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Communicating
Safety
 Safety
is the foundation of business at Magnox Electric, formerly
Nuclear Electric. They place it above all other considerations
and aim to operate to the safety standards of the world's
best utilities; therefore, continuous, up-to-date, accurate
communication with the staff is paramount.
To achieve
this, Magnox stations, who pioneered the commercial use of
nuclear power in the 1960s and continue to help supply much
of the country's base-load electricity needs, have just installed
a state of the art Magnox Station Information System at Dungeness
'A'. This derivative of the Interchange Corporate Information
System has been so successful since its inception that it
has now attracted interest from other Magnox Stations, including
Berkeley, Wylfa, Hinkley and Oldbury.
Peter
Coe, from Dungeness 'A's Business Development team, explains
why they have implemented such a system. "The staff had
called for improved communication in the last attitude survey
we carried out and the new system is part of the station's
response to that request. The station did have a system in
place but it was very unreliable and inflexible.
Interchange's
system, because of its more up-to-date and open system technology,
has many technical advantages and should be far more robust
than the old one. I chose Interchange because, after an extensive
search of the market place, Interchange were the only company
I could find that could offer a full technical solution, installation
and project management ability, after sales support and a
proven track record. And so far they have fulfilled all their
promises."
Further
confidence in the Interchange System was demonstrated by Gordon
Ashley, Head of Business. "Co-operation on design, installation
and support was impressive. You listen to your customers."
Peter
explains how the system works; "Information is sent out
as attention grabbing text overlaying a striking set of graphics
to increase the general impact! We have an electronic base
of 60,000 pictures as well as the company photographic library's
index of 700 pictures on CD ROM and any of these can be selected
quickly and easily and incorporated into the system. We can
also put conventional photographs and hard copy pictures into
the system via a scanner. The system is based around a central
editing facility which enables these images to be transformed
into attractive and informative broadcast quality graphics
with the addition of a range of text fonts and colours, then
scheduled to show when and where required".
Nadine
Crook and Heidi Ashdown, System Operators said, "Picture
quality is excellent. The main system is easy to use and emergency
messaging is even easier"; sentiments which were reinforced
by Mike Shannon, Head of Maintenance when he stated, "Quality
is excellent. Versatility and ease of use mean we are finding
more and more ways of using it."
Peter
Coe continues: "We use it to process different types
of information of various categories. These are then broadcast
at specific times of the day over two separate channels".
"In the canteen, at lunchtime, for instance, we have
one screen carrying the main news which includes station information,
corporate information, health and safety, industry news, social
events, internal job vacancies, etc., while the other screen
shows visitor welcomes, menus, etc.
The Reception
area would generally show different information from that
being shown in the workplace.Two other channels are available
for future requirements. Their uses could include the broadcast
of live presentations from our main conference room, training
rooms or canteen and could be linked, if required, to our
existing Video Conferencing suite, enabling broadcast across
the site to all, or selected, TV locations. Another use may
be the showing of company videos for training, or just for
general interest."
"At
the moment our system is run and controlled by our administration
section, but we have just appointed a dedicated communications
officer from Personnel who will be responsible for further
developments."
"The
system is based on standard television technology, which means
that extra TV locations can be added very easily and cost
effectively, and extra channels can be added with no infrastructure
change at all. TVs are also comparatively cheap, reliable,
of proven technology, easy to operate and an acceptable viewing
medium for everyone".
The system
can also pick up normal terrestrial or satellite TV stations
and teletext. World News, sport, weather, share prices and
financial information all go out on the Station Information
screens for five minutes at a time, over fifteen minute intervals
during lunchtime, with no operator intervention. Four channels
of information are distributed to 14 TV screens around the
site using single cable technology.
Another
feature of the system is its ability to broadcast real time
data. This is used very effectively by Magnox, automatically
broadcasting the current mega-watt output on a regular basis
to all screens across the site, keeping staff fully aware
of their achievements.
In the
unlikely event of an emergency, information on all channels
can be overwritten by emergency messages. This feature was
used to good effect in a recent emergency exercise and received
a glowing endorsement from the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate.
Graham Moore, Emergency Preparedness Engineer, commented:
"The ease of use and clarity of the emergency messaging
makes it ideal for unambiguous communication to all site personnel
in a timely fashion."
Peter
Coe continues: "The system is modular: which means we
have been able to add the next stage, to bring the same information
to the desktop. This has been achieved by the integration
of Interchange's new InStaNet System".
"This
allows the Editor to select and schedule graphical information
in the same way as is currently used for the TVs. PCs receive
the information over the existing IT network and are viewed
as a screen saver. However, if the recipient does not want
to wait for the screen saver to activate, then the program
can be fired up like any other. Apart from the obvious advantage
of access to all PC users, we now have a consistent screen
saver that is interesting, acceptable to all and serves a
useful purpose. InStaNet is a very low cost way of effectively
distributing information to staff that have or are close to
a Windows based PC screen".
"Should
we, in the future, wish to offer Information on Demand to
our employees via an Intranet, our Station Information System
is Intranet ready. From either a PC or a TV screen, employees
will be able to click on the 'more information' icon on screen
and immediately access the relevant Intranet/Internet Web
page".
Peter
concludes:
"These
options may seem futuristic, but if we are to attain our objectives
we must consider all the uses technology brings and make use
of them when applicable. We are happy with the system's performance
and believe that staff appreciate the effort which has gone
into keeping them abreast of station and corporate news by
use of the most up-to-date technology. The Station Information
System does, and will, continue to play a big part in our
future Employee Communications strategy".
The last
word goes to Ray Jepps, Head of Services; "The flexibility
of the system is most impressive, It will enable us to do
things we haven't done before."
 Copyright
2001 - 2008 Interchange Group Limited - All Rights Reserved
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