Originally Posted by
Uplinker
No amount of cameras, automatic drone spotters and other gizmos can make up for the situational awareness that comes from actually sitting in the Tower with one's binoculars - seeing the Red Arrows cross your airspace, observing the storm clouds in the far distance, watching the police, ambulance or traffic helicopter and all manner of SA clues and cues that you just won't get in the same way on a couple of HD screens.
And of course, when the video links go down - and they will !! - What then ??
But you will see the Red Arrows, the storm clouds and all the helicopters you mention!
Your point about the visuals failing is the important one. The redundancy and resiliency of the system is key. If the visuals did fail then the fallback is effectively LVPs - which would certainly affect capacity until the visuals became serviceable again.
Losing visuals and comms would effectively shut the airport. But then losing comms would effectively shut the airport with its traditional tower too.