Command Center Technology Design through Deployment for Category X Airport Response Coordination Center

The Department of Airports in a major U.S. city selected SDI to design and implement the technology driving a new command center. The center’s physical design accommodates Airside and Landside operations, Police and Construction & Maintenance Services divisions, as well as other governmental agencies. Additionally, a separate section of the building is activated during a major incident or airport emergency, with assigned workstations for managers of response teams. This provides a collaborative environment with shared access to information used from event response through recovery, until the airport fully resumes normal operations — reducing response time to incidents that could impact the traveling public.

Client Objectives

The airport was seeking to implement its Airport Response Coordination Center, the ARCC. The ARCC’s physical design accommodates Airside (or airfield) and Landside (or terminal) operations, Police and Construction & Maintenance Services divisions.

Services Delivered

During the design of the expedited 15 month ARCC project, SDI worked side-by-side with architects, construction teams and a dedicated, cross-functional team to drive the physical layout of the ARCC’s 9,000 ft2 facility, as well as design and deploy its underlying technical systems and infrastructure:

• Delivered technical space requirements impacting the physical layout of the ARCC’s 9,000 ft2 facility
• Hosted Concept of Operations (CONOPS) sessions with multiple stakeholders and conducted site surveys/inventories to validate existing capabilities, technologies and data units
• Architected technology framework for center, synthesizing organization (people), process (programs), and technology in the design process. SDI’s technical architecture spans all new and existing ARCC technologies, with over 26 disparate technologies including traditional security systems (video surveillance, access controls, and computer-aided dispatch), work management, gate management, building automation, and geographic information systems (GIS).
• Developed project plan and budget for detailed systems design, implementation and rollout phases
• Assisted the airport in developing standard operating procedures for the new Center
• Implementation, integration, testing and training for various new and existing technologies in the ARCC

Project Results

ARCC’s integrated design is based on SDI’s Situational Awareness Management Solution (or SAMS) model, featuring NICE’s Situator physical security information management system – which shares informational and event-driven data, graphics and digital video data from all of the ARCC sub-systems – achieving situational awareness for ALL operations and events. The SAMS-based implementation of Situator provides a common operating picture to all of the ARCC users.(If there is a need for a coordinated response, someone from each participating business function will know right away of the event, and be able to see it on the shared video wall or at their individual workstations.

Additionally, SDI programmed CONOPS findings and SOPs into the business logic that drives the ARCC’s Situator, so there is no longer a need to page through a book for the proper procedure for incidents like a Terminal Evacuation and repopulation, to what to do for a power failure, or when suspicious materials are reported aboard an aircraft. The system automatically walks the ARCC users through the steps involved in responding to a particular incident, and serves up the information that they need to perform their job quickly – dramatically increasing efficiency and reducing response times. Plans to extend the NIMS- compliant ARCC technical platform are already underway, with planned initiatives – including SAMS-enabled mobile field devices and further integration of badging, CCTV and enterprise asset management systems.