5G, Control Rooms and IP KVM: The Perfect Partners

What is 5G?

5G is the fifth generation of cellular technology designed to increase speed, reduce latency, and improve flexibility of wireless services. The technology has a theoretical peak speed of 20 Gbps, while the peak speed of 4G is only 1 Gbps¹.

While previous generations of mobile communications, such as 3G and 4G, offered luxuries like video calling and faster connectivity, 5G will extend even further allowing almost any mobile application to connect to anything at any time, in a flexible and reliable way. 5G also promises benefits such as increased speed, better signal, improved network connectivity, and lower latency, to name a few.

From media and entertainment services to industrial applications, 5G connectivity is set to dynamically change the characteristics of networks. The technology presents huge opportunities to boost productivity and grow businesses across both private and public sectors.

Adopting 5G in the Control Room

The control room is often viewed as the central nervous system of an organization – with operators continually monitoring and analyzing critical data to make split-second decisions. With the introduction of 5G networks, and the high-speed connectivity with which they bring, delivery of significantly more data to the control room than ever before can be expected.

According to Ofcom’s Communications Market Report, the previous average data use per mobile device over a cellular network was 1.9 GB per month², but research by GiffGaff shows that consumer data usage is likely to exceed to 98.34 GB per month by 2025³.

The wide adoption of 5G networks will allow consumers to record and share high value content, some of which will be invaluable to the tasks being carried out in the control room, as well fundamentally changing some industries forever, for example, in the case of broadcasting and post-production⁴.

However, this influx of big data could stretch control room resources by flooding them with a surge of information from a wide variety of sources. Indeed, this data could be extremely useful, but only if those working within the control room know how to handle it. Operators must be able to view and analyze this data, in real-time, to reap the full rewards.

IP KVM in the 5G Control Room?

The scale and variation of data sources (due to high bandwidth) demands an understanding of how data will be consumed across teams both now and in the future. How many users are likely to need access? And to which systems and sources? How will the data be displayed within the control room, and where must instantaneous decision makers be situated to process the data, and respond accordingly? KVM technology takes these unknowns and the growing quantities of data in its stride. It equips operators with the flexibility to adapt a network depending on the size and needs of the operation. They can easily add and remove end-points when the operation requires it and can offer to change user access rights in a matter of minutes.

Understanding how technology can improve the management of the data, and at what pace, and with what detail, must be the foundation to the design of the control room; the wellbeing of every team member is critical to clear-headed, safe operations. As such, cognitive ergonomics must be considered as critical a function within design as the physical.

To find out more about how KVM can ready your control room to cope with future demands, or how connectivity solutions can get your business ready for the IoT, download Adder’s latest whitepaper today.

Free White Paper - Designing the Control Room of the Future

Discover more blogs in this series:

The Importance of Cognitive Ergonomics and Situational Awareness in the Control Room
Planning for the Future of the Control Room: Airport 4.0
The Rise and Rise of Data in the Control Room
The Evolution of the Industrial Control Room
How is the Rail Control Room Changing?
How Has Technology Revolutionized the Control Room?

Sources:

¹ Cisco - What is 5G
² Ofcom - Communications Market Report
³ GiffGaff - Consumer Data Usage
⁴ Frame.io - How 5G Will Transform Video Production and Post-Production