Setting Up A Small Business
61 202039 mins, 2020 This is about two young people who set up their own high-tech business — and did it their way. Alex Eyres and Roxanna Barnard set up Sound Technologies Ltd in 2015. The business supplies and installs audio visual equipment for domestic customers and corporate clients — that includes home cinema, also sound… Read more »
The Struggle For Sustainable Tourism
49 200525 mins, 2005 The People of Santa Lucia, a farming community on the slopes of the Andes, were forced to abandon their traditional way of life because of laws brought in to protect the cloud forest where they live. THE ECO LODGE: Before, they were destroyers of the forest. Now, they have learned the skills… Read more »
Systems In Travel
47 200225 mins, 2002 The film charts the radical changes that IT has brought, through the experience of tour operator Sunvil Travel and Internet-based travel agency Expedia. While Sunvil uses computers to put its customers’ holidays together, Expedia does everything on the web. Its website allows you to book your hotel room or seat on a… Read more »
Systems In A Factory
43 200427 mins, 2004 This film looks at the key systems used in a factory. It focuses on two case studies: the Glaxo Smith Kline toothpaste factory and plastic injection moulding company, Time RPS. How do they compare? TYPES OF PRODUCTION: GSK is an example of continuous flow production: they make a million tubes of toothpaste… Read more »
Starting A Business: The Café Bar
34 200030 mins, 2000 The film tells how Dave and his brothers set up a cafe-bar. They get planning permission, they design the interior, open up and customers pour in. But six months on, there’s a crisis. Money’s going out as fast as it’s coming in. And a lack of control means they don’t know where… Read more »
Systems In A Hotel
33 200027 mins, 2000 This demonstrates the systems in a large hotel. The hotel’s booking system shows the rooms available and helps maximise income from the rooms, discounting prices when things are quiet. For each guest the system records a guest history, with details of their likes and dislikes. When a guest feels a room is… Read more »
Sweet Misery: Aspartame
31 200730 mins, 2007 Is the artificial sweetener aspartame a danger to our heath? This US film argues the case that the process by which this widely used food additive became approved by food safety bodies was dangerously flawed. Aspartame, better known under its brand name Nutrasweet, and found in many well-known snack foods and soft… Read more »
Systems In A Theatre
28 200527 mins, 2005 A star from Eastenders, Toyah and a load of corny gags – the pantomime at the Marlowe Theatre has the lot. But how do their information systems work? TICKETING: The computerised ticketing system reserves you a seat and even warns if there’s bad language in the show. But the real prize is… Read more »
Systems In Banking And Data Protection
27 200329 mins, 2003 Banks rely on information systems but how do they work? Dave Nellist investigates. He pays a cheque into his bank. It enters the clearing system, becomes a piece of data and finally allows him to draw out cash to buy his mum a present. Every stage in the process involves systems and… Read more »
Systems In Local Government
27 200635 mins, 2006 Local councils are often huge organisations, providing a wide variety of services, from running libraries to keeping the roads free of ice. Critical to their operation are information systems. This film visits Cornwall County Council to explore how five of these information systems work. ADMINISTRATION: Councils are vast bureaucracies generating mountains of… Read more »
Sustainable Development
27 200634 mins, 2006 What’s meant by sustainable development? This film offers a stark account of the dangers threatening the planet and explores what we can do to avoid disaster. INDUSTRIALISATION: The problems started about 250 years ago with the industrial revolution. First coal, then oil, fuelled a world of mass production, mass consumption – and… Read more »
Systems In A Cinema
26 200027 mins, 2000 How do cinemas use information technology? We compare two very different examples. The huge Film Works multiplex, in Manchester, has its own web-site. The much smaller Gate cinema, in London, uses e-mails to keep in touch with its customers but otherwise has much more limited IT. The Gate still issues tickets manually,… Read more »