Discover the full story behind this project by exploring our detailed case study. From the initial concept to the final outcome, learn how we tackled challenges, delivered solutions, and achieved outstanding results.
In our Case Study Control Room Furniture for Hampshire County Council, the story starts with Hampshire County Council’s lease expiring on their previous premises. The Traffic Travel Information Centre (TTIC) therefore moved into a brand new control room within the council’s main building, at The Castle, in Winchester city centre. The new control room furniture was required to accommodate three operators and a BBC radio broadcaster. A control room console, media wall with cupboard storage and room storage units were provided by Thinking Space.
Hampshire County Council is the Local Authority for Hampshire, not including the cities of Southampton and Portsmouth. With a population of more than 1.3 million to serve, Hampshire is the third most populous county in England and in the top ten of largest counties by land area. Employing over 37,000 staff in total across Hampshire, the 78 elected councillors, district, town and parish councils operate from the Council’s headquarters in the city of Winchester.
Since 2001, the TTIC was located in a separate building from The Castle. The existing consoles for the control room were built by then local manufacturing company Alusett in 2001. The relationship with Thinking Space has developed over the last 15 years to maintain the Alusett consoles. The more recent modification projects were delivered some 6 years ago, when the control rooms moved from CRT screens to flat screen monitors. Although the consoles had worn well over time, the consoles were looking dated and a few had experienced splinter issues with the wooden nosing trim. With the lease on the existing building set to expire in December 2017, several years earlier, plans were made to relocate the traffic control office and TTIC into the basement of The Castle premises. The contract to relocate the control room was awarded to Integrator Tyco. Thinking Space were to supply the furniture for the new control room, which included consoles, media walls and storage.
With a requirement to accommodate four operators in the new control room, Thinking Space were tasked with providing a design to meet the requirements of the four operators, who all have different roles, within the confines of the allocated floor area. The room is rectangular with windows along its’ length. It was proposed that one console be provided along the length of the room, shaped to create individual workspace for four operators, by scalloping the worktop. A curved end panel with the County Council logo is positioned for full visibility upon entering the room. All workspaces are ergonomically positioned around the central media wall, which gives CCTV and traffic information to three operators and a travel broadcaster. With the windows being positioned behind the operators, a decision regarding whether they should remain to let in natural light, or be removed to reduce the glare issue on screens had to be made. Blinds were fitted to resolve the issue. As well as Moni-Trak perfect positioning rail to mount the dual flat screens per operator with Novus monitor mounts, each operator is provided with a desktop data unit, with USB/mobile charging capabilities. In order to decide on the final design and finish of the furniture, the client visited Thinking Space at their factory in Romsey, which is just miles from the proposed site. At the factory, the client was impressed with a demonstration console on display in the companys’ reception area and decided to replicate the look. The console had its’ aluminium profiles powdercoated grey, teeming perfectly with grey cladding and worktop finish. Thinking Space provided a two dimensional layout of the proposed room, as well as four views of visualisation drawings. This helped the client to see how the room would look and work for each operator. Storage was also an issue, therefore Thinking Space designed the 2 rows of 6 monitor configuration Evolution media wall with cupboards underneath. In addition, storage bays and a low level storage rack is also provided, finished to match the console. Staff were given the chance to trial different chairs, all suitable for 24/7 use, and opted for the leather Ergohuman chair from Mesh. Thinking Space installed the control room furniture two weeks before the actual control room move, which involved moving half the equipment and screens over a time, to ensure service at all times.
