One day without power and internet – the major power outage in Spain and Portugal shows how quickly a crisis can affect both private households and digital signage networks.
The electricity in our house at the Algarve in Portugal went on Monday at 11:30am local time and we did not react. There is a simple reason: there have been plenty of construction works in our street and power cuts have been regular in the past months, so why bother?
Step by step we realized that it was not our street alone, not our town, not our region, but the entire country of Portugal (except Madeira) and Spain were off the grid. My first thought was directed to a cyber-attack (luckily it was just a system failure), but our actions quickly turned to the basics. We realized we had enough food and water for the coming days, but if we had to leave our home there was only gas for some 200 km in our car. Having experienced the Pandemic five years ago, we were relieved when electricity returned at 9:18pm the same evening, the internet returned during the night.
Privately, we have learned some lessons: we will have more cash at home to bridge gaps (cash vending machines were out of order), we will keep a decent storage of food and an old-fashioned radio with batteries. When the internet is down you are instantly back to 1985, you cannot be reached, and you are off the news to understand how to protect yourself.
Furthermore, I believe the power outage provides also some important lessons for the Digital Signage industry:
- Cyber security should move up on the corporate agenda, in a connected world we are more vulnerable than ever before
- Be better prepared and install back-up systems in case the unthinkable happens
- Train your teams for the worst case to sharpen response times and quality of delivery
On hindsight, it has been a hectic day creating food for thoughts. We have forgotten how easy life can be derailed; we should better prepare for the unthinkable. It is not a question if it happens, only when it will be due.
About the Author
Daniel Oelker is the Green Signage expert of invidis. The invidis impact partner and former Zetadisplay CCO analyses the industry regarding its sustainability impact and writes regularly about the advancements on invidis.com.
