Yesterday, one of our Master Craftsmen, Sam VanDalfsen, and I, went to do some custom installation work for Angel of the Winds Casino in Arlington, WA. (Angel of the Winds has been working with us for the past year on their new surveillance technologies project and business expansion, a project that our customer North American Video is a big part of.)
While we were there, things went very well. Sam was there to get the automated DVR failover system installed and working. This is a multi-day project, so we knew that no matter what happened on the first day, we have plenty of time to get the required work done. Airship Failover works by connecting with the analog video matrix to switch video signals from a troubled DVR to a standby DVR.
Well here's the big story: Sam got done. It worked as far as it needed to for the first day of work. The operation to switch analog camera signals to the standby DVR took about 7.6 seconds, within spec for 24 channel failover. Sam had some spare time and says, "Hey, should I work on making it go faster right now?" Naturally, I said, "Sure!" Faster is always better, especially when were talking about switching live video signals. We talked about any risks associated with making it go faster. None. And so Sam got to work. When he was done it was switching all 24 signals in under 2 seconds.
So, the next time your technology vendor is on site and seems to not be working diligently, ask them to make that new thing they just got working to work faster. Make 'em sweat. Tell them this story. Tell them that faster is better and then ask hard questions.
by Gryphon MacThoy


