Happy 50th Birthday to the White House Situation Room

President Obama and senior staff watch the Usama bin Laden mission unfold from the Situation Room on Sunday May 1, 2011/White House Photo

At the press of a button, a window can immediately be smoke-filled to avoid peeping eyes and give the president privacy.

Sounds like a Hollywood movie, but it's actually a capability of one of the most famous rooms in the White House, The Situation Room, which turns 50 today.

In a Friday ceremony commemorating the anniversary, President Obama praised the room's capabilities.

"We could not meet the national security challenges that we face without the capabilities of this room and the people who work here," Obama said. "It's the President's eyes and ears."

The Room is located in the West Wing and serves as the fusion center for presidents in crisis. Most recently we saw the image of President Obama and his team watching the Usama bin Laden raid in real time from there.

The Situation Room was created in 1961 by the Kennedy administration, which sought have a place that could handle heavy flows of classified information. They were frustrated by the outcome and communication of the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, so President Kennedy's National Security McGeorge Bundy created the area.

Friday, Obama renamed one of the secure conference rooms for the President Kennedy.

While many details of the Room's capability remain in secret, there are a few bits of information released. The area got a major makeover in 2007 which expanded it from one conference room to three and beefed up its capability.

In a 2009 interview on the White House's website, Dupty Director Jeff Harley released these behind-the-scenes details:

*The Situation Room hosts 25 conferences a day with 250 guests, totaling about 5000 visitors a month

*The staff of the Room consists of 1/3 intelligence community 1/3 Department of Homeland Security and the rest from the U.S. Military

*The Room is "apolitical" and does not boast any political affiliation

*Staff dispatch 2000 bits of information per day and give the president three reports

*There's a phone booth that they call the "Superman tube" because it looks similar to what the action hero used, where someone can have a secure phone call

*At the press of a button, a window closing off a private area for the president can be smoke-filled and block out anyone from peering in*The Room boasts the ability to do video teleconferences with 1700 to 1800 entities around the world

*At the conference table, the president has control buttons at his fingertips*Seating around the table is done by seniority

*There's a "watch floor" where staff monitors all the communication happening

*The décor of the room is made to match the ambience and feel of both Camp David and Air Force One so that the president feels comfortable in all settings - all were designed with the same textures

*There are small breakout rooms where the president can have a one-on-one conversation with someone

*There's a "surge room" where personnel monitor everything happening in a crisis

*The name was given because staff is giving a summary so the president can make a decision on a "situation"

You can watch video of the Room here.