The Operator Console

Map

The map is where you spend the most time interacting with Visual Command Center. Zoom and pan to focus on a specific geographic area.

Panels

Panels are activated by selecting them on the lower left-hand side of the page. Each panel interacts with the others and displays data differently when enabled. Shrink the panels by left-clicking and holding the edge of a panel; then sliding to a preferred size and releasing the mouse click.

Each Panel and its capabilities are described follows:

Feeds Panel

Most of the interaction with Visual Command Center happens in the feeds panel. Understanding feed groups enables you to control the information that appears on the map, timeline, and item details

Search

You can use the Search box to find locations on the globe or items in your data. When you enter a search term in the box, Visual Command Center searches all your data, in feeds that are on or off; it displays the search results on the map and lists them in the Feeds Panel. Note that to return only the most relevant results, for Contacts, VCC searches only the name fields. So, a search for “Washington” returns contacts named “Washington” but not all the contacts in the state of Washington.

While a search is active, items other than search results are faded on the map to give the search results prominence. End this effect by selecting Clear All Filters or clearing the Search box.

Alerts

Alerts are created when a risk event happens near one of your assets. You can acknowledge, reinstate, or snooze an Alert. Additionally, you can launch an incident from the alert.

Acknowledge

Acknowledging an Alert will remove it from the current map view. You can select its relevancy to your assets and add any desired additional information. (Acknowledged Alerts will display in gray instead of red when enabled under the Context feed).

Reinstate

Acknowledged Alerts can then be reviewed by enabling them under the Context feed. You can add additional information and reinstate an Alert to display it in the current map view.

Snooze

Snoozing an Alert will temporarily remove it from the current map view. You can enter an optional note and snooze the alert for all users for one of the following time increments:

• 5 minutes
• 30 minutes
• 1 hour
• 4 hours
• 8 hours
• 12 hours

Launch an Incident

Leveraging Everbridge Suite Incident Communications, incidents can be launched to notify your assets, stakeholders, and other persons of interest directly from an Alert. Use established incident templates (configured in Everbridge Suite) to launch a message to the right people as quickly as possible.

Assets

Assets include anything important to your organization. For example: employees, buildings, supplier locations, equipment, or other facilities.

Assets include your organization’s buildings and contacts entered through Everbridge Suite. These are auto-synced between Visual Command Center and Everbridge Suite so their dynamic and static locations can be visualized on the map. Administrators can add other types of assets by visiting the Admin Console.

Risk Events

Risk events are provided by risk sources (for example, the National Weather Service). Application administrators can configure your risk event settings, like determining when you want to receive alerts about a flood or winter storm warning.

Context

This feed group provides additional data, so operators can assess and address risk. Feeds in this group provide data about data (for example, what alerts you have acknowledged) and resources (current traffic or weather conditions, for example) that can influence your command center’s decisions.

Items Panel

The Items Panel lists items (assets, risk events, alerts, etc.) in the current view. When you change the view—by navigating the map or timeline—or turn feeds on or off, the contents of the Items Panel change to reflect the new view. When you select a single item (from the map, timeline, or the Items Panel) the panel changes to display details about that item.

The Items Panel includes a Find box, that lets you find items in the current view.

Timeline Panel

You can use the timeline panel to filter the items panel to list events and assets in a selected time span.

When you turn on a feed, items from that feed that are in the current map and timeline view appear. After navigating the Timeline, click the Go to Now button to return to the current date. Alerts on the timeline are represented by icons. Alerts that have a duration are represented by a pair of icons joined by a line. Selecting an item on the timeline, an animation highlights its icon on the map; the reverse is true when selecting an item on the map.

When selecting an item on the map that is not in the current timeline view, an arrow appears to indicate the direction you would pan the timeline if you wanted to see the item there.

Adjust the Timeline view with the following options:

• Pan the timeline by clicking on the timeline and dragging.
• Use the mouse scroll wheel to zoom in and out on the timeline.
• Click the options below the timeline to display the current month, week, day, etc.
• Select Now and the Timeline scrolls continuously to keep the current time in view, regardless of zoom level.
• The current time is indicated by a vertical green line.
• Click Set Range and select a beginning and end date from the pop-up calendars.

Menu

Clicking the menu icon on the upper right-hand corner displays the tools, applications, and preferences you will need to configure Visual Command Center to best suit your needs. The tools and applications available to you may vary depending on your assigned role.

Base Map View

Change the Base Map View by clicking the arrows. Scroll through the following options to find the scheme that works best for your Visual Command Center:

• Road – Highlights highways and select city names.
• Aerial – Highlights the map’s topography.
• Hybrid – Combines the Aerial and Road views.
• Low Light – Darkened view for low light conditions.

Tools

The Tools section provides ways for you to interact with the data and feeds for your account.

• Excel Report – Create a report containing the items in the current view.
• Export Map Image - Export a .jpeg image of the current map view and the assets currently visible on it.
• Add Feed – Add data from a KML file to Visual Command Center.
• Saved Views – Save the current view so you can return to it or share it.
• Annotation – Add labels or shapes to the map to highlight important data.
• Map Filter – Draw a circle, rectangle, or polygon on the map. Only items within the shape boundary are listed in the Items Panel or included in Excel reports while the shape is on the map. You can also use the shape to launch an incident for the contacts within the selected area.
• Measure Distance – Draw lines on the map to measure the distance between points.
• Restore VCC Default View - Reset Visual Command Center SaaS to a global view with the Alerts feed on.
• About VCC – Access Visual Command Center SaaS contact and support information.

Apps

With appropriate permissions, the Apps menu will include links to the follow apps:

• Admin Console - Change settings that determine what risk events can trigger alerts, how feeds display, which incident templates are used, and which screens can display channels.
• Channels – Channels are data views optimized for display on monitors. Use this app to assign channels to each monitor. Each channel focuses on a facet of your data and operations – such as incidents, alerts, or assets.

Preferences

The Preferences section of the menu provides an opportunity to set how you would like the data visualized on the map to be measured and displayed.

Audio Alerts

Display the scale of the map at the bottom left-hand corner of the map view. Toggle the map scale bar on and off.

Scale Bar

Display the scale of the map at the bottom left-hand corner of the map view. Toggle the map scale bar on and off.

Units

Select English, Metric, or Nautical units used by the Scale Bar and the Measure Distance tool.

Day and Night

Overlays which parts of the globe are in daylight.

Lat/Long Grid

Overlays a latitude and longitude coordinate grid on the map.

Lat/Long Sensor

Displays the coordinates based on the hover placement of your cursor on the lower left-hand corner the map. You can also, right click on the map to copy the current coordinates of your cursor.

Full Screen

Hides the browser URL bar and tabs from view. Use the Esc key to leave full-screen mode.