By Oiva Angula
22 June 2015
A team of Telecom engineers and technicians successfully implemented for the Namibia Airports Company (NAC) a Flight Information Display System (FIDS) over the Telecom Namibia network at Ondangua airport recently.
The new system became fully functional Thursday, June 18. The FIDS monitors – 22 in all - are located at prime locations within the terminal: front and back lobby areas, baggage claim, The Landing Café (restaurant).
FID distributes real-time information that covers all areas of the airport, including check-in, baggage and boarding gate displays, and weather forecasts—as well as entertainment and advertising content. All this information is controlled through FIDS Display Server and distributed all over the airport.
According to project manager Gustav Jung, the project was implemented on very short notice and within the time frame that NAC had set out with their European supplier.
Jung said the team worked tirelessly to get the FIDS server connected to the FIDS screens over the Telecom multi-service access node (MSAN) and passive optical network (PON) at the airport.
“After NAC’s approval at 17h00 on 12 June to execute the work we mobilised five persons to attend to the task. It meant getting two persons to Ondangua very fast who had to be supported from Windhoek and two technicians at Ondangua,” Jung explained.
The team consisted of Olrik Just for design and trouble shooting, Grace Kashima and Aune Hendrick for implementation, as well as Barnabas Murangi and Joseph So-oabeb for the copper network.
Our partner XON System Namibia also played their part in configuring the firewalls.
“Good news is always good. Well done to the team,” said acting MD Theo Klein, adding that the challenge is to be able to support the NAC, without excluding the assistance of partners like XON.
Klein further said that he is hopeful that a good partnership can be established with NAC for WiFi and mobile coverage at airports.
Jung said the NAC management has been notified of the urgency to enter into agreement with Telecom Namibia in being their partner for operational matters as well the provision of new services.