"The idea behind E^TV is to get the important messages and information to employees quickly and effectively."--Janet Wrather, vice president of communications, Lockheed Martin

It is a launch day at Cape Canaveral. Being readied for takeoff is a satellite built by Lockheed Martin Missiles & Space, a leading supplier of spacecraft to military, civil and commercial communications groups around the world. The A2100 satellite's telecommunications payload will provide client communications companies with voice, data and direct television distribution services. All systems are go and the Lockheed Martin Atlas IIA rocket carrying the A2100 lifts majestically upward and gradually disappears into the clear blue Florida sky.

About 3,000 miles away at Missiles & Space headquarters in Sunnyvale, California, thousands of the company's employees-secretaries, engineers, assemblers and scientists among them-witness the event with pride. There was a time when a successful launch was something they could only read about in the company's newspaper or on its corporate intranet. But thanks to a new workforce communication system called E^TV (for Employee Television), Missiles & Space employees in Sunnyvale can now watch the launch as it happens.

"When we have a launch the halls are filled with folks watching on monitors," says E^TV co-coordinator Jeff Richmond, a former news anchor and sportscaster. "The employees love it. It's our biggest attraction." Biff Geiser, who has a background in broadcast and corporate television, is Richmond's fellow E^TV coordinator. "I've gotten E-mail from people thanking us," he says. "They write that they really like the launch coverage because it connects them to the company's heritage."

E^TV was started in November 1996 as part of an ongoing commitment from management to "improve communications from the top down and the bottom up." It has grown from its initial installation of 50 television monitors in five buildings to 156 monitors located in hallways, lobbies and cafeterias in 34 locations on Missiles & Space's vast Sunnyvale campus which has a workforce of over 9,000.

The basic system-a product of Target Vision Inc. (TVI) of Rochester, N.Y., developer of a total solution that allows companies to communicate with employees via TV monitors placed in high traffic areas and on desktop PCs connected to LANs and corporate intranets-is not in itself unique. Target Vision has installed dozens of similar systems for Fortune 500 companies nationwide, including one for the U.S. Postal Service that connects over 350,000 employees. What sets E^TV apart is its video-rich environment: 40 percent of its content is video as opposed to graphics and text.

E^TV and its innovative use of video is the brainchild of Jan Wrather, Lockheed Martin's vice president of communications. "E^TV gives employees the latest in what's happening in and around Lockheed Martin," she says. "The idea behind E^TV is to get the important messages and information to employees quickly and effectively. We can keep everyone up to date on what they need to know-when they need to know it."

"Our goal at the beginning was to be video-rich," says Richmond. "But we knew that we couldn't be sitting around all day pulling tapes in and out of VCRs or building tape reels. So it was suggested that we go to an MPEG solution and it has worked out really well."

MPEG (Moving Pictures Experts Group) is the name of a family of standards used for coding audio-visual information in a digital compressed format. The major advantage of MPEG, compared to other video and audio coding formats, is that it uses a sophisticated compression technique to produce smaller files. The most common implementations of MPEG provide a video resolution slightly below that of conventional VCR videos.

On a recent morning when pilot Linda Finch landed a restored Lockheed Electra at Oakland International Airport to complete her 26,000 mile flight commemorating Amelia Earhart's last journey, E^TV carried the event live. "It's the video capability of the system that brings Lockheed Martin's accomplishments home and inspires its workforce," says Larry Monheim, Target Vision's president. "Missiles & Space is the perfect client to implement our MPEG playback feature. They are a high-tech company and the system is state-of-the-art."

E^TV's programming is as varied as it is informative. A typical broadcast day begins with a feature called "News in 90," a minute and a half of the top stories of the day, ranging from corporate, company and local news to weather and sports. This is followed by a mix of more news and employee announcements, bulletins, events and industry information. "Lunch Bites" is a 30-minute program that is repeated three times during the lunch period. It is comprised of company promotional material and other video footage that may include press conferences, missile launches and LM-1, a monthly Lockheed Martin news magazine program that highlights company successes such as the Hubble Space Telescope and the F-22 Raptor. Plans for future programming include special events such as a live town hall meeting with Missiles & Space president Mike Henshaw that will feature questions phoned in by employees.

"Our lunch time show is the most video-heavy in content," says Geiser. "During the rest of the day we limit our videos to two minutes or less. We have a program called Employee Focus in which people talk about the unique aspects of their jobs. We've produced a ten segment series called Health Watch-there's an onsite health and exercise center here-that features tips on fitness, diet and safety. We also broadcast training class schedules and do a lot of work with human resources by publicizing things like diversity training, benefits and other issues."

In addition to the material produced by Richmond and Geiser, E^TV broadcasts programs produced by Target Vision. These include TVI Life and Wellness and TVI NewsBreak. "E^TV has a voracious appetite," says Richmond. "Our Health Watch series is good enough to be broadcast anywhere. Fortunately, we have access to Lockheed Martin's video and film department which provides us with support. E^TV is employee television and so it must constantly evolve to reflect what Missiles & Space employees want to see."

A recent survey of the Missiles & Space workforce indicated that they wanted E^TV to broadcast, in order of preference, news about the company; the corporation; national and international events; human resources and benefits; weather and sports; the stock market; the industry, and upcoming events. The survey also revealed that 48 percent of them were most likely to watch E^TV in cafeterias, 39 percent in hallways and 13 percent in lobbies.

E^TV is supplemented by a web site on Lockheed Martin's corporate intranet called E^TV Online. Its purpose is to provide expanded program information and serve as a conduit for feedback from the employee audience. To maintain a fresh perspective, the two E^TV coordinators alternate responsibilities. "Jeff and I switch on a weekly basis," says Geiser. "One week I'm on the Target Vision system and he's on the web site. Then vice-versa. We typically post the longer version of in-depth stories on the web site."

Although the initial installation required Target Vision to adapt its software to accommodate MPEG, the system has operated well, Richmond says. "It was rough at the beginning because the technology was so new. But the folks at Target Vision have been very responsive. We have had practically zero failure; the videos have never failed us. Once, somebody backed into a switch and cut us off. That was the only time we've had dead air."

Because about 70 percent of the people in Sunnyvale have access to desktop computers, Missiles & Space and Target Vision have discussed expanding the system to operate over the intranet. But E^TV's video-rich environment might make that difficult. "I think people would love to have E^TV and its video content on their desktops but you get into bandwidth issues," says Richmond, referring to the massive amounts of memory that even MPEG-compressed data requires. Geiser adds that "We're currently looking into expanding the system into desktops. Some people say they'd be able to watch more if we did."

Missiles & Space is installing a microwave link to bring E^TV to approximately 800 employees who work at the nearby Palo Alto campus. For the present, other company outposts around the country must rely on the online version available on the intranet.

Those most closely involved with E^TV have been pleased with its performance and enthusiastic about its effect on the company's working environment. "I think E^TV and E^TV Online are positive improvements to Missiles & Space employee communications," says Geiser. "It's new communications for a new company for the new century."

Richmond agrees that the system is making an impact. "E^TV has given Missiles & Space employees the unique perspective of watching their work launched into space on a live satellite feed," he says. "It has become the convenient way to get updated on everything from local and corporate news to events and employee recognition. Not having E^TV would be like trying to unring the bell."