interview
German paramedics using a Sepura handheld radio
health and safety of a user, for example man down, motion sensing, Bluetooth wireless connectivity to headsets, etc. Tese are now becoming de facto standard in TETRA handhelds. One recent addition has been the camera, however the
real use cases around a camera capability and security are still questionable with most organizations stating that a separate device is more secure, delivers better quality and also has the ability to deliver real-time video. Te market drive is for real-time video, images and telemetry; this will be delivered when critical communications LTE arrives. Te second area of innovation is around the ruggedness
of products, not just from dropping, but also waterproof variants (IPX7). Tese are now standard for all new Sepura handheld products, uniquely also on our ATEX approved range of keypad and keypadless handhelds. Lastly, our leading TETRA radios can work as DMO
repeaters and TMO/DMO gateways (between the network and Direct Mode) and these satisfy a wide range of use cases, especially data focused. Tat means that TETRA can be extended in a secure way into 99 per cent of operational scenarios. When this is coupled with a range extension in the TETRA standard to 86km it is a very powerful offering. Sepura has gone even further and offers products with a range of up to 120km when used with their own base stations.
What software support do you provide for managing, configuring and updating fleets of terminals, and how important is this becoming? With Radio Manager, Sepura was the first TETRA company to introduce a truly remote programming, fleet and asset management tool than can simultaneously upgrade radios. Since then we have continued to lead the market with customers now evaluating the software tools in field trials as stringently as they do the radios themselves.
42 Tese software tools now carry out a lot more tasks
than just radio programming and can be used for fault diagnostics, battery health evaluation, upload of images to SD cards (for the user to browse) etc. Tey are now a vital part of our offering.
How do you view the moves towards adding broadband capabilities to TETRA and how long do you think it will be before this becomes a reality? Broadband is a useful addition to an organization’s communications needs. Over the next few years we will start to see real LTE data overlay systems appearing with little or no interaction with TETRA. Tese data overlay systems are being driven by the
less than 10 per cent of mobile applications that require broadband data. In many locations where there isn’t any wired
infrastructure or it is outdated, we will see broadband being used to replace some fixed lines applications, providing more solid support to the business case for broadband data networks. However, in the future we could see demand for dual
mode terminals or even LTE only terminals that support the TETRA services. Te rate of standardization by 3GPP and then by manufacturers will mean that a true hybrid system is at least some 10 years away for mission critical users, but sooner for non-mission critical users.
Where will TETRA be in five years’ time? Still continuing to dominate the worldwide digital PMR market for mission and business critical users. TETRA has the most thorough standardization process
and interoperability testing within PMR, leading to the most innovative products in the market from the widest multi-vendor eco-system.
TE TRA TODAY Issue 14 2013
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