Beyond the Bullpen: Rethinking Layouts for the Modern PSAP and ECC

Project Planning

For years, most public safety layouts have lived inside a familiar box: straight runs, 90-degree pods, and bullpens built around the shapes console workstations could realistically support. Those layouts work well in many centers, but they’ve also become the default answer to challenges that often have more to do with space, sightlines, and technology than furniture itself.

Odd room footprints. Columns in the wrong place. Growing monitor arrays. Shared spaces that need to flex. Centers have been solving these constraints with workarounds for decades, adjusting the room to accommodate what the furniture would allow.

The problem isn't that they're wrong, they've just been the only options on the table.

Apollo changes that equation. With three top shapes, Linear, Corner, and Wing, and a monitor array designed to adjust to the work, planning no longer has to start with “what will fit.” It can start with what the room needs to do.

The Bullpen Default

Most of us recognize the classic public safety look immediately: long linear rows or 90-degree pods grouped into bullpens. These configurations became common because they were efficient, repeatable, and supported the technology of the time.

They weren’t chosen because they were always ideal for every room. They were chosen because they were available.

Over time, those shapes became the starting point for planning, even as rooms, workflows, and technology evolved. The result is a familiar tension: a space that functions, but only after compromises, adjustments, and careful choreography.

Why Shape Matters More Than It Seems

Workstation shape influences more than how a floor plan looks on paper; it affects how an ECC operates.

Layout impacts sightlines between operators, supervisor visibility across the floor, circulation paths, aisle widths, and how easily teams move during shift changes. It affects monitor visibility, shared awareness, and how screens relate to walls, windows, and lighting.

Even the emotional tone of a room is shaped by layout. Tight corners, awkward angles, or forced alignments can add difficulty or slow operations in subtle ways. Calm, clarity, and order often come down to whether the space feels intentional or inherited.

Layout isn’t aesthetics. It’s operations.

Before Apollo: Limited Options, Predictable Outcomes

Historically, planners had two primary tools. Linear consoles created clean, efficient rows and maximized density. Corner consoles formed familiar bullpen-style pods that supported collaboration while maintaining personal space.

Both are excellent tools. But when those are the only tools available, the room is forced to comply. Columns dictate odd breaks. Shared rooms resist neat rows. Growth becomes a puzzle. Monitor walls demand specific distances and angles. Glare, viewing height, and screen count start influencing layout decisions more than workflow does. The furniture leads. The room follows.

Apollo Expands the Playbook

Apollo enhances function, keeps the shapes that work, and adds one that changes the conversation.

Linear remains the go-to for organized runs and multi-position centers where density and clarity matter. It’s clean, efficient, and still essential.

Corner (90°) continues to support classic bullpens and pod-based team structures. It works naturally near walls and corners and supports togetherness without crowding.

Wing (120°) expands what's practical.

Because Apollo’s footprint is more compact and the shapes are designed to work seamlessly together, Wing positions can flex into more rooms without demanding extra square footage. It supports angled and curved layouts, improves sightlines, and helps solve irregular footprints without forcing rigid geometry. Pods don’t have to be perfect squares. Circulation can feel more natural. The room feels less boxed in.

Corner and Wing shapes together also create new opportunities for back-to-back runs. Subtle angles introduce a greater sense of individual space without sacrificing density. Operators gain visual separation. Teams gain flexibility. The room stays efficient without feeling compressed.

Most importantly, Linear, Corner, and Wing aren’t separate systems. They’re designed to mix and match. A center can combine them within the same floor plan, responding to workflow, visibility, and footprint constraints without compromise.

Monitor Walls Without One “Perfect” Layout

In the past, monitor walls often dictated everything. Console placement, viewing distance, and even aisle spacing were driven by the assumption that a shared wall needed to be visible, relevant, and dominant at all times.

Apollo loosens that grip. Because monitor arrays can be lowered and adjusted at the console, shared screens don’t have to carry the same weight every hour of every shift. A monitor wall can be central during high-volume moments, then fade into the background when individual work takes priority.

That flexibility allows teams to design for both conditions: spaces where shared awareness matters, and moments where personal focus matters more. The wall doesn’t disappear, but it no longer dictates the entire layout.

What Becomes Possible

When console shape stops being the constraint, new options emerge.

Free-standing positions can support unique roles without forcing a full row. Linear, Wing, and Corner consoles can coexist in the same space, responding to different needs within one room. Wing consoles can form triangular three-packs, creating compact pods that support communication without boxing people in. Supervisor visibility improves without towering platforms or awkward barriers.

Instead of one dominant geometry, the space becomes a system of related parts, each responding to workflow, technology, and visibility needs. The question shifts from "how do we make this work?" to "how do we want this to run?"

Not One New Layout, But More Confidence

The future of public safety planning isn’t a single best configuration. It’s having the confidence to plan around real constraints, real workflows, and real growth.

Apollo doesn’t prescribe one answer. It offers options. It gives centers the flexibility to shape rooms around how the work actually happens today, and how it may change tomorrow.

Beyond the bullpen isn’t about abandoning what works. It’s about expanding what’s possible when the people come first.