Commercial Integrator May 2023 - 14

SPONSORED CONTENT
Uniting to Enhance Mission-Critical Environments
Control rooms and command centers demand distraction-free situational
awareness. Barco and Winsted are working together to make it happen.
R
apid changes and massive data fl ow have
impacted every vertical, each bringing
its own set of challenges and opportunities,
and with some facing more than others. By
virtue of the critical and sensitive nature of
their function, the stakes are way higher than
normal in mission-critical spaces like control
rooms and command centers. Operators' ability
to maintain situational awareness and sharp
focus can have life-or-death consequences,
after all. Th at's why commercial AV vendors
that target this category must embody several
key virtues - namely, a customer-fi rst mentality,
exacting engineering standards, unfl inching
reliability and extensive industry expertise.
Two companies stand apart in their dedication
to serve mission-critical environments,
and it's only fi tting that they've maintained
a longstanding partnership that empowers
each to leverage the other's strengths. Here,
these companies - Barco and Winsted -
sit down to share key insights with Commercial
Integrator, discussing the origins of their relationship, guidelines
for control-room operators to maintain situational awareness and
how the organizations collaborate to serve operators' needs. Moreover,
they off er tips for how to create optimal mission-critical spaces.
Barco and Winsted have a longstanding relationship that empowers them to help operators who work in control rooms
and other mission-critical spaces maintain situational awareness at all times.
A Long-Term Relationship
Although Barco and Winsted continue to expand their working relationship,
its origins date back years. More than a decade back, Randy
Smith, president of Winsted, and Hans Dekeyser, at the time a Barco
executive, recognized the complementarity of their businesses. " Hans
and I had a great relationship - still do! " Smith refl ects, calling him a
good friend. Even more important was the organizational alignment.
" For two companies in the mission-critical control room - both best
in class - it made sense to collaborate, " he continues, pointing to
mutual interests and characterizing the synergy as " awesome. " Over
the years, both organizations have transformed. And yet, the relationship
continues to blossom under the current leadership of Mike Benson,
VP - Americas. As Alina Mishra, Barco's global fi eld and channel
marketing lead, describes it, " Th e continuation of the relationship -
preserving it and moving it forward - is a hand-and-glove kind of a
situation. " Th at is, it simply fi ts. After all, Winsted builds specialized
consoles to serve operator needs in mission-critical applications. Meanwhile,
Barco specializes in the mission-critical tech infrastructure (e.g.,
videowalls, processing, control room software) that populates those
consoles. What's more, Mishra affi rms that the organizations have a
near-perfect alignment on core values. " Th e focus on quality, engineering,
security, reliability [and] longevity, " she lists. " Th ese are some common
aspects that Winsted values as much as Barco. So, all of a sudden,
you have an ecosystem partner that aligns and works very well with
you. " Th is enables better customer outcomes and an improved value
proposition for the market. " Together, we are more powerful than we
are individually, " Mishra declares.
Coming Together
You might be wondering how, exactly, Barco and Winsted partner.
Mishra confi rms that the companies work together from a sales, engineering
and marketing standpoint. For example, the partnership has
meant co-exhibiting at key industry events. " You have these very goodlooking,
high-tech Winsted consoles, and then you have all that powerful
and attractive Barco equipment out there, " she says. " Together,
it makes for a great setup. " Especially compelling is the possibility of
leveraging that full-system visibility to plant a seed in the customer's
mind for what their own environment could look like.
Th at brings us to the raison d'etre for both - the end customer
- namely, the control-room stakeholders. According to these industry
leaders, serving mission-critical customers centers on exactly one thing:
helping them maintain situational awareness and resolve scenarios.
Smith describes distractions in mission-critical environments as a constant
worry. If, for example, there is foot traffi c and the operator looks
up from the screen, they could easily miss an alarm. " How long is he
distracted? " Smith asks rhetorically. " On average, three to four seconds.
Now, he's already three to four seconds behind on reacting. " Th e criti

Commercial Integrator May 2023

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