Symbio designs and manufactures the furniture for the future alarm center at the University of Liège

The University has a central alarm control room, which allows to monitor all University buildings, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The control room also coordinates all interventions of professional bodies in case of intrusion or fire outbreak, or any other unwanted event. The University alarm center has to be renovated, both in terms of equipment and technology and in terms of location and spatial organization.

Symbio's task was first to design the furniture for the future alarm center

• the main working console
• a large storage cabinet, of consequent size, allowing to support and give access to multiple equipment: printers, telephone equipment, secondary computer,...

Symbio was then in charge of manufacturing and installing this furniture in the future room.

The challenges

The mission implied to:

• Integrate the furniture in the final destination room, and in particular in the future room layout, also designed by Symbio
• Support a significant number of screens and adequately place and position equipment and devices on the console's work surface
• Allow the vision of the large displays in front of the console, acting as a videowall. The screens on the console should not be a visual obstruction
• Provide sufficient storage capacity for the cabinet to be positioned behind the work position
• Allow easy access and use of the equipment

The results

The work was carried out in three phases: design of the console and the storage cabinet, constructive analysis, and manufacturing and installation.

Console and storage cabinet design

The design study of the console and the storage cabinet was carried out in a participative way with the end-users, after an in-depth study of the expected functionalities and analysis and observation of the user's tasks during several working sessions.

Constructive analysis

Constructive analysis aims at transforming the models produced during the conceptual design phase into files and manufacturing plans that can be directly used by the subcontractors (sheet metal work, carpentry, painting) producing the different parts of the furniture.

Cable passages and zones for KVM switches

Console legs and display support for the two rows of displays

Furniture manufacture and on-site installation

A press release about the new control room can be found here.

About the University of Liege

The University of Liege is a major university in the French-speaking region of Belgium. The university was founded in 1817, employs more than 5,000 people (faculty and administrative staff) and provides services to nearly 30,000 students and doctoral candidates.