TETRA awards


For excellence in TETRA T


The great and the good of the TETRA world gathered at London’s Savoy Hotel in March for the inaugural International TETRA Awards. David Taylor, deputy editor of TETRA TODAY, reports


he awards – a collaboration between TETRA Today magazine and the TETRA + Critical Communications Association (TCCA) – have


been designed to celebrate annually the achievements of TETRA manufacturers, developers, system integrators, network operators, users and other members of the TETRA community worldwide. Making up the judging panel were communications


experts from across the globe. T ey fl ew in from as far away as Argentina, South Africa and Hong Kong, refl ecting the truly international nature of the industry. (See page 32 for a closer look at the judging panel.) After an introduction from Jon Benson, publisher of


TETRA TODAY, guests settled down to a three-course meal in the Manhattan Room. Host for the evening was Peter Goulding, a former chief superintendent for London’s Metropolitan Police, who admitted to being “passionate about TETRA and all its benefi ts”. Peter’s highly entertaining opening speech concentrated on


Top: fi nalists and award winners celebrate their successes


30


his time in the Met and how dependent British police forces now are on TETRA technology. One particular highlight was his view of last year’s civil disturbances in London, and how police would have handled the occupation of a famous delicatessen store had TETRA not been around. Visions of police offi cers rushing to Starbucks to get a Wi-Fi signal for their iPad kept the audience amused. He also wondered how certain historic events, such as the


sinking of the Titanic, would have panned out had TETRA been available.


It was the perfect warm up to the main event of the evening


– the awards themselves. T ese were made in six categories and the full results can be


seen below.


Best TETRA Enterprise Product sponsored by Rohill T is category pitted Mentura, Motorola and AD Telecom against each other as fi nalists. Bert Bouwers, chief technology offi cer at Rohill, had the distinction of opening the envelope to reveal the evening’s fi rst winner – the Finnish company Mentura, for its Role Oriented Communications Server. T e judges particularly liked this product for its increased


security, reliability, fl exibility and cost effi ciency. One judge commented: “A powerful and well thought out product, with applications in many types of TETRA deployment.” Mentura brought several staff from Finland for the


ceremony and they gathered on stage to collect the award with managing director Sami Honkaniemi. Mr Honkaniemi commented: “We are delighted to receive


this award as a recognition for the whole Mentura team’s dedication to creating excellent products for our customers. We humbly promise to stay focused on that same goal.”


Best TETRA Enterprise Solution sponsored by Mentura It wasn’t long before Mr Honkaniemi was on stage again as Mentura sponsored the next award. He came up to announce the shortlist and winner.


TE TRA TODAY Issue 7 2012


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