All of the solutions thus far are terrific, and I heartily endorse both the purchasing of really, REALLY nice furniture and the installation of as much free food and caffeinated (and non-caffeinated!) beverage solutions as possible to support the staff. Also, pack a storage room with some simple folding cots, surplus Army blankets, and washable pillows: during multi-day emergency response ops (we did one a few years ago for a snowstorm), the ability to tap out and take a nap for a bit will be highly prized. Remember to provide space for said nap, (optionally) earplugs/eye-masks for getting to sleep, and a laundry service to make sure everything gets sanitized after use.

Something that I considered quite intelligent for the secure monitoring facilities at work was the use of electronically-tintable glass for all of the viewing windows into the SOC. There will be times when your staff are working frantically on an emergency just as a tour group is coming through, and the last thing you want is anyone worrying about what's visible and what isn't and whether any of that is sensitive. It's far easier for the tour guide to see the red light next to the door and the glass tinted and explain that the SOC is in lockdown right now than it is to explain why an employee is viewing hacker sites with porn popups in order to snag extra information on the current worm.

Another good step was the installation of a large conference room right next to the SOC, with a full videoconferencing solution built into the room and table. When the excrement hits the spinning blades, one of the first things the executives like to do is open a bridge call to keep everyone updated. By making the videoconference (with individual mics at each seat at the boardroom table) in a room adjacent to the SOC *but not actually inside it,* the SOC employees are free to continue working without listening to the executive blather, but are easily able to pop out to the conference room and update the execs or just jump on the call from their desks to pass in update information. Even just a separate large conference room with a board-room table, speaker phones, and a projector/videoconference system (I like an HDTV with cable feed and a Mac mini with a good mic and camera for a quick solution) would be fine.

Finally, since you mentioned monitoring physical security systems like fire and patrols, you should look at some of the Radio-to-VoIP gateway solutions out there. That will enable field techs and patrol officers to communicate easily with the SOC without requiring separate radio comms setups, and you'll be able to write scripts to automatically notify them of issues by sending text-to-speech updates via their radios.

Terrific! A little hacking, and you can follow the status of my junk on Twitter directly. That oughta save me some typing.

Rands suggests the FriendDA for approaching friends about ideas without requiring an entire, legally-vetted NDA. His post about it can be found on his blog, but the long and short of it is a short agreement that your friend signs agreeing not to screw you over by stealing your idea.