- Control room
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For the documentary film, see Control Room (film).
NASA's Shuttle Flight Control Room in Houston, Texas
A control room is a room serving as an operations centre where a facility or service can be monitored and controlled. Examples include:
- in television production, the master control is the technical hub of a broadcast operation common among most over-the-air television stations, television networks and color suites.
- each recording studio typically has its own control room where the recording is actually made;
- a NASA flight controller works in a "flight control room" in a mission control center; affiliated facilities such as the Jet Propulsion Laboratory have their own control rooms;
- Nuclear power plants, Particle accelerator laboratories, and other power-generating stations, many oil refineries and chemical plants have control rooms, sometimes also serving as an area of refuge;
- Various military facilities, ranging in scale from a missile silo to NORAD, have control rooms.
- Call centers use a control room to monitor incoming and outgoing communications of customer service representatives and provide general oversight of the call center.
- Fire service control rooms (UK) see: FiReControl for article about nine new regional control rooms to handle emergency calls in England.
Special hazards and mitigation
A control room can, at times, be designated as an area of refuge, particularly in high risk facilities, such as a nuclear power station or a petrochemical facility, as an accidental fire can have severe repercussions to the surrounding environment. As is typical for all areas of refuge, occupants must be provided with guaranteed life support and guarantee of functionality of the items they are intended to control for the anticipated design-basis fire event.
It is not unusual to provide control rooms with gaseous fire suppression systems to safeguard its contents and occupants.
The primary equipment in control rooms is housed in multi-function cabinets. Since the control equipment is intended to control other items in the surrounding facility, it follows that these (often fire-resistance rated) service rooms require many penetrations. Due to routine equipment updates, penetrants, such as cables are subject to frequent changes. It follows that an operating control room maintenance program must include vigilant firestop maintenance for code compliance and for gaseous fire suppression systems to work as well. Gaseous suppressants must occupy the space that is to be protected for a minimum period of time to be sure a fire can be 100% extinguished. Openings in such spaces must, therefore, be kept to a minimum to prevent the escape of the suppression gas.
Due to the nature of the sensitive equipment inside control room cabinets, it is useful to ensure the use of "T-rated" firestops, that are massive and thick enough to absorb penetrant heat in an effort to reduce heat transmission to the inside of the control room. It is also not uncommon to place control rooms under positive air pressure to prevent smoke from entering.
See also
- Fire protection
- Bromotrifluoromethane
- Firestop
- Fireproofing
- Circuit integrity
- Passive fire protection
- Active fire protection
External links
Categories:- Rooms
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