Controlling the CERN Experimental Area Beams

The CERN fixed target experimental areas are composed of more than 8 km of beam lines with around 800 devices used to define and monitor the beam parameters. Each year more than 140 groups of users come to perform experiments in these areas, with a need to control and access the data from these devices. The software to allow this therefore has to be simple and robust, and be able to control and read out all types of beam devices. This contribution describes the functionality of the beam line control system, CESAR, and its evolution. This includes all the features that can be used by the beam line physicists, operators, and device experts that work in the experimental areas. It also underlines the flexibility that the software provides to the experimental users for control of their beam line, allowing them to manage this in a very easy and independent way. This contribution also covers the on-going work of providing MAD-X support to CESAR to achieve an easier way of integrating beam optics. An overview of the on-going software migration of the Experimental Areas is also given.