Gatwick Becomes Poster Child For Digital Signage Failover Planning

August 20, 2018 by Dave Haynes

A damaged connectivity cable has taken the flight information display boards offline at London Gatwick Airport today, forcing airport staff to – honest – get out the dry erase markers and scribble information on whiteboards.

As an industry friend noted, having sent me news of this: “They seem to have forgotten all about the enterprise standards of Local Data / Fail over – Back-up systems / Independent internet connections on mission critical applications …”

Indeed.

Somebody in airport IT, or an exec who didn’t listen to the IT people, is due for a world-class version of what the Brits call a “bollocking.”

Hat Tip to the poor souls doing what they can. I’d assume if this happened at a hellpit of an airport like LaGuardia or Newark, somebody would just put a pillow in front of their face and read completely un-hearable updates into the public address system.

Due to damage to a Vodafone fibre optic cable, we are continuing to display our flight info manually. Contingencies are working – we have whiteboards and friendly staff on hand to help, and tens of thousands of passengers have departed on time. Apologies for any inconvenience.

— London Gatwick LGW (@Gatwick_Airport) August 20, 2018

#GatwickAirport @Gatwick_Airport’s passenger flight information details; most of which state ‘boarding’. pic.twitter.com/YJ6drqM35o

— 999 London (@999London) August 20, 2018

https://twitter.com/bigbob25a/status/1031494971336151041

https://twitter.com/mrnaughtynige/status/1031479007982899200