Common vs. Personal Operational Pictures: Mastering Visual Intelligence in the Control Room

Common vs. Personal Operational Pictures: Mastering Visual Intelligence in the Control Room

There’s an argument to be made that empowering control center operators to gather top-quality intelligence and keep the mission on course begins with establishing a reliable and high-performance audiovisual solution. The world is at full-speed ahead in a hyperconnected digital era, so the importance of an advanced AV system integration for any mission-critical environment is undeniable. It’s the driving force behind an operator’s ability to effectively manage and leverage dynamic and high-volume data from disparate sources of real-time information.

At the core of an effective control room integration are two essential AV technology and workflow setup considerations: A Common Operational Picture (COP), displayed on an overview video wall, and the Personal Operational Picture (POP), composed through an operator workstation PC system at their console, or a personal video wall. The value and key differences of each lie in how these information display solutions function—together and separately—to ensure optimal data comprehension, informed decision-making, and the best possible incident management and response.

Observational Video Walls

The Common Operational Picture, depicted through an observational video wall, serves as a broad and detailed overview of information within the central hub of a control room. Its foundation is an integrated visualization solution featuring carefully selected technology components and a customized system design. In the right configuration, these wide, 24/7-rated video wall installations create a truly comprehensive view of the complex and ever-shifting operational environment, aggregating and distributing data from all necessary information sources into a single, easily digestible display format.

Relevant to an environment’s specific command and control audiovisual requirements, the COP is a visual arrangement of these data streams and feeds from pre-selected sources, including surveillance cameras, security sensors, GIS mapping, industrial process systems, live web traffic, and countless others. It’s a seamless, mission-critical video wall that consistently provides the control center with a clear and holistic view of day-to-day operations.

Implementing a COP doesn’t just enable real-time monitoring of critical parameters, such as public safety threats, intrusion detection, environmental conditions, or the activity of process control systems—just to list a few examples. It also promotes heightened awareness as key personnel can quickly assess the status quo, identify deviations or patterns, and pivot to more accurate analysis and decision-making based on the observational display’s visual context. It’s really all about boosting operational efficiency and responsiveness.

Plus, due to both the unified and centralized nature of the operational information displayed, the COP also fosters more collaborative decision-making among command center staff, analysts and managers, as long as the content is stitched together from thoughtfully designed layouts of all the pre-determined sources. With that, operational teams can leverage enhanced information sharing, analysis, and coordination—leading to improved consensus building and more intelligent response strategies during ambiguous or complex situations—simply by utilizing the video wall system’s large-scale, high-quality visualization and seamless data distribution capabilities.

Personal Operational Picture

As a vital extension of the Common Operational Picture, the Personal Operational Picture (POP) is tailored to individual operators and their specific roles within the command and control environment. It’s assimilated and displayed at dedicated workstation PCs or personal video walls strategically positioned at consoles within the space.

The POP allows operators to customize their information display based on their workflow responsibilities and preferences. They can focus their attention on critical elements within their operational domain without being overwhelmed, prioritizing specific data feeds, applications, and contextual visuals that enhance their ability to detect trends or anomalies that may require skillful management and immediate action.

That’s the key; individualized workstation displays built for more operator-centric decision-making make it possible for relevant information to be identified and analyzed more efficiently and in greater detail. Productivity and performance improve with a deeper sense of empowerment since operators have control over how they access and interact with mission-critical data. In turn, as situational awareness evolves and events unfold, operators can easily adjust their POP configurations with different data sources, analytical tools, and control capabilities to accommodate new operational challenges.

Purpose-Driven Video Wall & Workstation Integration

While the COP and POP serve distinct purposes, their synergy is critical for comprehensive operational effectiveness. The COP provides the big-picture perspective and context, facilitating enhanced situational awareness, collaboration, and decision support at a strategic level. On the other hand, the POP offers deeper operational intelligence, personalized insights, and focused attention on analytics and tactical details for individual operators.

Successful integration of these two workflow technology formats in a mission-critical audiovisual solution requires precise engineering for data distribution and interoperability built into the environment’s system design. Data sharing protocols, visualization standards, and user interface programming are just a few factors that must align to ensure that information flows efficiently between the COP and POP, enabling cohesive and synchronized daily operations.

In most cases, both an observational video wall and a personalized workstation display are integral elements to the holistic functionality of the control center. But in the end, it comes down to the people sitting in front of these screens; there’s always a powerful advantage when the operator experience is optimized for reliable situational awareness and decision-making agility in dynamic and challenging scenarios.

Visualize the Difference with Expertise

An experienced control room integrator offers technical expertise and engineering finesse in creating video wall and display solutions with the workflow features and capabilities that operators need to succeed.

Talk to us at CTI, and discover all the ways we can transform your mission-critical spaces with trusted technology solutions that take intelligence-gathering and analytics to a new level of efficiency. We ensure you install the right solutions at a good price, and, most importantly, they’ll work the way we promised, elevating the experience in your operations center. Fair, fast, and flexible: it’s the CTI way.