New season of Dr Who starts filming with new doctor Peter Capaldi taking the reins

Series 8 of the hit British TV series ‘Doctor Who’ has officially started production in Cardiff, Wales. This series will feature the first adventures of the new lead actor, Peter Capaldi, a prospect that has fans of the series very excited.

The show, which debuted in 1963, has starred 12 actors as the titular Doctor. Capaldi, a lifelong fan of the series, is to be the 13^th (although he will be recognized as the 12^th within the show’s storyline). Said Capaldi of the show, “I was five when the show started. I don’t remember Doctor Who not being part of my life, and it became a part of growing up, along with The Beatles, National Health spectacles, and fog. And it runs deep. It’s in my DNA…”

The character of the Twelfth Doctor briefly appeared in the 50^th anniversary special ‘The Day of the Doctor’ last November and officially debuted on Christmas Day 2013 in the episode ‘The Time of the Doctor’, although he made his appearance only at the very end. Capaldi has replaced former Doctor Matt Smith, who had been the series’ lead actor since 2010.

Peter Capaldi, who is both a BAFTA and Academy Award winner, has appeared in Doctor Who before, playing the role of Lucius Caecilius Lucundus, a real-life banker who lived in the ancient Roman city of Pompei. He also featured in the Doctor Who spinoff series ‘Torchwood’, where he portrayed a civil servant. Outside of Who, he is well known for his roles in popular series such as ‘Skins’ and ‘The Thick of it’.

Expectations are high for the new series, which began filming this week and will be broadcast later this year. Upon arriving on set, Capaldi said “New job, first day, slightly nervous. Just like the Doctor, I’m emerging from the TARDIS into a whole other world”.

Showrunner Steven Moffat was obviously excited, saying, “The Capaldi era begins!” In an earlier interview, the series boss said of his newest star, “Of course, he’s brilliant. And just seeing the energy and vitality that he brings to his performance, he works – he’s like Matt – he works, he’s a worker. And he’s an extraordinary vital performer. The man is not at all elderly in style, he leaps around the place probably more than any other Doctor in that first scene.”

Elsewhere, in an interview with ‘Doctor Who Magazine’, previous Executive Producer and Head Writer Russell T. Davies said that the casting of Capaldi as The Twelfth Doctor was “perfect”. He also said, “The moment Zoe Ball said his name was actually quite mind-blowing. I still find it difficult, even now to find adjectives big and bold enough to describe how brilliant this is!

When cast in the role of The Doctor, Capaldi was 55, making him the same age as the first actor to play the character, William Hartnell, when he was cast.

Series 8 of Doctor Who will be broadcast on BBC in the third quarter of this year.

 

SOURCES:

http://www.doctorwhonews.net/

http://www.doctorwhotv.co.uk/what-does-russell-t-davies-think-of-peter-capaldis-casting-52683.htm

http://www.entertainmentwise.com/news/133633/Peter-Capaldi-In-A-State-Of-Madness-Following-Doctor-Who-50th-Anniversary-Cameo#fUXrtIJrJ213ZYW6.99

New season of Dr Who starts filming with new doctor Peter Capaldi taking the reins

Monty Python Will Reunite For One Night Only

…And now for something completely different.

Members of the British comedy group ‘Monty Python’ will reunite for a one-off live show next July. According to a press conference given by the comedy legends, the group wants to see if they are “still funny”.

Original members Michael Palin, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones will perform together for the first time in over 30 years.

According to the group, the show’s content will include “some of Monty Python’s greatest hits, with modern, topical, Pythonesque twists”. However, John Cleese has promised that there will also be some new material.

‘Monty Python’s Flying Circus’, a surreal, DaDa inspired comedy sketch show, first hit British screens in 1969 and remained extremely popular with audiences until it ended in 1974. The show acted as the voice of a new generation, with a fresh approach to comedy and an irreverent, sometimes controversial, edge. Many of the group’s most famous sketches have become treasured parts of British popular culture.

The group released their first feature film ‘And Now For Something Completely Different’ in 1971, but it wasn’t until 1974’s ‘Monty Python and the Holy Grail’ that they filmed an entire movie of new material. The film is an enduring comedy classic, as is its sequel, the controversial ‘Monty Python’s Life of Brian’ (1979). The group’s third feature film ‘Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life’ (1983) was a jet black comedy that was closer in style to the sketch show format of the series, but did not fare as well critically or commercially, despite garnering strong fan support.

In 1989, founding member Graham Chapman sadly passed away from cancer, which put any future reunions in jeopardy.

Following Chapman’s untimely passing, Eric Idle famously stated, “We would only do a reunion if Chapman came back from the dead. So we’re negotiating with his agent.”

Since then, the Pythons have occasionally reformed, with the shows usually featuring an urn containing the ‘ashes’ of Chapman (in reality, his ashes were scattered on Mount Snowdon, Wales by his partner David Sherlock). The urn was, in one instance ‘accidentally’ knocked over on stage before being vacuumed up with a Dust Buster. 

The new show is going to feature classic sketches that have never been performed live. Idle, who is also the show’s director, has said that it is going to resemble “a huge musical” in style, whilst John Cleese warned, “The main danger we have is that the audience know the scripts better than we do.”

During the aforementioned press conference, Michael Palin stated that the group “still enjoy getting together to be very silly”.

“After you turn 70, you can be absolutely shameless,” joked Terry Gilliam.

Prior to this news, the troupe’s most recent live performance took place at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles in September 1980, but it has been 40 years since the Pythons last performed on stage in the UK.

 The most expensive tickets have been announced at £95, but the cheapest seats will costs just £26.50, with Idle quipping that it was “only £300 cheaper than The Stones”

“I hope to be able to pay off my mortgage!” said Terry Jones.

The show will also be made available on DVD & Blu Ray later in the year.

SOURCES

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-25031520

Monty Python Will Reunite For One Night Only

Robot Rugby League,

 This is a games of Robot Rugby League, the english commentator has a slightly different take on the rules and game of american football. I laughed!!!!

Robot Rugby League,

Doctor Who Anniversary Special Breaks Record

The 50^th Anniversary episode of popular British TV show ‘Doctor Who’, which aired on Saturday 23^rd November, has broken the world record for largest ever simulcast of a television drama.

A simulcast is a simultaneous broadcast that is viewed via more than one medium.

In the UK alone, some 10.2 million people tuned in to the BBC show, although others still would have digitally recorded the special in order to view it at a time better suited to them.

The episode, entitled ‘Day of The Doctor’ was broadcast on TV in 94 countries, as well as being screened in 1,500 cinemas around the globe. It is also being streamed online via BBC iPlayer, for those who either missed the first showing, or would simply like to see it again.

Guinness World Records editor-in-chief Craig Glenday presented the show’s head writer and executive producer, Steven Moffat, with a special certificate in commemoration of the event, on Sunday. In response, Moffat joked that after years of preventing others from conquering the world, the Doctor had done it himself.

‘Day of The Doctor’ is the 799^th episode of the long running show, which first aired in 1963. The series was cancelled in 1989, but was resurrected in 2005 by executive producer Russell T. Davies.

The feature-length anniversary episode starred Matt Smith as the titular Doctor, teaming him up with previous Doctor David Tennant and veteran actor John Hurt (who played an as-yet unseen incarnation of the character, known only to fans as ‘The War Doctor’).

The show also starred Jenna Coleman as the Doctor’s companion, Clara, Joanna Page as Queen Elizabeth I, Jemma Redgrave as Kate Stewart and fan-favourite Billie Piper as a variation on her previous character, Rose Tyler.

Long time fans were also especially pleased to see the return of actor Tom Baker, who portrayed the character of The Doctor from 1974 – 1981.

Via contemporary special effects and cunning use of old footage, all of the actors who have played The Doctor appeared to some degree. Viewers were also treated to a brief glimpse of Peter Capaldi (the actor positioned to be the next Doctor) in the role.

The show continues a tradition of sorts, in which returning former stars have celebrated the series’ anniversaries. The 10^th anniversary of the show in 1973 featured the return of past actors William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton for a special entitled ‘The Three Doctors’. In 1983, the programme’s 20^th anniversary saw the return of Troughton and Jon Pertwee for the special episode called ‘The Five Doctors’. In other instances, past Doctors have appeared in 1985’s ‘The Two Doctors’ and the 2007 BBC Children in Need Special ‘Time Crash’.

Fan response to the show was generally positive, with massive activity on Facebook, Twitter and others, but not all fans were impressed. Christopher Ritchie, writing for Dr.WhoTV.co.uk, suggested that the ending of the show devalued the impact of key events in the character’s history, going as far as to call it a “degeneration” of the relaunched series.

However, the vast majority of the show’s fans, both old and young, were hugely impressed with the episode, with multiple Tweets praising the show’s attention to its history and legacy, as well as the heaps of praise for the performances of Smith, Tennant and Hurt. Fans were sharing their favourite quotes with one another online within minutes of the closing credits.

The 74-minute special will be available on DVD and download from December 2^nd.

 

SOURCES:

http://www.doctorwhotv.co.uk/time-war-no-more-the-degeneration-of-the-doctor-56179.htm

http://www.express.co.uk/news/showbiz/444886/Doctor-Who-anniversary-special-sets-world-records-as-millions-tune-in-to-Day-of-The-Doctor

http://fansided.com/2013/11/25/doctor-fans-react-50th-anniversary-special-day-doctor/

Doctor Who Anniversary Special Breaks Record

What is Ham Radio & How Does it Work?

Ham radio (so called because its operators were originally derided as being ‘hammy’ in the 19^th century, when the technology first emerged) is a term that applies to any form of amateur radio broadcasting.

 

There are designated radio frequency spectra available solely for public use. Uses range from recreation to communication and the non-commercial exchange of ideas. ‘Hams’ take advantage of these frequencies in order to transmit any number of things

 

Strictly speaking, there should not be any money involved in amateur radio (hence the term ‘amateur’). Although the majority of Ham radio practitioners are actually extremely knowledgeable about radio technology (don’t let the ‘ham’ part fool you), they are not considered professionals because they do not profit from their endeavours. Conversely, commercial broadcasting involves (a lot of) money: royalties are paid, producers and performers are paid and the whole thing is ultimately a commercial exercise.

 

Hams use a large amount of frequency bands from all across the radio spectrum, but the majority of frequencies are to be found just above the AM band.

 

A lot of hams, however, use VHF FM, operating hand-held transceivers that send on one frequency and receive on another. Local radio clubs set up FM Repeaters (which borrow space from other broadcast devices such as towers and, in doing so, amplify the radio signal’s strength hundreds of times over), so that hams can communicate with each other wirelessly over a distance of hundreds of miles.

 

As an example of what hams get up to, here’s an excerpt from Gary Brown, of ‘How Stuff Works.com’

 

“Although a ham radio does broadcast in all directions, hams generally do not use their radios in a broadcast kind of way as a disk jockey would at a radio station. In normal AM or FM radio, one disk jockey transmits and thousands of people listen. Hams, on the other hand, conduct two-way conversations, often with another ham or with a group of hams in an informal roundtable. The roundtable of hams may be in the same town, county, state, country or continent or may consist of a mix of countries, depending on the frequency and the time of the day. Hams also participate in networks, often called nets, at predetermined times and frequencies to exchange third-party messages. In the case of disasters, hams exchange health and welfare information with other hams”.

 

To become a ham, I recommend that you join a club. You’ll need an amateur radio license, of course, but this won’t break the bank, I’m sure.

 

I hope that helps, Melissa. 

What is Ham Radio & How Does it Work?

The headphones revolution: bright colours, street styling spark new craze

Anyone considering buying headphones for a young relative this Christmas, take care before splashing out the £150 or more that the most fashionable – the Beats, or Skullcandy, or Urbanears models – can cost.

Each brand marks them out as one of a “tribe”, regardless of sound quality. Whereas 20 years ago the most important thing for a teenager was the brand of trainer on their feet – Nike, Reebok or Adidas – now it’s the brand covering their ears that matters.

Beats headphones, with their red cord and large “b” on the earpieces, began appearing in music videos in late 2008, largely through the efforts of the company’s co-founders, the rapper Dr Dre and the music entrepreneur Jimmy Iovine. That sparked rocketing sales to a teenage demographic looking for a new way to distinguish themselves out from their peers.

In doing so, Beats’ emergence showed that high-priced headphones would sell, becoming as much a fashion accessory as a gadget, commanding prices over £200 – a bracket previously reserved for the audiophile niche.

A decade ago, the white tendrils of an iPod’s headphones might have marked the wearer out as trendy; nowadays it makes them just one of the crowd, and Apple’s in-ear headphones are too common to bother with. A teenager wanting to stand out needs something big – and bold.

“Companies like Beats and Skullcandy have realised that kids today want something that looks better, over questions of sound quality,” says Sam Ruffe, who works at The Kinc, a marketing agency whose clients include Skullcandy.

And those kids (or their parents) will pay: worldwide, the market for headphones will be worth over £5bn ($8bn) this year, with 284m units shipped, according to the consumer consultancy Futuresource; over-ear headphones grabbed half of sales. And Beats alone will grab around £1.25bn – while the total market is forecast to grow by 5% annually for the next five years.

Skullcandy was originally designed for skiers and snowboarders, by Rick Alden, who got the idea on a chairlift in Park City, Utah. Starting in 2003, he managed to persuade skating and skiing shops to stock the product, which became known as an “extreme sports” brand.

Urbanears, meanwhile, brought Scandinavian design and a flourish of colour to the burgeoning headphone market, releasing two “collections” of headphones a year in limited-edition colours.

The continued success of Beats brought competition as these other brands began chasing the new demographic of people willing to spend money to wear their branding choice on their ears. Skullcandy moved off the slopes and into the high street. Now, they are more likely to be seen on the bus than on the piste.

Audiophiles aren’t impressed by the brigade of bolshy Beats products, which often pride bass and look over acoustic refinement. “I just bought a set of the Beats Solo HD headphones – it’s a Christmas gift for my 13-year-old daughter,” Chris Miller, a software engineer, told the Guardian, adding: “I think they are overpriced and you are paying a premium for the brand name. They aren’t bad, but I have headphones that sound better for half the price that I paid for the Beats.”

Sound quality, though, isn’t necessarily the point – which may have been missed by more traditional “audiophile” brands such as Germany’s Sennheiser, the Dutch brand Philips and the American Bose, who were caught unaware that colouring the earpiece and cord green or red could affect sales as much as their sound quality.

Andy Watson of Futuresource says you might struggle to tell some headphones apart at the factory. “With everyone owning the same generic-looking personal audio player or mobile phone, it’s the headphones that do the differentiating. There is certainly cachet and brand equity attached to many of the brands, beyond their intrinsic value. Much of it is about positioning a lifestyle rather than a product.”

Yet the growing tribalism of headphone ownership has led to derision in some quarters – such as the blog “Long Way From Compton”, which features pictures of people wearing Beats headphones, and measuring the distance from there to the notorious gang-ridden Los Angeles district from which Dr Dre emerged.

It’s in the can

Beats Studio

Arguably one of the headphones that kicked off the large and colourful trend, the original Beats by Dre headphones drove appeal through product placement in music videos. Pushed by the music marketing powerhouse of Dr Dre (pictured above) and Jimmy Iovine, Beats brought big, aggressive bass-y sound at a big price and made it fashionable.

Bowers & Wilkins P5

Proving that expensive, fashionable headphones could sound good, the Bowers & Wilkins P5 ooze luxury and sound great, with excellent noise isolation and good range, which makes the equally pricey Beats sound downright mediocre.

Bose QuietComfort

The commuter’s favourite, Bose took noise-cancelling technology – which silences the outside world by blasting sound waves to cancel out the noise leaving only the music audible – and made it popular. On their third revision, the Bose QuietComforts are still the active noise-cancelling headphones to beat for many.

Sennheiser Momentum

Long-standing quality audio company Sennheiser was late to the stylish headphone game, but its Momentum series combines a sophisticated look with top-notch acoustics.

Starck

A collaboration between the French designer Philippe Starck and the Bluetooth specialists Parrot, Zik headphones are some of the best wireless headphones around, with intuitive touch controls, active noise-cancelling, and sound profiles and acoustics that can be modified with iPhone and Android apps.

Skullcandy Crusher

Battery-powered bass means that the Crusher gives real wallop to what otherwise might just be loud music. Cavernous earpieces (made of “soft touch” leather) also come with a powered mini-amplifier, foldable hinge (for storage) and a microphone and remote on the detachable headphone cable. CA and SG

Source – http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/dec/06/headphones-market-beats-by-dre

The headphones revolution: bright colours, street styling spark new craze

Who Invented the Tablet PC?

That’s actually quite tough to pinpoint. Computer scientist Alan Kay first came up with a concept (and then a prototype) for what he called a ‘Dynabook’ in 1968. Depending on which version you look at, the Dynabook concept can be viewed as a prototype tablet PC (as well as a direct ancestor of the laptop).

 

In science fiction, tablet-like devices can be seen in ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ as well as ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’. While in comics, Jack Kirby’s ‘Motherboxes’ (as featured in the 1970’s ‘New Gods’ series) can be considered to be ‘super-tablets’ by any other name. So the idea for the tablet was firmly entrenched in fiction and popular culture long before the iPad was even a glint in Steve Jobs’ eye. 

 

Jeff Hawkins developed the first modern-style tablet PC in 1989, this invention led to a prototype named Lombard (for some silly reason) that was released in 1992. However, before that, in 1987, Apple had designed hardware for a touchscreen and stylus operating system, which was a primordial version of the iOS that you would use today on the aforementioned iPad.

 

In 2002, Microsoft launched the ‘Tablet PC’, which was a grand idea on paper, but, for too many reasons to list here, the invention never took off. It would take ten long years (and the rapid rise of mobile phones) before Apple dusted off the idea and proudly produced their iPad, in 2010.

 

So, in a very real sense, no single person invented the tablet PC. It was a culmination of wild-eyed science fiction dreamers, wild-haired computer scientists and the market-driven will to profit as utilized by companies like Microsoft and Apple.

 

Personally, if I had to pick just one name out of the hat, it would be Alan Kay. Now, before all you tech-bods rush out to correct me, consider this: John Logie Baird invented the television, but his initial invention is barely recognizable compared with today’s net-ready, Blu-Ray playing, surround-sound enabled living room leviathans, so its just a question of who had the first idea.

 

I’ve seen sites that credit Jeff Hawkins, which is fair, but honestly, the idea (and an early version of the eventual tech) actually existed 30 years or so earlier, so I’m not going to personally subscribe to that one. 

Who Invented the Tablet PC?

Author Neil Gaiman Defends Children’s Literature From Adult ‘Snobbery’

52-year-old British author Neil Gaiman has spoken out against ‘snobbish’ adult judgements being placed upon children’s literature.

The author, who delivered the second annual Reading Agency lecture in central London this week, chose to use this time, at least in part, to speak out against what he feels is a damaging trend in modern literary criticism.

“I don’t think there is such a thing as a bad book for children,” began the author, addressing a crowd that included many leading figures from the arts and entertainment world, as well as several representatives from educational institutions.

“Every now and again it becomes fashionable among some adults to point at a subset of children’s books, a genre, perhaps, or an author, and to declare them bad books, books that children should be stopped from reading,”

“I’ve seen it happen over and over; Enid Blyton was declared a bad author, so was (‘Goosebumps’ author) RL Stine, so were dozens of others. Comics have been decried as fostering illiteracy”.

“It’s tosh, it’s snobbery and it’s foolishness”, he continued.

Mr Gaiman, who’s works include children’s books (Odd & The Frost Giants), comic books (Sandman, 1602) and prize winning novels (The Graveyard Book, Coraline, American Gods), has seen his works adapted into popular films (Stardust, Coraline), and has written for several TV shows (Babylon 5, Dr. Who, Neverwhere). He is generally considered to be one of the most prolific and celebrated authors of his generation, so it is likely that his criticisms will carry some weight.

Gaiman continued, saying that, “There are no bad authors for children, that children like and want to read and seek out, because every child is different. They can find the stories they need to, and they bring themselves to stories”.

“A hackneyed, worn-out idea isn’t hackneyed and worn out to them. This is the first time the child has encountered it. Do not discourage children from reading because you feel they are reading the wrong thing. Fiction you do not like is the gateway drug to other books you may prefer. And not everyone has the same taste as you.

He continued with a warning to parents, teachers and even older siblings, when he said that,

“Well-meaning adults can easily destroy a child’s love of reading: stop them reading what they enjoy, or give them worthy-but-dull books that you like, the 21st Century equivalents of Victorian ‘improving’ literature. You’ll wind up with a generation convinced that reading is uncool and worse, unpleasant.”

Gaiman’s own book, ‘Neverwhere’ was recently removed from a High School reading list in New Mexico after a parent complained that it was inappropriate.

Gaiman’s response to this was wry and well-considered, as he told a BBC reporter, “I tend to take books of mine being challenged and occasionally being banned – and very occasionally being burned – as a kind of badge of honour. You know you are doing something right.”

Mr. Gaiman’s concerns were echoed by a number of the lecture’s attendees.

 

SOURCES:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-24521225

Author Neil Gaiman Defends Children’s Literature From Adult ‘Snobbery’

VTech Innolab: The Kids Are Alright

Last night I found myself in the grip of a nightmare. In my dream, a Woman dressed like a Victorian widow was drowning me under a sheet of thick, impenetrable ice. Before that, I’d had a series of other nightmares involving a fire, a group of shadow-like stick figures slashing me with long nails and an attack by large tanks aimed at either shooting me or squashing me, whichever came first.

However, in a lucid state of dreaming, I was able to call on a ‘Dream Guardian’ of sorts, who furnished me with a magical suit of armour that allowed me to beat all of the challenges. I ‘burst’ the spindly shadow-men with a blast of light, I doused the fire with water, and I disabled the tanks with a single punch.

Yep, imagination is a powerful thing.

That’s what worries me about tablets for kids. When I was a little boy, we played Sega Mega Drive, but I also had a leftover 70’s Pocket Simon that I adored. Mostly however, it was playing with toys that allowed me to foster and develop the natural imagination that I now use every day in my other life as a contemporary fiction writer.

I immersed myself in comics, books and ghost stories and, in the process, found a career path that felt right to me (although, looking back, I probably should have paid attention in maths and been a banker).

Today’s kids, growing up with tablet PCs, video games and blockbuster movies, may not have as much need for an imagination, or at least, that’s what sometimes bothers me. I worry that kids who grow up with ‘interactive literature’ at their disposal, might become deathly bored with ‘grown up’ literature when they come of age, and that they might even grow to reject the printed word outright.  Not only does ‘Crime & Punishment’ not have pictures, but the only options for playable mini games would have to be desperately macabre.

Pedantic and repetitive explanations don’t necessarily teach children to use computers, either. Anybody can do anything if they have someone telling them over and over again how to do it. So, with more and more interactive toys and less and less cause to take up a cardboard box and ‘just add wonder’, it is easy to play a prophet of doom to a predicted generation of mindless kids, most of whom don’t know how to actually be kids anymore.

However, in my capacity as a tech reviewer, I’ve found considerable cause to hope for better. After extensively reviewing the latest crop of kid’s tablet PCs, I’ve actually found them to be, potentially, an exceptionally useful learning tool. In fact, provided that they are used as part of a ‘balanced diet’ (that also includes traditional picture books, regular play and stimulating creative exercises), a children’s tablet can be a really enriching product.

With literally hundreds of apps available for cheap download, kids tablets can offer anything from reading and writing programs, to maths, elementary science and even foreign languages. The sheer variety available on tablets like the VTech Innolab or the Leapfrog LeapPad is actually amazing. Some of these tablets (such as the LeapPad) even have specially designed operating systems that give children a basic introduction to the underpinnings of MAC OS, Windows, or Android.

In fact, there’s a lot to be said for interactive activities being better than more enriching than ‘passive’ activities like watching TV. Of course, there will be those parents who don’t take the time to use the tablets with their children, but those parents are no different from those who use the TV as an all-purpose babysitter or those parents who never make the time to read to their children.

However, if you want your child to gain a basic grasp of computers and have access to an array of interactive learning facilities, then I can honestly say that you could do a lot worse than getting a kid’s tablet.

In moderation a children’s tablet can be a passport to excitement, adventure and a high degree of preschool learning. Remember though, I said moderation. Drawing, writing, reading and traditional play are still very much number one in my opinion.

After all, without a little imagination, the adult world can be one nightmare after another.

Get the VTech Innolab from amazon right here

 

VTech Innolab: The Kids Are Alright

Essential Services, Essential Technology, Radios at Oil & Gas Plants

Oil and gas are natural resources, but obtaining them isn’t as simple as planting a seed in a patch of arable land. Today, hundreds of thousands of miles of oil and gas pipeline run all over the world, sometimes covering some of the most inhospitable environments known to man.

 

Pipelines that run above ground offer many advantages to oil & gas companies. They are cheaper to build, easier to repair, far simpler to maintain and a lot safer for the environment. However, that same environment also has no qualms about wreaking havoc on the lines, neither do politically motivated saboteurs or occasional wanton vandals who commonly make their presence felt in such places. A pipeline is a complex and intricate operation, which means that in order for everything to go right, nothing can be allowed to go wrong.

 

Keeping such sites clean, safe and secure is a demanding job. If you built one in an urban city centre it would be hard enough, but placing a pipeline in an extreme environment is a job so tough that only a very few select people are cut out for it.

 

For a job like that, communication is key. It is vital that all aspects of the pipeline are monitored, kept safe and guarded by highly trained professionals. So, in order for all functional teams to stay in contact, react, if need be, to technical faults and generally keep pipeline operations running smoothly, two-way radios are needed.

 

More reliable than a mobile, less clumsy than a net connection, two-way radio technology is tried, tested and true. Durable, strong outward exteriors are perfect for unforgiving environments such as heavy snow or storms at sea, while a simple, easy to use device is always best in cases of emergency.

 

Then, there’s reliability. Two-way radios are pretty much always reliable. There’s no worrying about signal strength (unless atmospheric conditions are particularly severe) and no ambiguity as to whether of not the user has been heard and understood by the intended recipient. Signal transfer is instantaneous (or, in the case of digital radios, as good as), so you can get direct up-to-the-second information, at any time.

 

Two-way radios are a massively important factor in the steady, safe and efficient refining of natural oils and gases into vital, everyday products and services. Without two-way radios, obtaining such treasures might prove next to impossible, as well as incredibly dangerous. 

Essential Services, Essential Technology, Radios at Oil & Gas Plants