Control room integration solutions for process & manufacturing industries
inControl Systems designs, supplies and integrates centralised control rooms for process, manufacturing, energy and utility operations. We bring plant, process and utility data into one location, combining control room furniture, IT hardware, network infrastructure, control room software and system integration engineering under a single point of accountability.
Our control room integration services draw on experience in digitalisation platforms, SCADA systems, DataOps and the integration of plant, asset, utilities and operational data from multiple sources — built around your business needs.
What makes a ‘State of the Art’ industrial control room?
An industrial control room is a centralised facility where operators monitor and manage plant, process and utility operations from a single location. Rather than relying on multiple standalone systems spread across a site, a control room consolidates operational data — from SCADA screens to safety alarms, from energy usage to CCTV — onto shared displays giving operators complete visibility of the site or plant. Modern control rooms have higher levels of integration and are designed to view information from different sources, including productivity data, process status, image inspection, control systems, environmental data and much more…
What’s included in our control room integration service?
We can deliver complete control room projects from start to finish to include all or some of:
• Control room design and space planning
• Thin client architecture and IT hardware
• Software integration of different platforms (see below)
• Purpose-built control room furniture and network/power cabling
• Network infrastructure and cyber-secure design
• Communication strategy for operators, maintenance and engineering teams
• Ongoing support and device management
Software integration of Data Operations and SCADA solutions such as Siemens WinCC, AVEVA System Platform, Rockwell Automation FactoryTalk, ThinManager, Cognite Data Fusion, COPA DATA Zenon, Codra Panorama as well as your existing SCADA/DCS applications.
We can test these principles in a live control room at our own Chesterfield facility, built to the same thin client architecture, software platforms and cyber-secure design we specify for customers.
The Control Room and meeting area at our Chesterfield HQ
“There’s nothing quite like watching live plant data update in real time in front of a customer. It changes the conversation completely”
— Jan Hemper, Technical Director, inControl Systems
What makes a control room deployment successful?
A successful control room deployment depends on several elements working together:
Thin client computing
Thin client architecture allows centralised management, rapid device replacement and a consistent operator experience, using fanless, solid-state devices with no moving parts to maintain.
The right software platforms
Integration with proven platforms such as Rockwell Automation’s ThinManager and Cognite’s Data Fusion, or AVEVA System Platform ensures that your control room software scales with your operation and stays supportable long-term.
Professional control room furniture
Purpose-designed desks, screens, IT hardware storage and network/power cabling create an ergonomic, professional environment for operators who need to be able to work effectively in a complex environment with challenging business demands.
Engineers who understand IT and OT
That’s us…Successful integration depends on engineers who are equally comfortable with IT infrastructure and operational technology (OT) — bridging the gap between the network and the plant floor.
Centralised communication strategies
A control room strategy needs to define how operators communicate efficiently with on-call maintenance personnel and on-plant operational and engineering staff.
Cyber-secure design
Every control room we design and implement has cyber security considered from day one, not retrofitted afterwards.
Control room applications by industry
Centralised control rooms suit a wide range of operational environments, typically seen in large process plants but also include:
Mining, quarrying and processing of aggregates To view site-wide operations, plant, power, conveyors, energy, CCTV, weighbridges etc.
Pharmaceutical & Consumer Packaged Goods Viewing recipes, batches, CIP and other processes all in one place.
Breweries & distilleries Many breweries and distilleries standardise on a single SCADA platform to view all aspects of their plant from brewhouse to bottling, from refrigeration plants to packaging…
Pulp & paper plants High volume processes require close monitoring, having a view of all processes and lines in one place brings efficiency and reduces time to react.
Energy, renewables and utilities Windfarms, solar generation, Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) and biogas production are often unmanned and widely distributed sites, ideal for a centralised control room.
Geo-distributed assets High-value portable equipment such as compressors and generators spread across multiple locations.
See our control room in action
Our Chesterfield facility is available for live demonstrations, showing what a control room could look like for your business. It is also used for customer Factory Acceptance Tests (FAT) and for evaluating partner software ahead of installation on site.
Ready to bring your operations data into a single view?
It centralises monitoring of plant operations, alarms, energy use, safety and production data so operators and managers can make faster, more informed decisions from a single location.
What software is used in an industrial control room?
Common platforms include Siemens WinCC, AVEVA System Platform, Rockwell Automation FactoryTalk, ThinManager, Cognite Data Fusion, COPA DATA Zenon for integrating and contextualising data from multiple plant and business systems, alongside your existing SCADA and DCS applications.
Can our existing SCADA and PLC systems integrate into a new control room?
Yes, control room integration is designed to bring together data from existing SCADA, DCS, PLC & CCTV systems as well as any other data sources. The beauty of modern digital data operations platforms and unified operations centres is that you can bring plant, process and production data together from anywhere in your business, to a single location.
How long does it take to deploy a control room?
Timescales vary with scope and site complexity. Our Singleton Birch control room took eight weeks to install once the design was approved — [read the case study] for more details.
Is cyber security built into control room integration?
Yes, every control room we design factors in cyber security from the outset, covering network segmentation, access control and secure remote connectivity.
What you can monitor from a centralised control room?
A well-designed control room can bring together a wide range of operational information, including:
• Plant operational data
• Alarm management screens
• Energy usage
• CCTV
• Real-time location of assets (RTLS)
• Health and safety metrics
• Production planning and scheduling
• Productivity (OEE)
“Our control room integration services draw on experience in digitalisation platforms, SCADA systems, DataOps and the integration of plant, asset, utilities and operational data from multiple sources — built around your business needs”
— Ian Clarke, Sales & Marketing Director, inControl Systems
Discover more: Singleton Birch Control Room Case Study
See how we helped Singleton Birch replace eight separate control rooms with a single, integrated control centre — improving availability by more than 20% and cutting operating costs by around 13%.
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