C2P - The end of cryptic safety panels

Thobias Ernfridsson, CTO at Consilium stands at a table in Consilium’s lab, unveiling the company’s newest creation, C2P – a control panel built on the same grey, Lego-like components that formed the backbone of its predecessor, CCP. 

“It’s the same modular system and building blocks,” he says. “The difference lies in how people use it, and how it communicates with them.” 

C2P is the brain of Consilium’s new safety systems. It links detectors, alarms, and networks on ships and buildings, monitoring and controlling them in real time. Its updated interface and design prepare it for a digital, connected future. 

“We built the platform around usability,” Thobias says. “When you’re about to invest heavily in a new panel, you should aim high and make something excellent. With C2P, we’re setting a new standard, one that anyone can understand.” 

He challenges convention: “Fire safety has focused on the technical side, how systems work, how quickly they respond. Too little attention has been paid to how information reaches the person behind the panel.” 

This new focus guided the development of C2P. The traditional clutter of buttons and lights has been replaced by a 10-inch touchscreen with clear, colour-coded menus that direct user attention in any environment. 

Thobias is especially proud of the panel’s restraint: “Anyone can show lots of information,” he says. “What’s really hard is showing just the one thing you need, a single red blip, an exact location, and plain instructions.” 

He continues, “You don’t need the temperature of 200 detectors. You need one clear alarm and simple text: Where is it, and what do I do?” 

Experience shaped that view. “Think of a ship’s engine room,” Thobias says. “You’ve got a thousand other systems around you. The fire alarm should never add confusion. When it speaks, it has to be clear.” 

He points to another setting: a hotel receptionist unfamiliar with fire alarms. “When an alarm sounds, they need immediate clarity, without codes or manuals, just a clear message explaining what’s happening and what to do”. 

Achieving clarity was intentional. Consilium expanded the design process to include diverse expertise. 

“I’m an engineer,” Thobias says. “I like square boxes and clear text. Honestly, I had no problem with our old display. But when we brought in people who study how the brain handles information, that changed everything.” 

One of them is Julia Burgén, User Experience Designer at Consilium. Before joining the company, she worked as a researcher at RISE, Research Institutes of Sweden, where she took part in a large EU project that aimed at improving fire safety on RoRo ships. 

“We studied how people perceive alarms, what happens under stress and what helps them act faster,” she says.” That project was insightful for my design approach. You can’t just make something look nice; you have to make sure the right information appears at the right time.” 

For C2P, she and her innovation team spent a lot of time testing, analysing, and shaping a user interface meant to change how people use fire alarm systems.” Revolutionise might be too strong,” she says, “but it will definitely move things forward.” 

Clarity, Julia says, comes from removing the unnecessary. “The worst case is when you need a manual to understand the screen,” she says. “We’ve simplified the navigation and structure, and used a visual language – symbols, colours and buttons that guide attention.” 

Those choices save time and prevent confusion.  

“Sometimes it’s just seconds,” she says. “But in a critical situation, that’s everything. You see what’s happening and know what to do.” 

Still, some things can´t be changed. “Much of what we do is defined by rules, how signals look, how fast they blink, and what timings are allowed. We can’t rewrite the standards, but we’ve changed how users meet the system.” 

C2P shares its design logic with SMiG, Consilium’s cloud-based platform for monitoring and guidance. Together, they provide customers with a unified view of safety data across ships and facilities.  

“If you know one, you recognise the other.” That familiarity helps people stay calm, and that’s what good design should do, says Julia.” 

C2P is designed with cybersecurity at its core. It uses encrypted communication and controlled data flows to protect every signal. Alarms can reach control rooms, tablets, or phones, always through secure channels. 

Connectivity, however, also brings risks. Thobias acknowledges this. “As safety systems become connected, they also become targets,” he says. “We build C2P for that reality. It must be safe all the way.” 

The birth of C2P highlights a bigger challenge for the safety industry: regulatory frameworks have not kept pace with how people actually use technology.  

“Our field is driven by rules, and that’s part of the challenge,” says Thobias. “The regulators need to focus more on how users absorb information.” 

He explains that the standards focus on system behaviour. 

“Historically, the focus has been on how the system functions, on timings, delays, and when the bells start ringing. But there’s very little about how information should be presented, or how people understand it,” he continues.  

“We should work towards clearer guidelines and more standardisation.” 

Looking ahead, Thobias sees C2P as a turning point. “A decade from now, people will see this as the moment the industry moved away from unclear, overloaded information,” he says.  

“We’re not alone in doing it, but we’re early. And we’re doing it best. With C2P, we’re setting the standard for what a modern fire or gas alarm panel should be.”