DMR


Digital decisions


With the DMR standard continuing to grow in popularity, Tim Clark examines the wide range of benefi ts it can bring to different industries and workplaces


A


lmost everyone who has been responsible for a company’s mission- critical radio communications systems


has – at some point in their career – had to make a crucial decision about what new systems they should deploy to keep their organisation working as effi ciently, cost-eff ectively and safely as possible. Whether that responsibility involves


About the author


Tim Clark is director of professional radio products, EMEA, at Motorola Solutions


supporting just one single manufacturing plant or a range of international sites that need to be networked together, the range of possible options open to them grows wider every year. Once upon a time, those technology


choices involved were pretty limited and relatively straightforward to evaluate, with basic voice connectivity being the primary requirement. Many companies now however have become aware of the vital enabling role that more advanced voice and data services and applications can bring to supporting strategic corporate initiatives – such as lean manufacturing, fl exible working practices or enhanced worker safety. Already well-known technologies like Wi-Fi,


DECT and 2G/3G/4G cellular services all have a role to play in some aspect of the commercial and industrial environment, but one of the more recent wireless standards to appear – Digital Mobile Radio (DMR) – brings with it a number of new benefi ts, strengths and features that


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make it particularly well-suited to workplaces of diff erent shapes and sizes.


An open, evolving standard First ratifi ed by ETSI in 2005, DMR is an open and evolving international standard specifi cally developed to answer the needs of Professional Mobile Radio (PMR) users across the world over the next couple of decades. Based on two- slot TDMA technology and able to use global land mobile frequencies, DMR provides a large number of improvements on historic PMR analogue systems as well as providing a number of invaluable features not available with other wireless systems. For a start, DMR off ers twice the calling


capacity in each radio channel compared with its analogue ancestor, while simultaneously providing much clearer audio, especially at the edge of radio cells. Battery life too has been signifi cantly enhanced, delivering around 40 per cent longer usage than analogue.


LAND mobile August 2013


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