I’m pleased to announce that the US Navy has awarded a contract to Americon to provide custom control room furniture for a new Emergency Operations Center (EOC) on the Pacific island of Guam. Americon will be one of 11 team members selected to provide a variety of furniture products for the new facility scheduled to open in 2013. The contract is the culmination of almost two years of project consultation, space planning and product evaluation. The Navy selected Americon’s Communicator workstations customized to meet functional requirements and space constraints within the new facility. Each workstation is designed with Americon’s unique monitor flip feature that recesses the monitor when in the raised position and disappears the monitor into the desktop when not in use. The recessed monitor makes it easy for participants to see and easily communicate with each other, and when the monitor is not in use, the participant has a flat desktop for reading and writing. The EOC is designed to seat 35 staff most of which are facing large projection screens when the EOC is convened. Americon is also providing matching ancillary furniture and a large matching table for the adjoining conference room.

This project will be one of a long list of EOCs that we have done in recent years. It continues to be a learning experience for me as I dialogue with emergency managers and first responders throughout the US and abroad. I’ve particularly enjoyed working with the emergency managers on this project and will make entries from time to time on our progress. I should add that not all of our EOC projects include the type of modern video walls that we offer, nor do they include traditional control room console designs often seen in conventional command and control centers. Seldom does one control room project look like another. Each has its own concept of operations requiring specialized control room furniture and video wall display systems designed to meet specific goals and objectives. My role is to assist my customers with transforming their vision into reality.