Daren Ng, Business Development Director, Two-way radio channels, APAC, said Digital two-way radios have kept pace with the changing needs of governments and enterprises and their market is continuing to grow.
"In government it is even more valuable because radio design enables intuitive usage during critical moments. Features such as GPS technology, man down function, and ambient listening are proven life savers, especially during public safety operations, or working in remote locations such as forests or in mines," he said.
In an email interview, he explained further the advantage of the system in the era of smartphones and mobile devices:
eGov Innovation: Please give an overview of two-way digital radios, the digitization of information and how they benefit high-risk environments.
Darren Ng (DN): The transformation of two-way radios was driven by the evolution of technology and the emergence of standards based on technologies such as TETRA (Terrestrial Trunked Radio) and APCO (Association of Public Safety Communications Officials International) for public safety users, and DMR (Digital Mobile Radio) standard for professional commercial radio users in the enterprise space.
This evolution from analog to digital has exponentially increased capabilities such as integrated voice & data, advanced signaling, improved voice quality, stronger security, voice privacy and spectrum efficiency. TETRA and APCO mission-critical digital
trunked radio networks are built to be scalable, resilient and available, support intensive data applications and offer features unique to mission-critical use. A similar capability set is also offered by DMR standards-based two-way radios for business critical use.
Radios are built to stringent ruggedness standards to ensure they withstand multiple drops to concrete, water and dust ingress, and withstand extreme temperatures. The radio design enables intuitive usage during critical moments. Radios that are ATEX or ATmosphere EXplosive certified ensure safe communication in combustible environments such as mines, refineries and oil platforms.
Finally, private radio networks are built with high redundancies to ensure they are available during emergencies. TDMA technology makes the radios spectrally efficient and gives up to 40 percent extra talk time, very critical for those working in remote areas where public cellular networks are not accessible and radio is the only lifeline available.
eGov Innovation: With the surge in the use of tablets and smartphones, what is the advantage in using digital radios for organizations, especially in the government (for use in ensuring public safety)?
DN: Very often, the safety of communities depends on calls getting through to the public safety agency, command and control center and field officers. Therefore, certainty of communication is essential.
Cellular networks, which personal devices such as smartphones and tablets have access to, are not designed and built for mission-critical communication. When disaster strikes or large accidents occur, it is usually the cellular networks that are the first to suffer disruption due to high call traffic.
Private radio networks stand-alone and function within a dedicated spectrum and on a private infrastructure that is purpose-built with high redundancies to ensure robust functioning. This makes them an essential backbone for government and public safety agencies that require instantaneous, one-to-many communication. The other advantage vital for government users would be security of information relay, which is enforced through encryption.
The cost-to-benefit ratio for users is significant. The ruggedness of the devices and the long device lifecycle deliver investment assurance. Once the network is set up, unlimited calls between users and groups of users can be made, which translates to significant savings in cost of operations and utilization. The benefits in terms of immediacy of communication and reliability may also make a
critical difference in life-saving situations.
eGov Innovation: How important are two-way radios as a tool for lone workers operating in high-risk environments??
DN: High-risk environments include oil pipelines, mines, chemical plants, forests, man-made disasters or even crime scenes. Many of these places would typically have low or insufficient cellular network coverage, be combustible, remote or have other forms of risks. This is where a two-way radio, running on a dedicated private network and with a rich set of features, comes in as essential to the lone-worker.
Digital two-way radios can be programmed to send a heartbeat signal, which ensures that a lone worker responds to a regular, recurring alarm, which then sends a signal back to the control station, confirming he is safe. In a mine, combustible gases are often present, thus, endangering the lives of miners who may not be using communication equipment that are ATEX certified (Safe Communication in Explosive Atmosphere).
Similarly, for a public safety officer attending to a distress call, the man-down function or the emergency button and GPS location tracking in the radio can be a lifesaver. Lone worker capabilities on two-way radios have also enabled companies to reduce their costs and manpower requirements.
eGov Innovation: What kind of infrastructure is needed for an enterprise or government agency to be able to deploy digital radios? How much is the investment? What are the different kinds of devices that currently in use??
DN: In many countries, two-way radios are a controlled and restricted item. Only the police, military or other public safety agencies are allowed to use it, as spectrum is precious. In order to deploy digital two-way radio communication, an enterprise must obtain frequency license from the local regulator for a fee that the regulator may impose. For example, in Singapore, the local regulator is the Infocomm Development Authority (iDA).
Depending on the geographical size of operations to be covered, a network may require a repeater or several repeaters to ensure sufficient radio coverage. Other considerations would include terrain, altitude or other topographical peculiarities, number of users on the network, type of network ? a mix of voice and data, and applications to be run.
The different types of devices currently in use include portables and mobiles. Portables would consist of hand-held devices with/without display, with full/limited keypad and built-in GPS for resource and asset tracking.
Mobiles would consist of devices built into a vehicle and would have almost similar options, including GPS and full/limited display. There are a number of options and models enterprises can choose from, including Motorola?s latest MOTOTRBO SL Series, the slimmest two-way radio ever.
Scalability is achieved using a link via standard Internet protocol (IP) to another site. The highest MOTOTRBO scalable system can connect up to 35 sites via IP and support thousands of subscribers. Likewise, TETRA and APCO digital systems can be scaled up to nationwide networks, for the use of single or multiple agencies with hundreds of thousands of users and for interoperability and backward compatibility with earlier generation analog systems.
eGov Innovation: What can Motorola offer in this space?
DN: Motorola Solutions has been working with the industry to drive digital migration of the predominantly analog base, as digital offers immense benefits to the users and is spectrum efficient.
Motorola Solutions has, in fact, achieved an industry milestone of over a million MOTOTRBO digital radios shipped in 2011. The move to digital has opened up new areas of applications for two way radios as essential productivity tools in enterprises, supported by a growing world of two way radio application developments.
Digital two-way radios play a significant role as productivity enablers, and provide a compelling case for cost efficiency. They are not irreplaceable in situations requiring command and control communications, task oriented communication, harsh environments and areas where immediacy of communication is critical. Consumer technologies from the BYOD world are simply not built for these inherent advantages.
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