It co-ordinates all activities on the apron taking into account the flight schedule, special request of airport customers, and safety requirements. A group of operators works together, each of them able to work on all different subtasks. The work is characterised by information exchange, using telephone lines and radio links and access to databases of flight schedules and recorded events. Hence, the task analysis concentrated on information flow and information needs. The centralised control rooms of large industrial plants have separated people from the processes they should control.
Perception is restricted mainly to the visual sense.
Only telephone or radio links provide narrow-band voice communication with maintenance personnel down in the plant. Multimedia equipment can perceptionally bring back the operator into the plant while bodily keeping him the comfortable and safe control room. This involves video and audio transmission from process components as well as sights and sounds artificially generated from measurements. Groupware systems support inter-action between operators, engineers, and managers in different plants. Multimedia periphery includes video and teleconferencing equipment and a vibration and sound generation system.