What Really Matters in Control Room LED Design
Control rooms are some of the most demanding environments any display technology can be designed for. They operate around the clock, support critical decision-making, and are relied upon by people working under constant pressure. In these spaces, displays are not decorative features or branding tools; they are part of the operational infrastructure.
At Aura Vision, control rooms became a natural focus not because they are easy to design for, but because they expose the realities of how LED technology behaves over time. When a display is expected to perform consistently for years, often, 24 hours a day, many of the compromises that might go unnoticed elsewhere become impossible to ignore.
“A lot of LED technology is designed to look impressive on day one,” says Ricardo Teixeira, Business Development & Technical Manager at Aura Vision. “Control rooms quickly show you whether a system has really been engineered for reliability, efficiency, and long-term use, or whether it was designed for short-term impact.”
Start With the Operator, Not the Video Wall
One of the first things Aura Vision looks at when entering a control room isn’t the video wall at all. It’s the operators. Where they sit, how far they are from the displays, and how long they’re expected to be there.
“A room can look impressive from the back, but once you sit at a console, you sometimes realise things don’t quite line up,” Teixeira explains. “Brightness might feel uncomfortable, sightlines can be off, or there’s simply too much information competing for attention.”
In well-designed control rooms, the environment feels calm. Information is easy to read, nothing is fighting for attention, and the display supports the workflow instead of dominating it. When this balance isn’t achieved, operators feel it quickly, often as fatigue, reduced focus, or visual discomfort over long shifts.
This is why LED performance at lower brightness levels, image stability, colour consistency, and reduced blue light output matter just as much as peak brightness. The best feedback, Teixeira notes, often comes when operators stop noticing the display entirely. “That usually means it’s doing exactly what it should.”
Sustainability in Control Rooms
Sustainability is often discussed in broad terms, but in control rooms, it becomes very practical. These environments run continuously, sometimes for decades, and small inefficiencies add up quickly.
Power consumption is one factor, but heat generation is just as critical. Excess heat affects not only energy costs but also operator comfort and the load placed on cooling systems. Over time, this has implications for reliability, maintenance, and total cost of ownership.
“In control rooms, sustainability is less about labels and more about what happens year after year,” says Teixeira. “Displays that run cooler, consume less power, and remain visually stable over time are simply more sustainable in practice.”
Longevity is a key part of this conversation. Displays designed to last longer, require fewer interventions, and age predictably reduce both environmental impact and operational disruption.
Designing for 24/7 Operation Changes Everything
Designing for environments that never truly switch off fundamentally changes how LED systems need to be engineered. Thermal behaviour, power efficiency, and component ageing all become central considerations.
“When a display runs 24/7, there’s very little room for shortcuts,” says Gerardo Grasa, EMEA Sales Director at Aura Vision. “Predictable behaviour becomes more important than peak performance.”
In control rooms, a display that degrades slowly and consistently is far preferable to one that performs well initially but changes unpredictably over time. Redundancy in power and signal paths is also essential, not optional, to ensure continuity of operation when issues arise.
These realities influence everything from LED architecture to driver design and cooling strategies, long before a product reaches installation.
Maintenance Is Where Design Decisions Show Up
Once a control room is live, maintenance becomes part of everyday life. Technicians are often working around active operations, so speed, access, and predictability matter.
“The biggest pain points we see are access, time, and consistency,” Grasa explains. “Anything that takes too long or causes disruption quickly becomes a problem.”
Front-access designs, modular components, and fast replacement help minimise downtime, but visual consistency is just as critical. Being able to replace parts without introducing visible differences across the wall is essential in operational environments where accuracy and clarity matter.
“When maintenance is straightforward and predictable, it reduces stress for everyone involved,” Grasa adds. “Operators, technicians, and the teams responsible for keeping the room running.”
Designing for People First
Despite the technology involved, effective control room design always comes back to the people using the space every day.
“If there’s one piece of advice we’d give, it’s to design for the people who will use the room,” says Teixeira. “If you focus on comfort, clarity, and reliability, most other decisions tend to fall into place.”
Control rooms reward long-term thinking. When displays are designed with operators in mind and evaluated over years rather than specifications alone, the result is a space that supports better decision-making, lower fatigue, and more resilient operations.
These perspectives were shared and discussed by Aura Vision during industry conversations around control room design, including participation in dedicated control room forums and summits. But they are rooted not in theory, rather in the realities of designing, deploying, and supporting LED technology in some of the most demanding environments in use today.