The need to manage security, either of public spaces or to control processes within industries, has generated a growth in the installation of control rooms in the different countries of Latin America.
Richard Santa
Panama has the largest fleet of vessels worldwide. And it is not because you own them, but because many companies prefer to register them there and not in their countries of origin, because the freight paid in the canal to pass the national ships is cheaper.
To comply with the international regulations of the World Maritime Organization, IMO, which indicates that each country must answer for its ships, follow up to know where its ships are and where they are going, the directives of the Panama Canal had to install a control room with satellite registration.
After much searching internationally for different integrators who could make such an installation, they decided on a Colombian one, the CSI Group. According to its general manager, Darío Ordoñez, the experience of his company, with 84 control rooms installed in the 15 years dedicated to this field, were sufficient arguments to achieve this contract.
Not just screens
Large video walls and many screens together are the most visible element of a control room. Therefore, when carrying out an intervention of this type, customers always ask first for the screens, what brand are they? How many will be installed?
In this aspect, there are many manufacturers that offer professional monitors for 24/7 work, as required by a control room. The latest trend in this aspect are the touch screens, which allow you to stop the image, zoom in, select a particular point, and countless options that falicitan the work to the users of these spaces.
But the system doesn't rely on screens alone. These are just one element that is included among a universe that requires processors, specialized data and power wiring, air conditioning, acoustic walls, high-frequency Maya, among many aspects that make the system work.
In total there are 27 aspects that intervene in a control room, which must be very well integrated and tested, work that starts from the design, because after a client enters to work he will not allow him to turn off unexpectedly or leave service, and not even think about it if he is in the middle of a crisis. They are systems that must work 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Darío Ordoñez points out that the challenge for a control room integrator is to learn to choose and unite the different technologies to achieve a system that allows the greatest benefit to the user, because every day there are new developments to which they have access immediately from the region. In addition, have qualified personnel in different areas, such as electrical, electronic, mechanical, mechatronics, air conditioning engineers, among others.
As if it were a game
One of the manufacturers that develops video processors for control rooms is Jupiter. Brady Bruce, vice president of the company, says that they have made installations in more than 50 countries and in different segments, such as military, security, traffic and transportation, utilities and telecommunications, health care and education.
One of its latest systems is the TouchCommand, which allows you to control a wall of screens and room automation covering all aspects of complex control room management on a single screen. Brady Bruce stressed that its interface is oriented to object-oriented, with touch technology for greater user facilities.
One of the outstanding functions of this system is that it allows you to access the images of the control room from anywhere through a computer, a tablet or a smartphone, without jeopardizing the security of the information or the system.
In addition, it allows you to drag and drop the fonts on the video screen, drag to move, and pinch to resize them. Audio management, operating projectors and screens, lighting control and other room resources.
Another of its novelties is the ease of use, because it allows the system to be controlled through multi-touch gestures, favoring users because they can focus on hand work, not technology.
Another company that has excelled in the development of video processors and automation for control rooms is Crestron. Its systems are focused on simplifying the operation of the technology used in control rooms, emergency rooms, monitoring rooms, council rooms, cameras, etc., where the needs of control, automation, monitoring and administration obey the strictest security that this type of enclosure requires.
Control can be exercised in audio, video, blinds, screens, lighting, air conditioning, among others. Your systems can be controlled or managed locally or remotely with complete security in a simple and intuitive way.
Strengthening market
More and more news is being known by private companies or governments that install control or crisis rooms in Latin America. Above all, in terms of citizen security, this type of facilities have become popular, as in the case of Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Peru, just to give a few examples.
In this regard, the general manager of the CSI Group indicated that "Latin Americans have not understood the importance of a control center, but when they have it they realize that it is a widely large benefit. Now companies with large networks, such as oil companies, have been installing control centers for their plants and thus avoid requiring to send personnel ashore under any weather or security conditions."
A particular case of oil companies is Pacific Rubiales, which is expanding its operations in Colombia, Peru, Brazil and Chile, and in each of the plants it opens installs a control center. Sectors such as energy and gas are also highlighted.
Unfortunately, the security situation that Mexico has experienced in recent years has made it one of the main countries for the control room market.
For its part, Jupiter's experience in the region, although new, today has important spaces installed in countries such as Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and Colombia, a market that it expects to increase in the coming years.
Finally, Darío Ordoñez stressed that "there are not many companies internationally that sell you everything that a control center requires. There are about 27 different aspects that must be taken into account to create the site, but the most important thing is to have a good design from the beginning. We did so with the Panama Canal and crisis rooms of the governments and military forces of Ecuador and Colombia."
