When Central Nottingham College first got in contact with Radio Links, their radio estate needed some attention. They had over 40 old analogue radios, some rented, and some purchased however most of the radios were chipped, broken or unusable. The problems didn’t end there, the radios that did work suffered with poor signals, interference between channels, frequent cut-outs, coverage black spots and they were using VHF radios, where UHF would have performed better.
As a starting point we supplied the college with TC610 radios to improve the communication for the short term, while we assessed the full extent of the coverage they would need. Despite the TC610’s only being a starting point, the staff members reported back to us that they loved the radios, not only for their durability but also that they were able to communicate with one another.
Once we had completed a site survey and understood the needs and requirements from the college, we set to work creating a plan. The first step was to finally upgrade all the sites over to digital from analogue to help reduce the chance of coverage black spots, improve signal strength and eliminate interference. From there they invested in the Hytera PD605 and PD665 hand portable radios, once decided on these radios they asked for them to be programmed with Health and Safety Man Down and Lone Worker functions.
Overall the college reported that the communication across all the campuses were providing the backbone to a full, future-proof communications systems for the 21st century.