An experienced emergency manager recently said to me that he favored the multi-room concept for emergency operations centers over the “one room” concept. He preferred assigning separate spaces (all within arms length) for all identified emergency operations functions, and was “allergic” to the one room concept that typically signifies a central operations center where the participants are grouped in the same room.
I was asked my opinion about the multi-room approach and would like to share it with you. To start, I want to make the point that I am not a “concept of operations” guy. That’s not my profession. I leave that to my customers. However, years listening to emergency managers and outfitting emergency operations centers has taught me a few things. First, it’s rare that an emergency manager has the ability to create a “ground up” facility where all considerations are made to the ideal space for getting the job done. Secondly, budget is always the primary driver, and third, most emergency operations centers are either limited in space, or considered dual purpose. Each emergency manager comes to me with their vision for the emergency operations center with an eye toward the constraints; not what is ideal. I believe the one room concept is alive and well because that’s usually what the emergency manager has to work with, however if the space is large enough to create individual rooms, then the few smaller break-out, or conference rooms are where the commander does one-on-one and others gain the quiet to address individual issues. It’s true that the singular ops center with it’s hustle and bustle is problematic because of the noise and distracting movement of staff in and out, however I have found since the advent of crisis management software like Web EOC and modern audiovisual technologies, the one room concept is the most efficient in terms of having all of the right people in the room hearing and seeing the same things on the large screens at the same time. Certainly, the video feeds can be distributed throughout the rooms, however the ability to see multiple large images at the same time, and the ability to manage what’s seen in an efficient manner trumps individual rooms where someone in each room has to know how to operate the system to the extent that the right video images are shown in the right sequence in a coordinated manner.
I think it’s obvious that our company doesn’t deal in the lower end of the emergency operations center spectrum, otherwise we outfit rooms with custom furniture and audiovisual technology specifically designed for the activities that go on into larger emergency operations centers. In particular, our Visionmaster video wall systems have grown in popularity because they are packaged in a way to simplify installation and operation. Modern video wall technology supports the one room concept because the technology itself allows information to be viewed in preset layouts for hundreds of images (sometimes cameras) that can be displayed in a manner that provides the needed formation quickly. This cannot be done effectively with the typical front projection systems that are limited in so many ways (another topic altogether).
I think I can safely say that technology and information management are driving the one room concept more than anything else. Take the technology out of the equation, and then the one room concept takes on less importance. However, there’s also the boss’ desire to be in the room with all of the players that provides the comfort level needed to assign tasks and receive feedback. This by itself drives the one room concept and its importance should not be under estimated.
We have just finished an emergency operations center for the Navy on Guam (50 seats) and will be finishing emergency operations centers for the Los Angeles Metro Agency (25 seats) and FEMA’s training institute’s “real world” emergency operations center classroom (70 seats) by the end of the month. Only one of these three emergency operations centers are “ground-up” and all three are one room designs.
So, what does this all mean? To me….the one room concept will be with us until technology lends itself to alternatives.
If you’d like more information on emergency operations center design, or help in putting a plan together, contact me for a free needs assessment.