The newly renovated Half Way Tree Clock, which was unveiled yesterday during a ceremony to mark World Standards Day. The clock was renovated by the Bureau of Standards Jamaica, with help from the Jamaica National Heritage Trust as well as the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation. (Photo: Michael Gordon)

AFTER a $2 million renovation which included the installation of a Global Positioning System traceable digital clock and electronic chiming system, the Half Way Tree Clock was officially unveiled to the public yesterday.

At exactly 7:30 am on World Standards Day, the clock emitted strains of the Jamaican folk tune, Day O, showing off a new feature that allows different chimes to be programmed into the national monument which now has a second hand.

The renovation is part of the Bureau of Standards Jamaica's plan to upgrade five public clocks across the island as it moves to standardise the nation's time. There are plans to renovate clocks in May Pen, Clarendon; Savanna-la-mar in Westmoreland; Ocho Rios in St Ann as well as Montego Bay, St James.

Work on the Half Way Tree Clock was completed in collaboration with the Jamaica National Heritage Trust as well as the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation.

The BSJ will be working closely with Cable and Wireless, media houses and other vital sectors across the island as it moves to ensure that the island's clocks are synchronised.

"Information is being sold at the rate of megabits per second," said Transport Minister Bobby Pickersgill, who yesterday deputised for the technology minister, Phillip Paulwell, who is off the island. "Simple errors in measurement of usage time could add up to millions of dollars. For example, it is estimated that in the local telecommunications sector an error of one second in billing time amounts to more than $150,000 per year."

He added: "It is against that background that the Bureau of Standards Jamaica has identified the need to provide the nation with state-of-the-art facilities, capable of precisely measuring the units of time, and providing accurate information on it, throughout Jamaica and the wider Caribbean."

The renovation of the King Edward VII Memorial Clock Tower is part of a wider National Time and Frequency Project (NTFP) that began just over a year ago.

Through this project, which was established with technical assistance from the United States' National Institute of Standards and Technology, as well as the National Centre of Metrology in Mexico, the BSJ will now become the internationally recognised local source responsible for time measurements.

Projects already completed under the NTFP include:

* an assessment of national and industrial needs for time and frequency through consultations with the Civil Aviation Authority, Cable and Wireless, Digicel, Spectrum Management Authority, etc;

* training industry players;

* equipping the BSJ with four GPS digital clocks;

* setting up a framework and protocol for use of existing time and frequency infrastructure;

* upgrading of space for the Bureau's time and frequency lab;

* and the installation of two digital outdoor clocks on BSJ properties on Hope and Winchester roads.

"We look forward to seeing other town centres being equipped with similarly updated clocks," said Pickersgill. "I also look forward to seeing (the) time provided in the telecommunications sector being calibrated and certified by the Bureau, as meeting international standards. This will ensure the stability and growth of the sector and will, I am sure, ...attract more investors to Jamaica."

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