Page 39 - Gi flipbook August 2018

FIGURE 2: Still from video: “What to expect”

public and private, for life, for a total I realised that if I had a video that could
cost of £300 inclusive of VAT.
Shortly after my involvement in the be easily accessible to all customers
Championship Cup, I was working at a that we serve, it would not only
mains replacement scheme in Cardiff.
A resident approached me to ask why explain what we were doing more
we were in the area, as they hadn’t
received a letter. After explaining the professionally, but also free time up so
process from start to finish, which the engineer can focus on the job
took approximately five minutes, he
thanked us and returned home. This
happened five times in one day and
continued to occur for the entire DISTRIBUTION us to see how many people viewed
duration of the six week scheme. Once the videos were created, I the videos. We were able to include
I realised that if I had a video that thought about the various ways these links for who to contact and we could
could be easily accessible to all videos could be distributed. change the videos throughout the
customers that we serve, it would One way was to create a Quick scheme, for example, if an engineering
not only explain what we were doing Response (QR) code. (See Figure 3) difficulty occurred and we needed to
more professionally, but also free This is essentially a two-dimensional extend the scheme length.
time up so the engineer can focus on barcode which is read by a scanner, The second way I decided to
what they need to be doing – such as a mobile phone. When a QR distribute these videos was via a USB.
ultimately getting those customers code is scanned, that person is I thought this would be a fantastic
back on gas as soon as possible. directed to a specific website where a way of getting the videos out to the
It was at that moment I decided to video will play automatically. public as most people in my
write, produce and create a series of As we already send out letters to experience have a flat screen TV with
short videos (around five minutes each) every resident in the street, this was a a USB socket in their homes.
outlining not only what we do, but very easy add on, costing zero to set To make this happen, I used a ‘plug
how we do it and, most importantly, up. It also had the benefit of allowing and play’ format, so it would play
why we are doing it. (See Figure 2) directly after being inserted into the
television. This meant that somebody
Although the videos were created with little or no technical expertise
using the same cloud-based software FIGURE 3: Quick Response (QR) could watch the video. It is important
as before, this time I created them code for WWU to note that these USBs were
with more specific themes, including: encrypted and locked, meaning
• Who we are, what we do and why engineers and the public would
we are here require a passcode to access or
• What to expect and who to contact change any content.
directly In my experience as an engineer,
• Carbon monoxide safety and site people often ask what the new pipes
safety look like that are going to go into the
• The importance of mains ground. To answer this common
replacement and the benefits to the question, I retrofitted the USB to fit
customer directly into an existing 25mm PE offcut,

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