tps consulting

What is Operational Readiness?

2007-01-06T18:27:00-05:00

If operators find newly-built broadcast television systems unwieldy, and they are neither fully trained nor fully engaged from the project start, an investment in operational readiness was probably not made by the systems integrator or engineering teams. What is operational readiness? Why does a major new project need operational readiness? Is it critical to the success of the venture?

Exactly what is operational readiness?

To help each stakeholder be successful, tps offers a suite of operational readiness services that eases the transition from system build-out to live customers. Through operational analysis and workflow design, we help minimize costly network downtime penalties and potential overstaffing. Our work at the start of a project gets directly invested into our end-to-end operator training packages that incorporate product, signal flow and maintenance courses that give Operations staff the competency to take the reins.

tps conducts a phased approach to operational readiness. During the preliminary project design review phase our Operational Readiness Team brings together the systems integrator and engineering groups to discuss opportunities to optimize the efficiency of all subsystems. We also work with business stakeholders to make certain their goals will be met by the technology choices being made. If not, we identify the potential gaps during the design phase when changes can more economically be realized.

Our expertise and resolve become evident from the start. tps has the insight and experience to close the gaps between what the business requires and what technology is chosen to fulfill those requirements. And this experience spans across several television delivery methods, including satellite, terrestrial broadcast and telco fiber.

During this phase we also study proposed engineering concepts from an operator’s point of view to ensure maintenance engineers can more easily interact with the new systems. This detailed review and recommendation exercise leads to greater employee productivity and improved quality of service.

Detailed workflows are created during phase 2 after we interview the engineering design teams and compile all potential processes through the use of concept maps and other tools. Using standardized business process modeling, we produce logical and streamlined workflow diagrams that prepare operators to run the new systems. By referring to a visual workflow, each employee is able to see where and when they perform required tasks, and how each network group performs a sequence of events.

The tps team teaches individual job descriptions and associated duties created during our operational analysis and workflow design phases. This all-important training phase can be conducted in person or self-paced online.

There are 3 training categories that tps delivers on:

Signal Flow Training – teaching operators the end-to-end signal threads Operations Training – teaching operators how to perform their jobs as defined by the workflows Product Training – detailed instruction on hardware and software components Every operator needs all 3 facets of training or they will not be fully prepared to do their jobs. tps can create instructor-led courses as well as web-based modules that students can take at their own pace. All online courses have associated final exams that are graded electronically, with individual results rolled up into meaningful group management reports. Our services also include coordinating 3rd party vendor training to create a comprehensive training regimen.

Why does a major television project need operational readiness?

Investing in an operational readiness plan as an overlay to a major television delivery project returns the following benefits: Much more accurate staffing levels Less operator resistance and more buy-in at system handoff Less chance of over-purchasing equipment Reduction of project delays due to redesign of subsystem process flows Increased network uptime because operators are able to resolve alarms with less steps Is it critical to the success of the venture?

The tps operational readiness suite of services has been deployed by a number of leading broadcasters and DTH providers. In each case the outcome of the project scored higher marks because of our involvement. When launching an unprecedented system you want the right people around the table.

To read more about our services, please contact us to receive a copy of our Operational Readiness white paper.

Recognize The Importance Of Operators

2006-02-06T18:45:00-05:00

In a column entitled Change: The Good, The Bad and the Ugly in TVTechnology, PBS Chief Technology Integration Officer Andre V. Mendes reminds us to appreciate the broadcast operators that have to run newly-built facilities, because human interaction with the new technology is a crucial consideration in a successful venture.

In a column entitled Change: The Good, The Bad and the Ugly on www.tvtechnology.com, PBS Chief Technology Integration Officer Andre V. Mendes reminds us to appreciate the broadcast operators that have to run newly-built facilities, because human interaction with the new technology is a crucial consideration in a successful venture.

Mr. Mendes, like many others, notes that the pace of technology innovation is lightening fast, and while thrilling, it does present huge technological challenges to senior management. But also remember the people who make the technology work day in and day out. As Mr. Mendes explains:

It is not unusual that those of us with a technical background effectively become inured to the constant change. By virtue of our professions, we have to study these issues, analyze the requirements, design new workflows, finely detail the user interfaces and lay out implementation schedules. Quite often, in the midst of all this frenetic activity, we forget about our end users.

These are the often-ignored people that day after day, week after week, sit with us in conference rooms sharing every intimate detail of their current workflow as we jointly strive to remove inefficiencies brought about by years, sometimes decades, of changing business requirements.

Mr. Mendes also recognizes that managers sometimes view these end users with some apprehension:

These are the unrecognized heroes of technological implementations who, unfortunately, sometimes get branded as uncooperative and change-averse, as they struggle to understand a new operational paradigm, an unfamiliar user interface, and a whole new set of field names, acronyms, applications and ways of doing business.

We at tps have been fortunate enough to train many operators onsite at their facility, and we are almost always greeted by people eager to learn and run what the engineering teams have built. Typically there is a mix of older, more knowledgeable engineers and younger, less experienced individuals in the audience. The seasoned people are so helpful! They have seen immense change in broadcast television distribution, yet they are smart enough to know that certain underlying principles never change. These engineers are very aware that the constant business goal is to get more and more programming into a smaller and smaller pipeline, and they are rapidly learning the transition from broadcast to IP.

Usually the younger students have more of an IT background, and less broadcast experience. So they blend their formal education training with the experienced engineer’s acquired skill-set, and the new facility runs more smoothly because of this combined knowledge base.

It’s important to involve operations staff in the planning and design stages early on if the hiring schedule allows it. These new employees should definitely help write operational procedures based on the meticulous workflows, and then they must be trained fully to help make system hand-off a success. This multi-step approach to operational readinesss works well, and operators will invest their full effort if they feel part of the overall team. As Mr. Mendes insightfully states:

So, if your organization is heavily involved in a transformation, and if you recognize yourself or some of your end users in any of the previous lines, make sure at the next joint meeting to take a few moments to thank them for their help in the entire process. You may surprise or even stun them, but I am positive that they will appreciate it. And in the end, that simple acknowledgement will go a long way to ensure that your current and future projects will have a much better chance at success.

Helping Today's Broadcast Engineer Be Successful

2005-11-01T16:05:00-05:00

Here’s an insightful article from Broadcast Engineering Magazine about the required skill sets of broadcast engineers as television delivery enters the world of IP. New digital video over IP facilities require a blend of broadcast and IT experience for an operator to be successful. And the marriage of these two disciplines is hard to find in one individual.

So it’s now even more critical to completely train new technical staff on subsystems they may have had only limited interaction with. Here are some key excerpts from the article and our comments: bq. “With the increased complexity of BOC technology, it is important to be sure that the infrastructure is efficiently designed for the production workflow. Mapping of production workflows with respect to the underlying infrastructure is necessary in order to engineer an optimized system design and deployment. This will result in maximum production efficiency and an increase on ROI in infrastructure resources.” Preparing your engineering teams to operate the network will go much smoother if you have invested in efficient workflow design at the start of your project. It’s imperative to pick a technology that end operators can work with, which leads to greater acceptance and more a reliable system. bq. “If sufficient in-house expertise is not available, an option is to use experienced system integrators to design, construct and commission new digital infrastructures. Care should be exercised when relying on systems integrators. Take an active role in overall project management. And be sure that there is a sufficient transfer of knowledge to your engineering and support personnel during all project phases. A one-week training program after commissioning will not be enough.” Operator training should not be an afterthought. Design of a comprehensive education package begins on day 1 of the project. There must be thorough knowledge transfer from architects and product vendors to operators – the orchestration of training requires involvement by everyone committed to the success of the project.