The Dominion Post
01-Feb-2010
Page: 6
NZ Infotech
By: Claire McEntee
Region: Wellington
 

Digitral Radio Helps Keep Council Staff Safe From Attack

Hutt City Council has signed up to Kordia's new digital mobile radio network to help protect field staff from enraged car owners and rampaging dogs.

Council divisional manager of inspections Geoff Stuart says the network provides emergency alert, GPS tracking, radio and cellphone functionality, and has already been used by one parking warden under attack.

The warden had ticketed a car with no registration and no warrant and was walking away when he was pushed over by the car's owner - who had already been ticketed by the police for those reasons that day.

The warden hit his panic button and a few minutes later council employees and the police appeared to stop the attack and arrest the offender, Mr Stuart says.

The council, which previously used an analogue radio network, switched to Kordia's network to improve safety for parking wardens, animal control officers and park rangers.

"It's for when they're out by themselves anywhere and they're uninvited and unwanted. We need to know where staff are when they're in trouble."

The network is also cheaper than running separate GPS, radio and emergency alert systems, he says. "It's easily half the cost."

Wellington International Airport has also switched from its analogue system to Kordia's network, which is built on the Tetra (terrestrial trunked radio) global mobile radio standard.

Airport IT manager James Groombridge says the network provides greater coverage and better voice quality than its analogue network, and will be used to communicate with marine rescue boats and fire appliances, as well as airport field staff.

Digital mobile radio networks also allow groups to converse at once, rather than just two people.

Kordia sales and marketing general manager Drew Gilpin says it is targeting security companies, business associations, councils, heavy haulage and freight operators and couriers and has had "good penetration".

The airport and council are looking at installing equipment to enable them to communicate with other radio networks, including networks used by emergency services.

Kordia has teamed up with British company Acis to supply a real-time passenger information system for Wellington bus services but Acis opted to use Vodafone's network instead of Kordia's digital radio network to send bus location information to bus displays.

This is because Acis' telemetry equipment comes with a modem built in, Mr Gilpin says.

"It didn't make commercial sense for them to change a working product to integrate with another network."

NZX-listed TeamTalk has launched a digital mobile radio network in Auckland.

It is based on the digital private mobile radio (dPMR) standard - which was designed specifically for commercial use.

Marketing general manager Kevin Brown says it has signed up two customers, including a freight company, and is in discussions with potential customers in the Waikato and Wellington - where it plans to launch the service.