One of the most important aspects of your control room is the design of it. According to the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, control room design, applied toward the concept of efficiency, could save the nation up to 20 billion kWh. With modern technology, data centers have made a lot of changes through the years, and today they are the most productive they’ve ever been. Whether it’s budget, the way work and tasks are managed, or safety protocols, data centers or control rooms of today are equipped to handle all different types of factors. In order to furnish your control room to be the best that it can be, there are a few things you can do when it comes to lighting or layout that can improve its potential.

1. What is Your Budget?

Naturally there is considerable brainstorming when it comes to figuring out what all goes into your data center. The first thing you should do is figure out what you want to do to upgrade your control room and how much those adjustments will cost. Once you know how much you want to spend, you’ll be able to narrow down the things you need versus the things you want. Things to consider when it comes to cost considerations include hardware, lighting, the cost to build the data center, and screens, just to name a few.

2. Health and Well-Being

People who work in control rooms spend a lot of time there, and situations can be pretty intense sometimes. Because of this, you’ll want to make sure that comfort is at the top of your list of priorities in designing the ideal data center. Things that negatively impact employees include eye strain, neck pain, reduced space, and more. In order to accommodate these circumstances, ergonomic command center consoles like standing desks and specially designed chairs to withstand 24-hours of sitting can not only boost productivity for employees, but it can also nurture an overall better work environment, aiding in company retention.

3. A Centralized Location

A control room should be in a location that’s easily accessible to everyone, instead of having teams dispersed all over the place. This is important not only for communications reasons, but also for safety concerns. Having one centralized location for a control room creates a more streamlined system for relaying important information; it also can be great as a budgetary factor, since you’ll only have to worry about one control room to furnish.

4. More Screens, Less Errors

You’ve probably seen control centers in movies and on television, and if you remember one thing about them, it’s probably that they have a lot of monitors (think of the NASA control center, and their use of full video walls). However, while you probably are used to seeing employees sitting in rows, you’re also probably used to seeing them deal with multiple digital monitors. The more monitors a control room has for employees, the least likely they are to make errors.

5. Exit Plan 

Just as most buildings must have clearly designated areas for people to exit through in the case of an emergency, so must control rooms. That will be one of the first things you’ll want to do in the design of your control room, is to figure out where the exits will be placed. You’ll want to think about how employees in an emergency situation would need to get up and leave and the best routes for them to do so.

6. Optimal Workflow

You don’t want employees having to search for their techware like mouses, monitors, and keyboards. Everything should be within reach and be easily accessible to them. Limit obstruction for the worker so they can do their job to the best of their ability, without distraction.

7. Design Using a Blueprint

Going along with where you’ll put emergency exits, think about what the blueprint of the space is like and where everything will go. You may want to look at other control room layouts to get an idea of what other businesses are doing. Some common floor plans are three units of consoles side by side, three back to back, two side by side, and two face to face.

8. Let There Be Light

While synthetic lighting may be what you think of when it comes to control rooms, believe it or not, natural light is set to be better for employees when it comes to productivity, maybe because it also causes less eye strain. Based on your space, whether there are windows or no windows, you’ll want to think about the lighting options that are most conducive for the space while also adding a layer of comfort for employees.

9. The Actual Control Room Furniture

Finally, one of the most important things is the actual console furniture that goes in the room, the constructions that house monitors and storage. There are a few different styles to choose from, and you’ll want to choose the appropriate one for the service your organization provides.