A control room is staffed around the clock by operators who need the right licence, and it is judged on what it did when something happened. BOOK ON rosters CCTV operators by shift with their public space surveillance licences tracked to expiry, gives the operators the live monitor, the Monitor Location map and the alarm desk to work from, records every action against the user who took it, and produces the permission, log and history reports an auditor or a client asks for.
What a CCTV control room needs
Licensed operators
Operating CCTV to monitor the public is licensable; operators need a public space surveillance (CCTV) licence. BOOK ON holds it as its own licence category and lists it in the renewal queue with a manual review status where a CCTV licence needs a human decision.
Continuous rota
Operator shifts run 24 hours; the roster copies patterns forward, the officer roster shows each operator’s week, and the seven-day consecutive-work alert catches fatigue.
Screens to work from
The live monitor for officers on site, the Monitor Location map, the manager dashboard for late arrivals and event reports, and the alarm control centre for response contracts.
Who did what
Every shift event stores the user who created it; history, log and permission reports show changes, logins and what each role can see.
Operators who are also lone workers
A single operator overnight is a lone worker; the same check calls and Alone filter apply.
Client reporting
Calls, events and alarm reports show the client what the control room handled and how quickly.
A control room shift in BOOK ON
- The operator books on; their shift and licence status show on the live monitor’s SIA filter.
- The operator works the live monitor: book-ons, check calls, patrols and daily occurrence entries from officers on site.
- Late arrivals and event reports from officers are reviewed on the manager dashboard.
- On response contracts, alarms are handled in the alarm control centre with the SLA clock running.
- Handover tasks and tickets pass open items to the next operator.
- The operator books off; log and history reports hold the record of the shift’s actions.
Built around UK CCTV compliance
Public space surveillance is a licensable activity under the Private Security Industry Act 2001, so operators’ CCTV licences are held and tracked like any licence. BS 7958, the code of practice for CCTV management and operation, expects records of operators on duty, of incidents observed and of who accessed the system; BOOK ON’s book-on records, typed events, log reports and permission reports provide that evidence, and ICO guidance on video surveillance and UK GDPR expectations on access and audit are supported by roles, sessions and permission reports. Where the control room also runs alarm response, the alarm module’s SLA and outcome records apply.
CCTV and control rooms on BOOK ON at a glance
| Need | BOOK ON screen or report |
|---|---|
| CCTV licences | Officer record licence category, SIA Licence Expiry tables, renewal queue |
| Operator rota | Client roster, officer roster, consecutive-work alert |
| Operator screens | Live monitor, Monitor Location, manager dashboard, alarm control centre |
| Audit trail | History, System Log, Log Report for Staff Logins, Shift Logs, Permission report |
| Access control | Roles, groups and permissions, sessions |
| Handover | Handover tasks and tickets |
| Client reporting | Calls report, Events report, alarm reports |
CCTV and control room questions
Does BOOK ON display camera feeds?
No. BOOK ON is the workforce and operations system beside the video wall: who is on duty, what they recorded, what alarms they handled and the audit trail.
Can I limit what each operator can see?
Yes. Roles and groups in administration set access per screen, and permission reports show the result.
How do I prove who was on duty when an incident was observed?
Book-on records and the Log Report for Staff Logins show who was on and logged in; typed events carry the user who created them.
Can the control room cover several clients?
Yes. The live monitor and reports filter by client and site, and alarm reports run per client.
Does it handle operators’ SIA renewals?
The renewal queue lists CCTV licences with their next action and flags the ones needing manual review; the training provider tabs track operators due for training.
Can a managed control room service use it for other companies’ officers?
Officers from subcontractors are registered as sub officers and appear on the live monitor and reports like employees.
Related pages
See a control room shift on the demo
We roster an operator, work the live monitor and alarm desk, and pull the log reports at the end.