Taylor Made Computer Solutions - Bets Use of Technology Award

Winner: Southampton Airport

A DRONE hawk used to scare away real birds from the runway helped Southampton Airport carry off the Taylor Made Computer Solutions Award for the Best Use of Technology.

The robotic bird of prey looks and moves like the real thing, but is remotely controlled from the ground by a drone pilot.

The robo hawk aims to keep runways safer, by preventing bird strikes, and reduces flight delays.

The drone was given the night off to attend the awards ceremony and joined the airport team n stage when the posed for photos.

Dan Townsend, Airside Operations Manager at the airports, told the Echo that teamwork had been the secret of their awards success.

“This is a good team delivering a great project.”

Dan said it was good to see a major employer winning as often big names did not enter local awards, believing smaller companies were at an advantage.

“We are so happy to have won now we’ve got to start on a project for next year.”

Nigel Taylor of award sponsors Taylor Made praised the ‘passion’ show by all the finalists and stressed that the fact that they technical innovations they had introduced were all for the benefits of clients and customers.

The judges said: “Using technology in an innovative, challenging and unorthodox way, the team at Southampton Airport pushed back against initial resistance in a highly regulated industry and have demonstrated that by using technology to solve problems nature brings they can achieve success in a number of areas throughout their business. Their use of innovation has subsequently helped make the Solent region, a well-connected, well-serviced and highly desirable place to do business in.”

Runners up:

HILLCREST STRUCTURAL

Hillcrest are a specialist steelwork contractor established in 1981. With an in-house design team, production facilities and expert site-team, the company can offer the complete solution for our clients.

Hillcrest undertake work throughout the UK in all construction sectors for an extensive client base, from local builders to the UK’s largest main contractors. Its forte is refurbishment projects.

Working closely with the design team, Hillcrest is able to take the design to completion enlisting its wealth of knowledge to prevent complications thus enabling projects to be completed on-time and on budget.

The team is able to deliver to BIM level 2, whilst the firm’s fabrication facilities can manufacture in line with CE Marking up to Execution Class 3.

MEASURE MY ENERGY

MeasureMyEnergy designs and manufactures intelligent energy meters that measure electrical consumption at circuit and appliance level. Measurements are taken continually and streamed to our cloud-platform in real-time.

This level of visibility allows businesses to discover power-hungry devices that are consuming energy unnecessarily, identifying when plant equipment is in need of maintenance and optimise building controls to improve efficiency and costs. It identifies areas that would benefit from energy-efficient investment and validates R.O.I. by measuring the operating cost before and after installation.

Its solution is like having an itemised energy bill that has allowed customers to save in excess of 40 per cent on their bills.

APPELLO

Based in the New Forest, Appello has more than 30 years’ experience providing technology enabled care and life safety services that help housing, health and social care providers to enrich the lives of customers, patients and residents.

Appello harness future-led digital technology to create safer and smarter homes that deliver life-improving safety, inclusion and support. At the heart of its operations is the UK’s leading digital telecare monitoring centre, which supports more than 200,000 people across the UK to lead independent, happier and healthier lives.