There is a great download on the ABC website interviewing three controllers
working at Brisbane Center. The interview is 50min and well worth a listen.
Even ASD-B gets a mention.
http://www.abc.net.au/queensland/conversations/stories/s2006984.htm
Here's an extract of the synopsis of the program:
Air Traffic Controllers - Tim, Katrina and Neil
Last Update: Thursday, August 16, 2007. 3:16pm AEST
Most people look at the sky and see a big blue open space but the people who
control our aircraft and airports see it differently. To their eyes, the sky
is a network of regions and sectors with levels and pathways. Katrina
Gleave, Tim Rees and Neil Hall are air traffic controllers. In their work, a
flock of birds could spell disaster and a storm is not a storm, but a
'potential conflict'. We trust these people with our lives each time we get
in a plane.
Katrina and Tim work from the Brisbane Centre, which controls air traffic in
Australia's Northern Region. Contrary to the common perception of
controllers working only in towers with extensive views, Katrina describes
the room where she works as 'the dungeon'. "It's not underground - it's just
a vast room, set up with rows of consoles where controllers sit and work.
Occasionally, I look out the window and see a tree, not a plane."
Modern surveillance technologies provide information required to track
aircraft that may be travelling vast distances from the control centre. The
data is available on-screen so physical visibility isn't necessary.
What controllers see on their screens is a computer interpretation of what
the radar receives. It is represented by shapes such as crosses, triangles
and squares. Neil explains, "Those things mean different types of
surveillance. It might mean radar is the surveillance being used, or it
might mean we're using satellite surveillance".
Cheers,
Mark
