DMR When it comes to supporting new features
and applications however, the move from analogue to digital technologies clearly delivers strong dividends. With two available time-slots per channel, it becomes possible to provide signalling to support advanced voice features like group call or emergency override. While all these features deliver new functionalities that can be mixed and matched to suit diff erent user cases, it is probably the role that DMR can play in supporting more advanced applications that is likely to deliver the most signifi cant benefi ts.
Applications, applications, applications Although applications account for an increasingly large part of the consumer mobile phone sector with an estimated 800,000 apps available for download from Google and Apple – representing a market estimated at being worth around £27 billion in 2013 according to ABI Research – many business, industrial and utility users of radio systems have been slower to implement anything beyond voice services. T e ability of the DMR standard to support the transmission of IP-based data over the airwaves – supported by devices with larger screens – suddenly opens the way for businesses to begin to explore and exploit new ways of working. By integrating radio coverage with existing IT, voice and data systems such as workforce management, production control, despatch, delivery and PBXs – as well as new information sources such as location data, telemetry, M2M, RFID and others – it becomes possible to develop new work practices, eliminate the friction from old ones and track and manage both human and physical resources much more dynamically. T ere is already clear evidence that DMR’s
strengths are encouraging extremely fast adoption by users of many diff erent types. According to estimates from research company IHS, there are now more than 2 million active DMR users around the world and, by the end of 2017, the company predicts that there will be more DMR handsets in use than any other PMR technology, including TETRA and P25. Already, just as with the consumer sector,
application developers are joining the ecosystem, bringing particular skills and expertise from diff erent vertical markets or technology sectors to the end users. With leading solutions vendors driving these development communities, making Application Development Kits (ADKs) available to partners and helping them explore the inherently open and standardised world of DMR, it is now feasible to drive enterprise- focused innovation across multiple market sectors in extremely cost-eff ective and creative ways with all the price-performance benefi ts of scale you would expect from a global technology standard.
LAND mobile August 2013 Eurostar Engineering Centre – London
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ith the capacity to hold eight Eurostar trains simultaneously, the company’s engineering centre in Leyton, London is a huge depot with the main building 435 metres long and 54
metres wide. While maintenance engineers working on the train use a Mototbro DMR system to communicate with one another and with managers, it was also decided to integrate the radio network with the fi re alarm system on the site to be able to quickly track potentially dangerous situations, alerting staff and allowing fi re marshals to rapidly assess the level of threat and call for outside assistance. Using an alarm control system from Motorola Solutions partner Zonith, integrated with a
Protec fi re alarm system to cover 85 individual fi re protection zones, it is now possible to send selective alerts to engineers and fi re marshals in particular zones. Alarm text messages are sent to each worker’s handset, supplemented by vibration alerts and radio alarm tones as well, saving time and energy previously expended in checking alarm panels and keeping productivity up when alarms turn out to be false.
Mercedes-Benz – Hungary
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ith an $800 million 400 hectare new factory employing 3000 workers, Mercedes-Benz Manufacturing Hungary needed a secure and reliable system to manage communications
between security guards, the on-site fi re department and maintenance teams. Because of the size of the plant and the potential for interference from the many metal structures within it, DMR was the ideal technology because of its resistance to interference under diffi cult conditions. The solution selected by Mercedes-Benz used a Mototrbo network controlled by a TRBOnet enterprise application to monitor user activity, send scheduled text messages and identify whether radios are switched on or off. With GPS signals not working indoors, a new solution was required, so prime contractor Neocom
integrated a beacon location system from Kilchherr Elektronik, integrated with the TRBOnet system. Each time a radio user passes one of the 36 beacons in the plant, it transmits a unique ID over one of the DMR channels back to the control room. This data is then transferred via the TRBOnet dispatcher software onto a 2D map allowing managers to pinpoint the exact location of the user. Whether they are operating independently or in workgroups, the DMR system provides mission
critical communications to key workers. Security guards patrolling the plant have the reassurance of reliable and clear communications throughout the site, managers can react more quickly to machine breakdowns, locate engineers more easily to minimise downtime and alert staff instantly if there is a safety risk. In addition, the factory’s fi re brigade also uses the system to coordinate a rapid response in emergencies and is able to identify the exact location of personnel to aid rescue operations.
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