  The LHCb experiment at CERN is currently completing its first big data taking
campaign at the LHC started in 2009. It has been collecting data at more than
2.5 times its nominal design luminosity value and with a global efficiency of
~92%. Even more striking, the efficiency between online and offline recorded
luminosity, obtained by comparing the data quality output, is close to 99%,
which highlights how well the detector, its data acquisition system and its
control system have been performing despite much harsher and more variable
conditions than initially foreseen. In this paper, the excellent performance of
the LHCb experiment will be described, by transversally tying together the
timing and data acquisition system, the software trigger, the real-time
calibration and the shifters interaction with the control system. Particular
attention will be given to their real-time aspects, which allow performing an
online reconstruction that is at the same performance level as the offline one
through a real-time calibration and alignment of the full detector. In
addition, the various solutions that have been chosen to operate the experiment
safely and synchronously with the various phases of the LHC operations will
also be shown. In fact, the quasi-autonomous control system of the LHCb
experiment is the key to explain how such a large detector can be operated
successfully around the clock by a pool of ~300 non-expert shifters. Finally, a
critical review of the experiment will be presented in order to justify the
reasons for a major upgrade of the detector.
