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| AT ALTON TOWERS…
Theme Park’s latest attraction is called ‘Genesis’! |
Alton Towers, the UK’s leading theme park, has
installed the Genesis and associated ConferenceCall paging
systems from Call-Systems Technology (CST) at the Alton
Towers Hotel and Splash Landings family resort hotel and
throughout the Park.
The Genesis system allows duty management to communicate
with any of the technical staff, hotel porters, housekeeping
staff and litter-pickers throughout the 500-acre park.
It uses alphanumeric (messaging) pagers carried by most
attendant staff, and displays an 80-character text message
explaining where they are needed at any given instant.
Fully networked, Genesis can be accessed from any PC
workstation in the hotel. It can potentially handle almost
a thousand pagers concurrently, but Alton Towers uses
up to 70 – still a substantial number.
Previously the Park and Hotel were using an older-generation
bleeper system that required paged staff to call the central
office direct.
Installing the new systems has made a dramatic difference
to efficiency, says Simon Nathan, IT Project Manager at
Alton Towers. The Park opened almost 25 years ago, and
has grown steadily, in both area and complexity. When
the hotel opened in 1996 the existing paging system was
just coping, but it was inefficient and had reception
blackspots, he says.
Once the new Splash Landings themed holiday hotel opened
alongside last year, it was clear the whole system needed
replacing. Alton Towers prided itself on fast response
by staff to guests’ needs. With the Genesis system
in place response times are now faster, and fewer staff
are needed to meet the guests’ requirements.
“I chose the Genesis system because it offered
not only broad functionality, but very good flexibility
and coverage”, said Simon Nathan. “And it
can grow with us, and accommodate changes we make in our
messaging needs”.
Alton Towers is unique in its layout and theme. Set in
a valley in rural Staffordshire, much of the site has
been sculpted out of hillsides; there are numerous hollows
that do a superb job of preserving the glorious landscape
but make it hard for older-generation paging systems to
cover the 500-acre park properly.
“Installation turned out to be relatively simple,
and coverage by the system of the whole park was very
good”, says Bruce McNair of CST. “We mounted
the main mast on the Alton Towers Hotel 4th floor, which
is actually quite low down because of the way the hotel
is built into the hillside. And we found it covered almost
the whole of the park. A small and discreet additional
transmitter mounted on the side of the old Alton Towers
ruin filled in a small blackspot. Setup for the entire
system was accomplished in two days.”
Another key advantage of Genesis for Simon Nathan was
its scope for growth and expandability. Not only can it
handle up to 999 pagers, but it also has the potential
to embrace new forms of messaging in the future as they
become viable, something that the older system could not
handle.
Bruce McNair cites several extra benefits of Genesis:
“Getting the exact message to staff instantly improves
service times for the guests and saves valuable time for
a busy reception desk”, he says.
“Genesis has a full management reporting facility,
and logs all messages sent from the PC network, telephone
paging unit, ConferenceCall buttons and alarm interfaces.
This gives very effective management data, it tells you
who your most efficient staff are and it highlights areas
of strength and weakness.”
Not only is Genesis the most flexible and efficient comms
package available, Bruce McNair adds, but it also allows
users to automate their site’s facilities management.
For example, it monitors intruder alarms, distress alarms
and fire alarms, and instantly alerts relevant staff of
any problems.
Genesis is compatible with standard Windows software
and makes it easy to communicate with staff anywhere in
an organisation. This can be either on-site – using
vibrating alerts, tone alerts or text messages to pagers,
DECT handsets and 2-way radios – or off-site by,
for example, SMS messages to mobile phones. When interfaced
to the hotel’s switchboard, preset messages can
also be sent to personnel from any telephone on or off
site.
Alton Towers also installed ConferenceCall, CST’s
system for allowing conference organisers to summon the
conference staff to the conference halls or syndicate
rooms as required. ConferenceCall features a compact,
attractive tabletop box with up to five call-buttons.
Conference guests simply press a button representing the
service they require. This sends a pager alert to the
relevant member (or members) of staff. Because it is wireless,
ConferenceCall is very easy to install and there are no
intrusive cables to worry about.
At Alton Towers CST has linked in ConferenceCall with the main Genesis
installation, so that a single button-press can summon appropriate
staff directly, with full logging of response times and all the
other advantages of the full Genesis system. |
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Call-Systems Technology Ltd, Middlesex House, 29-45 High Street, Edgware, Middlesex HA8 7UU |
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