Get Your 2-Way Radios Ready
Thousands of people flock to your campus for the big game. A forensic patient escapes from his room during treatment. An active shooter opens fire in a classroom. Are you prepared to effectively communicate with the necessary agencies or personnel to handle these scenarios?
If your radio system is not narrowbanding-compliant by January 1, 2013, your campus could face monetary fines or the loss of your FCC radio license.
If you’re still on an analog system but need to replace lost or broken equipment, explains Johnson, you should purchase digital radios and program them to work with the analog system. The radios will function fully “with your existing analog system that we’re re-licensing and modifying. Then, when everything is complete and the equipment is all replaced with digital equipment, you flip the switch and everything’s digital,” he explains.
For the Houston Community College Police Department, migrating to digital two-way radios is a long-term process. The department serves six campuses over approximately 600 square miles and uses more than 200 handheld radios.
“We don’t have them all upgraded to digital yet, that’s in the works,” says Larry Sherwood, Crimestar Database and Mobile Data Terminals (MDT) administrator for the department. “We intend to convert our entire fleet to digital at the earliest possible time.”
For Houston Community College police, gradually switching to digital radios has several advantages: first, it’s easier on the budget; secondly, it allows the department to have working radios at all times.
“We have to keep some [radios] in service while we’re converting over,” explains Sherwood. “It’s a process that we figure probably will take us at least a couple of semesters.”
Digital Radio Features Improve Safety, Ease Communication
Switching to a digital system will not only prepare your campus for the future, it will also provide an array of previously unavailable features. These features have the potential to increase safety on your campus by easing the strain of emergency communication.
“The features of digital and analog are night and day,” says Johnson. “[Digital] is a whole new platform.”
“A powerful aspect of [digital radio] technology is the IP connectivity that links single conventional channels or multi-channel trunked sites together,” says Watts. Trunked radio systems are computer-controlled radio systems that only use a few channels but can have virtually unlimited talk groups. “The users can utilize both their own private and commercial subscriber broadband networks to link sites,” he adds.
Additionally, Kenwood’s NEXEDGE digital radios “offer enhanced automatic level control and audio filtering. This reduces high level background noise dramatically and accentuates the user’s voice so that even in extremely noisy conditions, the recipient hears clear audio rather than garb
led or distorted communications,” explains Watts. A digital radio system has the potential to increase campus security through radio clarity, ensuring that users will be able to understand commands in the event of an emergency.
Users with digital radio equipment also have the option of using GPS to locate or track personnel who are carrying radios. And if a radio is taken by an unauthorized person, administrators have the ability to “kill” the compromised equipment.
“If someone leaves a property with [a radio], I can send a command to it, and as long as it’s in the footprint of coverage it will kill it immediately,” explains Johnson. “If they made it outside of the footprint, it waits until it senses it come back in [the coverage area] and kills it.”
Surveillance Easier with Hot Miking, E-mails, Texts
Digital radios can also be “hot miked” – meaning that dispatch personnel have the ability to listen in on radio feeds even when the user of that specific radio is not operating his or her handheld. The idea behind this, says Johnson, is to navigate dangerous situations – such as an altercation between a security officer and a suspect.
“If you’re in an emergency operation center and you see one of your [security officers] is in an altercation with somebody and you can’t hear what’s going on, you can open up his mic,” explains Johnson. “You can hear all the background noise while you’re watching it on the video monitor.”
This, Johnson explains, will help security personnel make informed decisions during high stress situations. “It’s going to be up to your organization whether you want to utilize that kind of thing,” he adds.
“Radios are really much more than push-to-talk these days,” says Pourciau. “Radios today also have data capabilities built into them. So, for instance, if you had to be on the look out and you wanted to contact police officers or campus safety officers in the field, text messaging capabilities are available.”
Digital radios can also help users communicate with personnel who do not carry handhelds. Portable radios operating on Motorola’s MotorTRBO platform allow users to send E-mails directly from their handhelds and can be programmed to perform tasks such as opening gates or garage doors. MotoTRBO incorporates Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) technology – the same technology that is used in cell phone networks to increase efficiency by allowing a greater number of simultaneous transmissions.
MotoTRBO allows users to operate two talk paths for each physical station, allowing a “more efficient use of resources. It is greener, because less stations mean less space is needed, and there is less power consumption, less heat put out,” adds Pourciau.
“This is exciting because with the digital platform, radio has really reinvented itself,” says Johnson.
Communication With First Responders is Key
Interoperability with local police, fire fighters or other campuses is most likely important to the daily operation of your facility. If that is the case, acquiring Project 25-compliant radios could be essential to ensuring safety on your campus.
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