Track to the future

NEVER mind the traditional choo choo 'n' chocolate industries of York, the real boost to the city's economy nowadays comes from the massive growth of small high-tech ventures. Or so they say.

But, as Omnicom Engineering, of Tadcaster Road, has proved, there is no reason why the twain - or rather the train? - should never meet.

This 61-staff firm has married the fruits of the microchip to ensuring a better, safer railways and created such a revolution, (and in passing such profits) that it earned its title, the 2003 Evening Press Business of the Year.

The accolade was conferred on Omnicom at the awards night in the Ebor Suite at York Racecourse last Thursday, leaving managing director Brian Richard stunned as he stood framed against his own ballooned image on a giant fibreoptic screen amid the pulse of wild, funky music and just as wild applause.

He was amazed enough when Omnicom scooped the Best Use Of New Technology category, but this? he asked, his eyes incredulously slipping along the split spectrum light of the winner's trophy. "We honestly weren't expecting to win."

Perhaps he is too close, too inured to the wonder of the firm's achievements, to gauge his fascination, but on the ledger book, where it counts, what Omnicom has done is likely to make any entrepreneur gulp with envy.

For instance Network Rail has taken over where Railtrack, its predecessor, left off, and signed the biggest deal in Omnicom's eight year history - a £5 million three-year contract and ongoing commitment to OmniSurveyor 3D.

Here is how it works: Mounted on to a customised railway engine is about £250,000 worth of equipment and software designed to see, measure, record and collate everything around it in minute detail. Then it sets off at speed.

Those several high-resolution digital video cameras, a Differential Global Positioning System (DGBS), an Inertial Measurement System (IMS) plus industrial computers measure distances, locations and structures so accurately that the detail and the layout of the entire railway network is surveyed.

It will be updated annually as the whistle-stop 3D video tours more than 12,000 miles of rail network. recording all it sees at 25 frames per second.

The system proved its worth after the rail crash at Great Heck in 2001 when afterwards OmniSurveyor's recorded details of that section showed instantly what had to be ordered to quickly restore the tracks to use.

Now the system is to be linked into Omnicom's newest technological innovation - the National Video Server (NVS) - allowing all the data to be saved on to one giant database accessed by rail employees throughout the country, 600 of them so far.

It means that using OmniInspector, spinoff software, contractors can examine the condition of the national rail network from the comfort and safety of an office desk, rather than exposed to the weather and dangers trackside.

Engineering giants Carillion was the first company to see OmniInspector's possibilities.

Dave Ratledge, its project manager, says that OmniInspector plays a key role in Carillion's trials of a mechanised inspection process to improve the safety of its inspection staff. The software means that "a virtual foot inspection of the track can be undertaken in the safety of an office environment."

Another big safety spinoff from OmniSurveyor 3D is OmniRoute - an interactive driver training and route familiarisation system that uses real video images.

But instead of rookies risking whole trains they can get used to a route sitting at a desktop PC.

The software allows the user to manipulate images, such as changing the positioning of signals or changing the virtual speed of the train hitched to speed restrictions on the tracks. Then there is OmniPos. Using the data collected by OmniSurveyor3D, Omnicom has been able to create a link-node map of the entire rail network as the basis for a highly accurate vehicle tracking and location system.

Now, for the first time, the video tracking system is being applied to the highways as well as the railways.

So far, specially fitted vans have surveyed 2,500 miles of roads for highways authorities across the UK, including the whole of Milton Keynes, North Yorkshire and Transport For London.

It's a fast, safe way of recording an inventory of highway "furniture". And the technology allows planners to say "what if" and compute changes in, say, traffic light positions to gauge the effect on safety.

Ordinance Survey has already conducted a pilot experiment in order to record every dip in the road, tree and hedgerow and is now considering full-scale trials

Omnicom Engineering was founded by civil engineer Paul Harkness and electrical engineer Stirling Kimkeran, who worked for the old British Rail.

That was at a time when the nationalised organisation was trying to perfect a similar system. It failed, but the two men pursued the dream after privatisation - and succeeded. Paul is now chairman and Stirling is is group technical director.

That success has accelerated, with staff and turnover doubling in the past two years.

With new offices opening in Sydney, Australia, the opportunities seem endless.

Here at a glance are the winners of the 2003 Evening Press Business of the Year:

Small Business of the Year:

The York Brewery Company Ltd

Growth Business of the Year:

Simair Graphics Equipment Ltd

Best Tourism and Leisure Business of the Year:

National Railway Museum, York.

Retailer of the Year: Browns Department Store, York.

Best Use of New Technology:

Omnicom Engineering Ltd, York.

New Business of the Year: UK Juicers Ltd

Best Business and Education Link:

British Sugar plc, York

Young Entrepreneur of the Year:

Alex Browne of Pig Hut Studios

Progress Through People:

Dodsworth Ltd

e-commerce Business of the Year:

UK Juicers Ltd

Business Personality of the Year:

Gordon Stewart Gibb (Flamingo Land)

Lifetime Achievement Award:

Professor Tony Robards

Overall Evening Press Business of the Year: Omnicom Engineering Ltd.

Updated: 09:30 Tuesday, November 25, 2003