These are rooms that house some of the world’s greatest minds, launching humanity further than ever before.
As NASA works on its return to the moon through the Artemis mission, a Calgary company has a role to play from the ground up.
Evans Consoles is responsible for the design of all three of the Johnson Space Center’s mission control rooms, including other spaces where they conduct training, simulations and engineering.
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Comfort, terrain lines and communication are all designed for the intensity of the unexpected.
“Often in control rooms, acoustics and lighting are an issue when operators are there for 12 to, at times, 24 hours, in the event of an emergency,” says Scott Mathews, the regional sales manager along the Gulf Coast.
Evans Consoles won NASA’s Space Flight Suppliers Award in 2006.
Sarah Offin, Global News
And while NASA is one of the company’s highest-profile contracts, Evans has clients around the world, including the Canadian military.
“A lot of public safety, 911 centers or call centers. We would also be in pipeline, chemical plant, refinery control rooms, air traffic control towers, (and) network operation centers,” Mathews said of their work.
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Over the past four decades, Evans Consoles has designed and manufactured about 14,000 control rooms worldwide, employing about 400 people from its home in Calgary.
“At one point back in 1980, the screens you would see on the consoles were the old-style CRT screens, massive computers,” Mathews recalls.
And while the technology that drives workplaces has evolved, it’s the people behind the technology that the company continues to cater to.
“The people are the constant,” Mathews said. “We need people who can think on their toes, make quick decisions – there is no time for indecision in that. So the people and the passion for the work are what remained.”
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