Barco’s control room report (2/5): Common challenges and unique industry pain points
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The modern control room is a high-pressure environment where technology and human expertise must work in perfect harmony. Our recent Barco Control Room Report, based on comprehensive feedback from over 2,000 control room professionals including end-users and decision-makers, reveals fascinating insights into the challenges faced across different industries. While some pain points are universal, others are uniquely tied to specific sectors.
Two universal challenges across all industries
Across all six industries we serve - Government & Military, Energy & Utilities, Transportation, Manufacturing, Healthcare, and Corporate environments - two primary challenges emerged consistently:
Workflow complexity has increased significantly, rising from 31% in 2022 to 38% in 2024. Control room professionals struggle with information overload (33%), equipment or technology malfunctions (32%), and the complexity of managing multiple disparate systems (28%). This complexity directly impacts operational efficiency and effective decision-making capabilities, creating bottlenecks in mission-critical environments.
Reactive decision-making has also become more prevalent, increasing from 30% in 2022 to 36% in 2024. Professionals cite overreliance on intuition or incomplete information (29%), high content complexity (31%), and limited access to real-time data (27%) as primary factors forcing them into reactive rather than proactive responses. This challenge prevents control room operators from anticipating issues and instead keeps them in a constant state of response.
Industry-specific challenges
While workflow complexity and reactive decision-making are consistent concerns across the board, the third major challenge varies significantly by industry, reflecting the unique operational demands of each sector:
Government & military
Keeping up with intrusions, threats, and cyber risks is paramount (31%). With rapidly evolving threats, complex systems, and the challenge of timely software updates, these facilities face constant pressure as prime targets for cyberattacks from hostile entities.
Energy & utilities
Information overflow from too many information sources (37%), multiple alerts for the same incident (32%), and redundant information creates a tsunami of data that operators must sort through while managing aging infrastructure and legacy systems.
Transportation
Operator fatigue stands out as a critical concern, driven by repetitive tasks (36%), information overload (35%), irregular shifts (32%), and numerous manual processes. The pressure to make rapid, accurate decisions while monitoring increasing traffic volumes intensifies this challenge.
Manufacturing
Lack of continuous improvement hampers progress. Limited resources for technology investments (32%), outdated software (31%), and minimal operator involvement in decision-making (31%) prevent facilities from evolving and optimizing operations.
Healthcare
Knowledge transfer and information sharing break down due to lack of integration between software platforms (44%), misunderstandings as information passes between stakeholders (39%), poor documentation (28%), and inefficient shift handovers (22%).
Corporate
Information overflow from multiple sources (36%) creates difficulties in finding root causes of alarms (31%), managing high content complexity (30%), and prioritizing critical alerts from non-urgent ones (30%).
Moving forward: integrated solutions for complex challenges
Understanding these distinct challenges allows control room solution providers like Barco to develop targeted strategies for each industry. The data clearly shows that professionals are increasingly seeking platforms that integrate systems and information sources to streamline workflows..
By addressing both the universal pain points of workflow complexity and reactive decision-making, while also tackling industry-specific concerns, providers can create more effective, integrated solutions for modern control rooms. This approach requires collaborative discussions within teams to analyze and prioritize issues, identifying which challenges need immediate attention, which should be focused on in the near future, and which can be addressed later.
As control rooms continue to evolve in complexity and importance, addressing these challenges will be crucial for operational efficiency, effective decision-making, and ultimately, mission success across all industries we serve.
Ready to dive deeper?
This post only contains a very small portion of the findings and actionable insights you can find in the complete report. Want to discover everything about your specific market? Then download the full report for free now!
