Audio Visual Technology for Critical Event Monitoring & Response
When catastrophe strikes, government agencies, communities, and even businesses have to coordinate their responses in real-time. An emergency operations center (EOC) is a centralized location designed to support emergency response, disaster management, and recovery support operations.
Crisis management is a situation that brings together highly trained experts and state-of-the-art technology to coordinate a comprehensive response to an event while enabling business continuity and crisis communications.
Emergency operations centers come in all shapes and sizes depending on the scale of the disaster or the executing agency. Whether large or small, temporary or permanent, EOCs are mission-critical collaboration spaces where information management, resource allocation and tracking, and advanced planning are key activities. As a result, audio-visual technology is a critical component of emergency operations centers.
AV Solutions for Effective Emergency Management
AV technology allows emergency and first responders to receive, analyze and share information for better decision-making and situational awareness. The AV systems installed determine how well response teams can manage incidents, respond to emergency situations, and monitor live data streams.
AV solutions critical to the functioning of emergency operations centers include:
1. Video Walls
EOCs require display systems that allow for the visualization of various sources of content, information, and news. A video wall is a multi-monitor setup tiled together to create a single, large display surface. Large, high-definition displays are integral in EOCs where emergency management teams can be spread out in a large area. Such setups allow for easy distribution of information as LED monitors can be arranged in any configuration required.
2. Wireless collaboration technology
In today’s technology-driven world and fast-paced environments such as EOCs, people need to connect, share content, and collaborate. They need to do so quickly from different devices. Wireless collaboration technology eliminates the struggles of cables allowing users to easily share info since data is transmitted faster and at a higher speed.
On this note, it’s important to point out the crucial role social media plays in emergency management. It’s a vital communication channel that acts as an early warning system and can be used to disseminate information and receive feedback from the masses.
Wireless collaboration technology allows users to easily connect to networks, share photos and videos on social networks, and display them in emergency operations spaces.
3. Video conferencing
Emergency response centers no longer have to be physical. Technological advancements allow for both remote and virtual EOC through software-based video conferencing, which connects EOC teams even when physically separated.
4. A signal support and switching system
A typical EOC has many sources of information that need to be analyzed on large displays or video walls. These sources can include GIS information, social media feeds, the news, and feeds from CCTV and traffic cameras. There’s a need for a control system that enables users to switch from one source to another.
The best system can send 1080p and 4K video and audio signals over a private AV network. Ideally, the system should be easily scalable to fit any number of inputs and outputs.
Get The Right System for Your Organization
No two emergency operations centers are alike. You need to partner with an AV integrator committed to understanding the specific needs of your EOC so as to provide the best AV solutions. Mint Solutions can design and install an audio-visual system tailored to the needs of your emergency operations center.
After installation, the Mint team remains close at hand to provide additional support whenever you need it.
Reach out to our team today to begin integrating the AV and communications technology you need for emergency center management and crisis response.