PSA Antwerp

PSA Antwerp's story began in 2002, with the merger of two well-established port operators: Hessenatie and Noord Natie. Both companies with hundreds of years of experience became one of the key actors in the port of Antwerp. This single entity was subsequently brought under the umbrella of Singapore-based PSA International, one of the largest port groups in the world specialised in container handling. The PSA Group participates in port projects across Asia, Europe and the Americas with flagship operations in PSA Singapore Terminals and PSA Antwerp. As the port operator of choice in the world's gateway hubs, PSA currently processes some 203,400 containers per day, which amounted to a total for 2017 of 74.25 million TEUs (twenty foot equivalent units). The terminal in Singapore accounts for almost half of this volume. The Belgian PSA Antwerp is the largest PSA investment outside of Singapore.

BIS: For years a trusted supplier of audio-visual equipment

The headquarters in Napelsstraat accommodate various PSA services, such as IT, HR up to administration and marketing. All meeting rooms are equipped with 65” Samsung displays and Barco Clickshare units for smooth connectivity. Some years ago we started with the rollout of a large digital signage network which meanwhile contains more than 80 display points. Thanks to the BISID system with connected CMS the customer benefits from a perfectly scalable system. The displays are neatly divided per wharf and additionally there also exist subgroups with for example only operational content, internal communication, information for lorry drivers, safety screens,… Thus the customer has an overview and can easily send a message to a certain display or schedule it to appear at a certain point in time.

Why is a separate content management system still needed?

In many situations the narrowcasting system needs to be operated quickly by marketers, communications officers, operators and management assistants without training or any ICT background. This is why BIS introduced the Content Runner (browser-based CMS package) so that this task can easily be performed by everybody. Typical for this way of working is that the management of the narrowcasting presentation can be executed separately. If any modification should be made to the logo or the corporate identity colours, the customer can still take care of it himself in the Designer program. We have chosen to allow the creation of user roles without restrictions, which means that the person who logs in can only control the displays of his/her department. Furthermore there also exist some Superadmins being able to post information everywhere. In the meantime, BIS has trained the customer in a way that they can create these users themselves for newcomers, or for users getting greater responsibility.

How does PSA handle this CMS?

Via the browser it is possible to use the Content Runner if one is connected to the PSA network. By doing so the existing BIS ID applications are bypassed (= more efficient) and there is no need to install local software for the users. The narrowcasting application will always be accessible everywhere provided that the user is connected to the PSA network. All data are locally saved on the PSA server, in this case the CMS system is intentionally not in the cloud. At PSA security is key, just think about the content of certain cargo ships, the schedules of the shift systems, etc. This information should never be made publicly available. The virtual server which is used by PSA to host PADS is also functioning as Content Runner server. All content uploaded by the web browser gets into a subfolder of the existing Content Library. All data are thus also cached offline per display point, content is never streamed on the network given that all viewer PCs are synchronised with the content library.

You want to get more information about this project or an introduction to Digital Signage, CMS, data providers and content control? Call BIS on: 015 287 487 or contact us via the possibilities mentioned on the right.