Real Life Command Centers Based On the Enterprise Bridge

[Dayton3]

I've heard more than once that the U.S. Navy sent some people to inspect the original series Enterprise bridge because they were impressed with the design.

I later read that at least one command center based on the design of the original series bridge had actually been built.

I wondered for years where this command center based on the Enterprise bridge was actually built.

Then I read in a book on the U.S. Navy that the Second Fleet command ship the U.S.S. Mt. Whitney had a fleet command center that looked alot like the Enterprise bridge.

Can anyone confirm this?

 

[Forbin]

No, but I heard the same rumors.

I worked for a videocassette duplicating company in the late 70s that set up their facility with the Bridge in mind. They arranged the playback machines in a circle, with the control panel at "north" rather than in the center, and arranged all the recording decks in racks in an outer cricle.

Come to think of it, maybe more like Stonehenge than the Bridge , but Trek was what they had in mind when they designed it.

The chief engineer was proposing building a central control island when I was there, to make it even more Trek-like. Here's an architectural model I built for him to propose the new layout to management:

http://www.inpayne.com/models/stmodel.html

 

[aridas sofia]

Very cool, John.

 

[Squiggy]

Here's a picture of XM's Broadcast Operations Center in Washington, DC.

 

[Unicron]

The classic bridge is a very good layout, IMO. I can certainly see why some real life military folks might consider it a good basis.

 

[Timo]

When everybody is facing away from the person who calls the shots, the command center can only cater for a special type of organization.

That is, the Trek bridge minimizes interaction between the little people at the rim and the big boss at the center, while allowing the boss to keep constant watch over each shoulder. If any of the subordinates wishes to contribute, he or she has to literally bend over backwards or otherwise twist away from his or her work, as we typically see Sulu, Chekov, Uhura and Spock do.

A more efficient arrangement for two-way interaction would be with the rim people facing inwards, as we see in many a real-world command center, and e.g. the Battlestar Galactica fictional version. There could still be repeater screens at their stations that would be visible to the centrally located pit boss at a glance.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[BolianAuthor]

The NBC Nightly News set always reminded me of the Bridge of the 1701-A...

 

[Meredith]

The company I work for has help desk type area called "the bridge" that is laid out with a bunch of stations facing a large central screen. No doubt Trek inspired.

 

[ahkyahnan]

I once considered arranging the tables and chairs in our dining room like the TOS bridge, so I wouldn't have to look at my in-laws during Holiday dinner.

Mark

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

A more efficient arrangement for two-way interaction would be with the rim people facing inwards, as we see in many a real-world command center, and e.g. the Battlestar Galactica fictional version. There could still be repeater screens at their stations that would be visible to the centrally located pit boss at a glance.

Timo Saloniemi

What about the main viewscreen? They'd have to look over their shoulders to see it.

The way I see it, facing towards the viewscreen is most efficient. The crewmembers shouldn't need to *see* the captain - only hear.

 

[Timo]

I'm not sure anybody should see the main viewer, either. It's not as if it ever really offers key information or anything. It's mainly useful as a communications device, and for that purpose it might best be installed to be visible to the Captain's eyes only.

Perhaps the helmsperson, navigator and gunner should see the viewer, though. So the TNG type bridge would be just fine if everybody on the rim turned around and faced inwards. Which is basically what happens in VOY and the TNG movies.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Forbin]

They probably hadn't thought of it in TOS, but by TNG's time I'd always thought they should have realized the main viewscreen is analogous to an airplane's HUD. That screen should have been swarming with continually-updated information around the edges while a larger window showed the standard view. Speed, location coordinates, engine status, subspace field density - etc, etc. Think Bloomberg TV.

 

[FalTorPan]

I'm not sure anybody should see the main viewer, either. It's not as if it ever really offers key information or anything. It's mainly useful as a communications device, and for that purpose it might best be installed to be visible to the Captain's eyes only.

I tend to agree. As it's most often used, the main viewscreen is just a big TV that doesn't usually display much information that's useful to the people manning their stations.

 

[ATimson]

They probably hadn't thought of it in TOS, but by TNG's time I'd always thought they should have realized the main viewscreen is analogous to an airplane's HUD. That screen should have been swarming with continually-updated information around the edges while a larger window showed the standard view. Speed, location coordinates, engine status, subspace field density - etc, etc. Think Bloomberg TV.

At least they gave the captain displays on/near their chair for the 24th century series; Kirk just had buttons, no feedback.

 

[Messianni]

Here's a picture of XM's Broadcast Operations Center in Washington, DC.

Ok, that is just freakin' cool.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I'm not sure anybody should see the main viewer, either. It's not as if it ever really offers key information or anything. It's mainly useful as a communications device, and for that purpose it might best be installed to be visible to the Captain's eyes only.

The Jem'Hadar would love you.

Perhaps the helmsperson, navigator and gunner should see the viewer, though. So the TNG type bridge would be just fine if everybody on the rim turned around and faced inwards. Which is basically what happens in VOY and the TNG movies.

You don't think it might be useful to see what's going on outside the ship?

 

[kv1at3485]

You don't think it might be useful to see what's going on outside the ship?

Given how the main viewscreen is used, it's wholly inadequate for maintaining the situational awareness needed to know what's going on outside.

If one really wants to keep track of the space around the ship, give everyone a small volumetric display literally at their finger tips. (Might not be as large as the main viewscreen, but it hardly matters because it's a whole lot closer.) Space is 3D after all.

 

[Christopher]

Realistically, there would generally be little useful information you could glean from just looking outside the ship. You might be able to tell roughly where you were in the galaxy from star patterns, or where you were in a planetary system by the size of the local sun and the positions and brightnesses of the planets around you, but a computer display could give you much more accurate positional fixes. In a space battle, a realistic one instead of the ridiculous TV/movie kind, you'd almost never be in naked-eye visual range of an enemy (or allied) ship, and if you were, it would probably be moving too quickly to get a useful look at. Visuals would mostly be useful if you were mapping a planet or moon, say.

What would make more sense than a single, generic main viewscreen would be to give each station a customized display of the surroundings. The helm display would show star and planet positions, course projections, navigational hazards, etc.; the tactical display would track hostile ships or dangerous phenomena; the science display would show energy readings, scan results, images from probe cameras, etc. The captain's screen could call up any of these on demand. They more or less did this in the 24th-century shows, but they still went with a purely visual main viewer, because it is a TV show, after all. But I agree they should've had superimposed sensor readouts and the like included in the viewer images. Like, instead of just a shot of an alien ship closing in, you have a shot of an alien ship closing in with tactical graphics and sensor readout information displayed next to it, and maybe a popup window or two displaying its blueprints or interior thermal profile or course through the planetary system.

 

[B.J.]

They did do that a little bit in the simulator in STIII and the Excelsior's display of Praxis in STVI. Too bad that's about the only times they did that with the main viewer.

 

[Mysterion]

They probably hadn't thought of it in TOS, but by TNG's time I'd always thought they should have realized the main viewscreen is analogous to an airplane's HUD. That screen should have been swarming with continually-updated information around the edges while a larger window showed the standard view. Speed, location coordinates, engine status, subspace field density - etc, etc. Think Bloomberg TV.

Well, Sulu had his pop-up targetting viewer or whatever that was meant to be. I can imagine that having a HUD-type display.