A company wanted to modernize global operations management options across several continents in real to near real time. 

One tool was to be a robust mobile video capability, effective throughout major facilities in remote locations, for supporting emergent incident response. 

Sensitivity to local labor relations and a strong management desire to avoid suspicions about the system’s operational purpose were major design factors.  Another design factor was to maximize reliance upon components available in the local market, to ensure ease of maintenance. 

Other criteria were a mobile camera transmitting platform that did not interfere with mobile phone spectra (nearly all commercial systems run on that same spectrum) and was not blocked by major steel and concrete structures typical of the site (no commercial systems could operate without attention-gathering extensive antenna relays inside the main structures). 

For cost effectiveness and to ensure readiness for emergent conditions, the system had to be robust enough to be used during important maintenance and outage work. 

The client’s global operations support team was to use the system through a low-bandwidth link to secure interfaces from networked locations across the globe, accessible from but also in addition to crisis management nodes at major company offices and operating locations.

An extraction company was suffering major production cutbacks due to civil unrest in a high value area of operation. 

The company had an expensive community outreach program that was long in place but had achieved few tangible results. 

The key to solving the production problem was in identifying controlled ways to alleviate community disenfranchisement without compromising client integrity. 

The path to establishing a controlled path to the restoration of production lay in building credible relations to a group of senior local politicians.

That group had profited from the disruption of company operations but their interest in further disruption was ambivalent.  They had a long history and deep connection with the adversely impacted communities.

The senior local politicians needed a way to shift their posture to support real change and the company needed a way to show how its updated proposals offered that prospect. 

Underlying both was a need to establish a compelling case from  the outset with the local communities. To be credible, the new initiative had to be real and sustainable to avoid splintering, the dissipation of outreach resources, and further unrest.  If ambivalence persisted and disruptions were extended, opponents knew that amelioration would become that much more intractable.