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I struggle a little to see how there is a single point of failure here (a fibre optic cable). I’d have thought the screens were powered by a device plugged into a LAN. Would be interested if anyone knows the architecture of such screens and why there is such a single point of failure in the whole airport.
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Also, the full-manual solution of having whiteboards on standby covers a much broader spectrum of failures.
As well as a whiteboard on standby, you also need 1 person per whiteboard to keep them updated. In an airport as big as gatwick, you probably can't get away with anything less than ~10 whiteboards (5 per terminal). Which means 10 people. Not many companies have 10 spare people on site ready to act as emergency whiteboardmen.
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Whats wrong with that? It seems to have worked. Sure not ideal, but better than canceling flights and shutting down the airport.
Obviously it’s better than shutting down the airport. But is it better than the alternatives Someone1234 proposed? That was the question.
Distantly related but when I was in Europe decades ago I was at a train station where they had a massive split-flap display ( I want to say at a couple places ). I loved watching it update. Aesthetically it was so much better than big super bright screens.
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Same. That is a really poorly worded headline.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden-path_sentence
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What you're looking for is called a Solari Board, there's some mesmerising videos of them around, and a few places still have them!
The main international terminal at Auckland airport still had a huge Solari board until just a few years ago (~2012). Sadly, they had to go digital in the end due to spare parts becoming difficult to source. According to Wikipedia, there are still some airports (eg Frankfurt) and many rail stations that still have them in active service.
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What you're looking for is called a Solari Board, there's some mesmerising videos of them around, and a few places still have them!
There's a company in the US that will make you one/rent you one, you can even control it via API. They sound really cool too.. I think I need to expense one for my office! https://www.oatfoundry.com/split-flap/
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Perhaps they could have gone with a connectivity vendor with an extensive 4G network for backup if the (inexplicably) non-redundant fixed line was cut.
They're with Vodafone who has that.
I struggle a little to see how there is a single point of failure here (a fibre optic cable). I’d have thought the screens were powered by a device plugged into a LAN. Would be interested if anyone knows the architecture of such screens and why there is such a single point of failure in the whole airport.
According to this they have just finished rebuilding their network... https://www.computerweekly.com/news/252441044/Gatwick-Airpor...
[Gatwick has launched an app] for internal staff at the airport, such as shop assistants, baggage handlers and train station employees. ... He says the need for the app stems from some passengers entering “panic mode” and expecting to get flight information from anyone who appears to work at the airport. They may approach an employee in a non-passenger-facing department who has no more information than they do. ... “Passengers sometimes get more information from Twitter and Facebook feeds than from staff on the ground,” says Chacko.
“This is an attempt to bridge that communication gap and make everyone look smarter and more up to date.”
I wonder how well it worked today
https://www.computerweekly.com/news/4500269843/Gatwicks-Airp...
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These screens build information from multiple sources inc. airlines, ground control, and in some cases airport management. They're typically run off-site at a data center since that provides high resiliency and some data is sourced from outside the airport anyway. If the airport has a dedicated fiber channel between their data center and airport itself and it was damaged, this could be the result. The question I'd as…
> why they have no fallback strategies They do. It's the whiteboards. Whiteboards are cheap, resilient and robust. Exactly what one wants for a backup.
But why does the data link itself have no fallback? An important data link should have multiple dissimilar backups.