Most professional radio systems we install today use Digital Mobile Radio (DMR) technology.
Compared with traditional analogue radio, DMR can provide clearer audio, more efficient use of available radio channels and additional functionality such as messaging, GPS location and worker safety features.
We supply professional two way radios from established manufacturers including Hytera, Motorola and Entel, giving us the flexibility to recommend equipment around your operational requirements rather than limiting the solution to a single manufacturer.
The right radio will depend on where it will be used, the features required and your existing equipment or preferences. Options include rugged handheld radios for everyday industrial use, ATEX-certified devices for hazardous areas, and mobile radios for vehicles and fixed locations.
Where employees work in potentially explosive environments, standard electronic equipment may not be suitable.
ATEX radios are designed for hazardous locations where gases, vapours, mists or combustible dust could potentially be ignited by electrical equipment.
Different ATEX zones identify the likelihood of an explosive atmosphere being present:
Zone 0 / 20 – an explosive atmosphere is present continuously or for long periods.
Zone 1 / 21 – an explosive atmosphere is likely to occur occasionally during normal operation.
Zone 2 / 22 – an explosive atmosphere is unlikely to occur during normal operation and, if it does, will normally only exist for a short period.
The radio selected therefore needs to be certified for the environment in which it will be used. Intrinsically safe radios are engineered to limit electrical and thermal energy so the equipment does not provide an ignition source.
This makes specialist radio equipment particularly important in chemical plants, petrochemical facilities and other hazardous industrial environments.
The same radio used for everyday communication can also help an employee raise an alarm when they need assistance.
Supported radios can include dedicated emergency buttons, man-down functionality that automatically raises an alarm if an employee may have fallen or become incapacitated, and GPS to help establish their location.
This can be particularly valuable for engineers, maintenance teams, security personnel and others who spend periods working alone or away from colleagues.
Severn Trent Water, for example, operates sites where employees work underground in basements, tunnels and pipe galleries, sometimes with little or no mobile coverage. ANT Telecom has implemented digital radio systems across a number of its sites, providing site-wide communication alongside lone worker protection.
Employees can call for help or use the panic button on their radio in an emergency. If someone falls or becomes incapacitated, man-down functionality can automatically raise an alert, while GPS helps colleagues locate the person requiring assistance.
The radio system also integrates with Severn Trent's SCADA alarm management system, allowing critical operational alarms to reach engineers wherever they are working on site.
Two important considerations when designing a professional radio system are coverage and capacity.
Coverage determines where users can communicate. Steel structures, machinery, thick walls, underground areas, changes in elevation and the size of a site can all affect how far a radio signal travels.
Where direct radio-to-radio communication isn't sufficient, strategically positioned DMR repeaters can receive and retransmit radio signals to extend coverage into harder-to-reach areas.
Capacity determines how many conversations the system can support. For example, maintenance, production and security teams may need to communicate independently and at the same time.
DMR technology allows two separate conversations to take place on a single frequency using different time slots. For larger or busier sites, additional repeaters and technologies such as XPT or digital trunking can increase capacity further, making radio resources available to different talk groups as required.
We therefore design around both where people need to communicate and how many people or groups need to communicate simultaneously, while considering how requirements may change in the future.
Before recommending a radio system, we need to understand the environment in which it will operate. This will normally begin with a discussion about how your teams work, where they need to communicate and any operational or safety challenges you're trying to address.
During a site assessment, we'll walk the site with you to understand the working environment in more detail. This is where we'll consider requirements such as the number of users and talk groups, system capacity, lone worker and ATEX requirements, and whether operational or safety alarms need to reach radio users.
A radio coverage survey may be carried out at the same time or at a later date. This focuses specifically on testing radio signal strength and identifying areas where coverage may be weak or unavailable. We can test across buildings, production areas, external spaces, basements and other locations where your teams need to communicate.
The findings help us determine whether radios can communicate directly or whether repeaters or other infrastructure will be required to provide the necessary coverage and capacity across the site.
We can then recommend a system design and suitable radios before programming, installation, testing and user training.
Your radio network doesn't have to operate independently from other systems across your site.
Critical alarms from machinery, SCADA/OPC systems, fire panels, building management systems and other operational equipment can be integrated and delivered directly to appropriate radio users.
For example, if a piece of machinery develops a fault, an alert can be automatically distributed to the people responsible for responding rather than relying solely on somebody monitoring a control screen.
Critical alarm management software can determine who should receive an alarm and automatically escalate it to another person or group if it isn't acknowledged, helping establish a defined and auditable response.
This means the same radio used for everyday communication can become part of a wider communication, safety and alarm management system.
For larger systems, dispatcher software can provide a central view of radio users and communications.
Depending on the system, a dispatcher can communicate with individuals or groups, view user locations, manage emergency alerts and coordinate incident response.
Voice recording and call logging can also provide a record of communications for incident reviews, procedures or training.
Not every organisation needs to purchase a radio system. Two way radio hire can provide a flexible option for temporary requirements, short-term projects, events or situations where additional radios are needed for a limited period.
We can provide professional two way radios configured around your requirements, including standard and ATEX radios for hazardous environments. Repeaters can also be supplied where additional coverage is needed across larger or more challenging sites.
Tell us how many radios you need, where they'll be used and what you need them to do. We can recommend suitable equipment and configure the radios around your requirements, including any repeaters needed to support coverage across the site.
