Artery Management And Safety In The Workplace

Before Artery Management begin to work on a job, the site has to be careful examined to ensure the safety of staff, customers and the general public. We not only look at how we are going to get the jobs done, but the challenges of keeping people safe while we are working. For example if we are working in an area that is too high for a ladder, we have to hire a scissors lift instead.   that’s We always make sure that we have cones, extensions and caution tape so that we can create the barriers to stop people from getting hurt. 

Last year Artery Management worked in a College in Santa Fe and was responsible for opening up manholes around the campus. Our workers had to be aware that not only the students and faculty were safe but the general public as well. The college was situated in a residential area and the people who live in that area also had access to the property we were working on. People came for walks,to exercise or to use the library, so we had to be very aware of everybody around us.

Precautions taken when working on Manholes

Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standards for manholes cover every aspect of our work. There are hundreds of regulations that the OSHA sets for our industry. For example they have a description of what a confined space means:-

1.       If the manhole does not have level walls or walls that are supported; this is referred to as a confined space2.       If the hole has only one entry and exit point it can be referred to as a confined space
3.       If it has the potential of filling with water that too can be referred to as a confined space

So when we enter a manhole we have to make sure we have all the safety gear that is required to ensure the safety of our staff. The first thing we do is use an air meter that detects gas; air quality is crucial for the safety of our workers. The person going into the manhole must have a tripod with a wench that attaches them to a harness so that if something happens or if someone loses consciousness we can wench them out of the manhole to safety.

Another example is that we worked on a job were we had fibre optic cables in the manhole so we couldn’t put the manhole covers on while we were working so we hired someone to stand outside the manhole and keep watch; making sure that the passing public did not fall in and get hurt.

Safety issues when working with electricity

Artery Management is a full electrical contractor and deal with low, medium and high voltage; that is from 40 – 480 watts. We therefore excise extreme caution when dealing with electricity in specific.

Measures taken when dealing with electricity include being aware of your surroundings. Our staff also need to ensure that lockout and tag out procedures are followed; this ensures that the circuit they are working on is turned off. This is done by putting a padlock that nobody else has a key to and nobody can turn on while they are working.

Weather conditions and Safety issues 

Artery Management adhere to the OSHA’s guidelines with regards to extreme weather conditions.

Things to be aware of when working in extreme heat

• Workers have to have access to lots of water and keep hydrated
• Be aware that some buildings have no air-conditioning and can get very hot
• Workers need to be aware of the  signs of dehydration and heatstroke

In places like Arizona workers start work at 3am and finish at 11am in the morning because of the extreme head in the afternoons.

In situations of extreme cold it is recommended that electrical cable installation be avoided because the jackets of the cables can crack. Even in situations like working in 45° temperatures; although human beings can comfortably work in these temperatures by wearing the right clothing; materials they are working with cannot withstand the low temperatures. We find that when working in cold conditions the heat gets trapped in the ceiling areas where the cables are being installed but the cables in the boxes on the ground are at a much lower temperature and therefore will crack.

The Significance of Remote Monitoring

Large or complex facilities such as network operations centres, factories, power plants and airports can be monitored effectively with some degree of automation by remote monitoring and control systems. Data is received by these monitoring and control systems via telemetry streams, pre-programmed procedures, user input and various sensors. Various systems can help you to proactively monitor and manage a variety of devices such as laptops, kiosks, networks and servers and receive immediate notification should any problems arise. 

The intuitive software can send telecommands to computer systems, actuators and other devices.

One of the benefits of modern IP video surveillance systems is flexibility in video management. Whether you are at work or out and about you can easily utilise the power of the internet to access your system and watch you surveillance video.

By using port forwarding, you can manage and monitor your surveillance system from any computer provided you have an internet connection thereby making remote monitoring easy. With the use of smart phones, one can log into your surveillance system via a mobile app as well. 

Regardless of whether you have an Android or iPhone there are now mobile apps designed for both that allow you to remotely manage your video surveillance systems. Milestone,Optica, Axis, Viyotek and Smartyue are some of the leading manufacturers of these mobile apps.

Generally these mobile and remote applications have different features depending on the manufacturer but both systems allow you to view recorded and live video and to manage any alerts as they arise.

This has tremendously increased flexibility in when and how managers and security staff can respond to alerts and issues in their work places should they be off-site working on other projects and get alerts and notifications while on vacation, late at night or during the weekends.

Functionality of License Plate Recognition

LPR or License plate recognition is an exceptionally useful security software that can find stolen vehicles, track traffic and control traffic that comes into your business area. Below are a few facts about when to use it and exactly how LPR works:-

This database based license plate recognition software uses your camera to capture video of vehicle licence plates and it can compare it to an existing database or store it for later use. For example :-

·         In military bases or permit-based parking facilities gates and secured entrances can only open if the license plate number already exists on the database.

·         Law officials and the police can search and review the license plates of suspected cars or stolen vehicles in crime scenes

·         In parking facilities, parking infringement officials can record cars on entry; this provides a reference video that they can go to if the car exceeds the time limit paid for.

A specialized camera and system needs to be set up in order to record these videos.  This includes:

·         Oncoming traffic need to be moving at low speed limits to give the camera time to focus on each approaching vehicle’s number plate

·         Cameras must be installed in correct height locations to capture and record the licence plates

·         The Parking garages or underground structures with dark shadows must have proper lighting, these can be build-in IRs or external to help combat harsh overhead lighting in these locations.

Milestone is the leading LPR software available in the industry; although there is a wide range of other options in the marketplace. Milestone XProject LPR software features include, filtering, sorting and searching as well as alarms that are triggered if your system identifies a blacklisted or unknown licence plate.

What is VoIP? Understanding the main terms and jargon

VoIP means Voice over Internet Protocol which is the alternative system now used as an alternative to the traditional landline. In order to clearly understand what this new systems entails our clients need to understand all the jargon that goes with it. At Artery Management Group we help our clients to understand exactly what VoIP is all about, because the technical jargon can be over whelming at first and in understanding the jargon our clients can make an informed decision about implementing VoIP in their business.

So what is VoIP and how does it work? 

This is a system that enables users to receive and send voice communications over the internet. Compared to landlines, VoIP calls are cheaper because the calls are not transmitted through dedicated copper lines but through the internet. VoIP systems convert phone conversations into data packets and transmit them over a broadband connection and then reassemble them at the receiving end.

At Artery Management Group, our trained technicians work with our clients to assess that their bandwidth is sufficient for the volume of data which needs to be carried over a connection in a certain amount of time. We ensure that the risk of jitters, dropped calls and delays are taken into account by determining the correct amount of bandwidth that needs to be installed to ensure that our clients can make high quality calls. We also ensure that we install the appropriate Private Branch Exchange (PBX) systems providing multi-line capabilities for businesses. PBX systems switch calls between the internal phone extensions in an organisation and also give access to shared phone outbound lines for outbound calling within the organisation.

The software programs and applications used in VoIP systems are called Softphone. This software enables VoIP users to use their mobile devices, PC or laptop to make and receive calls. In order to make or receive calls users need a headset or a microphone and speakers. This is a great option for employees who are mobile and who do not have space for desk phones.

We assist our clients to configure their QoS settings to minimise delays and provide maximum efficiency. QoS means quality of service and this is the ability of the client’s network to deliver calls efficiently.  These QoS settings ensure that the systems gives priority to VoIP traffic over other types of data being transmitted in and out of the organisation to avoid congestion over the network and prioritizing less-important types of traffic from competing for bandwidth. This ensures that other functions such as data transfer still proceed at a slower rate while providing crystal clear calls.

Other services provided by the Artery Management Group include Unified Communications (UC) within the organisation.  UC integrates a variety of communication tools such as desktop and data sharing, voice, instant messaging, fax, email and video into a single service. This gives our clients access to important tools regardless of the device they are utilizing to increase throughput, streamline communication and encourage collaboration.

We also install important mobility features such as Find me/ follow me to ensure that important phone calls are not missed. This feature sends all incoming calls to an explicit set of devices or numbers that ring in sequence. Calls can be sequentially forwarded to the mobile phone and then the user’s home phone.

Lastly,Artery Management Group, ensure that the amount of time it takes for an audio signal to transmit from one designated point to another is monitored, this is referred to as latency and our VoIP systems monitor that everything is functioning as expected.

When Should I Install A Wireless Camera?

There are two types of wireless surveillance systems, point-to-point wireless linking and Wi-Fi cameras. They are convenient because they are easy to install and do not require many cables to connect the cameras as you can use Wi-Fi internet instead. This ease of installation make them very popular wireless surveillance systems. It is tempting to purchase these systems because they are convenient and flexible to use.

The convenience of a wireless system is tempting when you are purchasing a video surveillance system -you have more flexibility

Wi-Fi Cameras

Small businesses and home owners prefer the all-in one Wi-Fi cameras. This is because they are compact, portable, easy to install and use and very affordable for any small business or home owner to acquire. It is recommended that you do not install too many Wi-Fi cameras on one network as this could rout your bandwidth and the whole system would be overwhelmed, simplicity is the key when using these cameras.

These cameras have very basic functionality and features and should you require advanced or specialised features you will have limited options. They also require direct power and very few cameras use batteries.

Point-to-point Wireless

The alternative option should you require multiple cameras to cover a large area and with very specific or advanced capabilities would be point-to-point wireless systems.

The cameras are linked with wireless antennas and you can use your IP system to create this wireless system.

The large antennas used by these systems can connect very large areas, such as multiple buildings on a university campus, its parking garage or retail outlets. These cameras cannot operate on batteries and require power and are connected to the wireless antenna communicate with the base station connecting you to your network video recorder or your virtual memory system.