Care and feeding of the network

27 Aug 2010

A broadcast network is like a living organism. It requires constant attention to meet its potential. Broadcast Australia General Manager Asset Management, Mary Werick, shares her thoughts on how targeted and focussed reinvestment can help sustain an optimised network.

Managing a complex broadcast network entails careful choices to ensure reinvestment in existing systems is optimally targeted. Broadcast Australia achieves this through a program of risk assessment. We evaluate the relative importance and vulnerability of each network component, and from this we develop project plans to direct spending where it is most needed.

According to General Manager Asset Management, Mary Werick, determining the condition of the critical pieces of equipment within the network is of key importance. "Many components are common to several services, and have the potential to cause great disruption if they fail," she said. "Power systems and transmitters are good examples of this."

Accommodating the unexpected

Once identified, these critical components have their 'heath' assessed. Statistical factors, such as age and 'mean-time-to-failure' estimates, are compared with actual performance to determine the likelihood of breakdown. This analysis enables us to prepare a 12-month program of preventive maintenance and upgrades.

"The aim is to provide optimised levels of maintenance within the right timeframe for key 'at-risk' equipment," said Mary. "Too much investment in maintenance programs will waste resources and divert them from where they are needed; too little, and we will start getting breakdowns in the network and interruption to services."

However, even with the best project plan in place, there needs to be room to accommodate the unexpected. "Often maintenance schedules are affected by weather issues. This can be an important consideration, given the remote location of some of our sites," Mary said. "Cyclones and dust storms can delay planned works, and can also cause unforeseen damage."

Finding the balance

While every effort is made to avoid outages shutdowns, fault repair remains an important part of the network management equation. "Our service teams are the same people who respond to faults," Mary said.

"Usually, emergency repairs take precedence over routine maintenance in order to preserve the quality and integrity of the broadcast services," she said. "As such, faults can cause slippage to the overall project plans, so it is important to have enough flexibility in the planning to accommodate this."

It is in Broadcast Australia's best interest, as a service provider, to get the balance right. "We have many years of experience in balancing planned maintenance and fault repair," Mary said. "We endeavour to target reinvestment to uphold the best quality of service to our clients and viewers alike, and seek to continually improve our performance as we move forward."

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