm or other natural disaster. But natural disasters are not the only critical event that EOCs deal with. In early 2020, emergency operations centers all over the country were activated at the state and the city level in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. These local EOCs played a pivotal role in response and containment.

The design of an emergency operations center is important. An EOC serves as the central hub of incident preparation and response for a community. It must be able to gather and share critical information, coordinate response initiatives, and manage personnel — often across various departments. The design of an EOC should be user-friendly rather than distract from the vital roles that operators play. At Constant, we know that public safety in a critical event can depend on an operations center running at peak efficiency. Staff in an emergency operations center must be able to display a variety of data on the video wall so that information can be aggregated and analyzed quickly to make potentially life saving decisions.

Security operations center preparedness

There are all kinds of emergencies to prepare for, however. Not to mention, severe weather, pandemics, and other emergencies can cause critical events downline for security–both physical and cyber. Security emergencies which can pose a threat to business operations, sensitive data, property, or even lives can occur at any moment, and are often worsened during community-wide critical events.

Cyber command centers and security operations centers are a key component of preparedness. These specialized spaces monitor potential threats so that they can be mitigated before materializing or responded to as efficiently as possible should they develop into a critical event.

Security operations centers provide central locations to prepare for and deal with a variety of security issues. Rapid response time is crucial, and operators must have all the necessary tools so they can react immediately when situations arise. Whether it’s actively monitoring CCTV security cameras in a SOC or  for vulnerabilities in a cyber command center, the operators need to be able to respond rapidly and in real-time to emerging threats. The monitoring capabilities within these environments allow them to practice preparedness for critical events.

Constant Technologies operations centers enable preparedness

For an operations center to function effectively, careful consideration must be put into the design. A central video wall, from which operators can monitor real-time data as a situation unfolds, must be visible to operators throughout the room and ready for 24/7 use. The furniture in an operations center should be arranged to facilitate collaboration. Additionally, ergonomic choices such as sit-stand consoles and sight-line analysis should be taken into account since operators work long hours during critical events.

These specialized environments are vital to handling critical situations, and much care should be put into planning them. That’s where Constant Technologies comes in.

From space design and ergonomic considerations to video wall systems and control room furniture, Constant provides everything you need for a turnkey operations center installation. We offer customized video wall design and installation, as well as our own line of console furniture manufactured in the USA. Our partnership with you extends all the way from the initial concept through to the completion of your operations center.

To learn more about our command center solutions and jump start your preparedness, contact us today.

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