The new Passenger Information Paging System (PIPS) not only issues pages over the audio paging system's speakers, it also displays names of people being paged at each of the 30 information kiosks currently being deployed throughout the terminals. These Paging Assistance Locations (PALs) have added accessibility features that will provide access to all passengers at the airport, including disabled passengers formerly unable to use the airport's paging system.
"It [PIPS] wasn't just meant to be a special system just for individuals with disabilities, but rather a whole new approach to passenger paging at the airport that would allow access to the system by everybody, regardless of their ability or disability," explained Dennis Murphy, technology project manager at Phoenix Aviation.
The project was guided by a steering committee composed of staff members from Phoenix Aviation and Sky Harbor as well as members of the disabled community. Murphy explained that this gave the airport a unique perspective that enabled them to create the PALs to accommodate all passengers and comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
Each PAL, or information kiosk, includes two 40-inch monitors that display names of passengers who have a page waiting for them. Passengers can retrieve their pages from the kiosks in a few different ways. Passengers can receive pages by lifting the handset and using the interactive voice recognition system, or they can navigate the touchscreen program displayed on the monitor built into the front of the kiosk.
To send a page, passengers can also choose between different options. Using the handset, the interactive voice recognition system will record your message, and then a paging operator will convert the message to text format. The touchscreen will send a page digitally.
A Braille keyboard affixed to the front of the PAL allows blind and visually impaired passengers to send a page. An EZ Access device copyrighted by the University of Wisconsin allows passengers who do not have use of fingers, hands or even arms to use a four-key button system to navigate the system. As a result, passengers who have to use a mouth stick can also send pages.
"This is a fantastic addition to the PAL, and one that we've not seen anybody use anyplace else," Murphy said.
For added functionality, the handset includes a device attached to its base that enhances sound for passengers with cochlear implants. Also for the hearing impaired, two jacks are built into the front of the kiosk so passengers with hearing devices can plug into the jacks, allowing the audio to be redirected directly through hearing enhancement devices.
A Team Effort
Through help from the community, and especially the representatives from the Mayor's Commission for Disability Issues, Phoenix determined the specifications needed to provide what they have coined "equivalent access" to all, regardless of physical limitations.
ARINC's transportation solutions division provided the necessary nuts and bolts behind the system, said John Dungan, product manager and senior director of transportation solutions for ARINC, based in Annapolis, Maryland.
The company designed the technology behind PIPS and is installing the 30 PALs throughout the airport, in addition to approximately 3,000 paging speakers and more than 100 microphone stations.
"We have enjoyed the experience of developing the system, but Phoenix deserves a lot of credit for working with the community and guiding the requirement efforts," Dungan said.
The Big Picture
Paging was but one aspect of the project addressed by ARINC, said Murphy, who noted that other "visual information enhancements" were also included in the overall solution.
ARINC currently is constructing new flight information displays at all of the airport's checkpoints.
"In the past, our airline partners were responsible for those flight displays, and we had received concerns from our passengers about the accuracy and viewability of those monitors," Murphy explained. "With the new security requirements keeping meeters and greeters from passing through the checkpoints, it became more and more important that we have viewable, easily accessible and accurate flight display information at the checkpoints."
"The heart of the system is the database," Dungan stated. He explained that the database contains a number of Web interfaces allowing appropriate airport personnel to manage the appearance of the flight information display screens, making it a client-server Web-based technology. This database also contains all of the paging information, and the applications installed at the PALs are able to retrieve pages through digital interaction with the database.
"Another of the major concerns we have received over the years had to do with our baggage information displays and the timeliness of the information on those displays," he added.
Up until now, he explained, the individual airline employees who were in the process of unloading bags from their airline's planes determined which carousel the bags were to be sent to. The disadvantage was that passengers usually didn't know what carousel to proceed to after unloading; they had to wait for an airline employee to arrive at the carousel and punch in the flight information.
Other airports have implemented baggage information display devices, and Phoenix followed suit by including the upgrade in the project.
"At the entrance to the bag carousel areas in all three of our terminals, we will be putting in a master baggage information display which will pre-assign the flights to a particular carousel -- we believe this will enhance our customer service and enable our passengers to know which carousel they need to be standing in front of," he said.
Another enhancement to the airport is the "stage and go" parking lot, in which some large LED screens are being installed. This is something Dungan said a lot of airports are beginning to implement.
"Because of the TSA [Transportation Security Administration] requirement that you can't just park on the terminal curb -- you can't stay there very long at all -- it's moved a lot of people into traffic," he stated. He explained that this can cause congestion as vehicles on-site for passenger pick-up continue to circle around until the drivers locate the people they are there for.
At the "stage and go" parking lot, people can wait until they see when the flight comes in. That way, they can gauge their timing according to arrivals without having to continually circle around.
System Distribution
"Most of the applications used to present the information at the PALs were custom developed for this project and actually belong to the city of Phoenix, so we're working with ARINC on securing those rights," Murphy said. "One of our big goals in the project is to make this technology available, particularly to other airports, but obviously any other organization interested in providing this type of information to its customers."
Phoenix Aviation is currently working with lawyers to figure out how it will offer the solution to others. While Murphy admits selling the system would be an opportunity to recoup design costs, he added, "our goal is not to try to make a large amount of money out of it, but to help make this technology available to others so they can help their passengers, or customers."
Sky Harbor's new paging system is only partially up and running, but other airports are already taking notice, including representatives from Hawaii airports and Los Angeles World Airports.
Airports aren't the only ones with their eyes on Phoenix. "A lot of folks in the ADA community are watching with interest to see how this works and how well it's perceived by the public."
