Manchester’s Hopwood Hall College now has continuous communication between its two campuses situated five miles apart, following the installation of a MOTOTRBO IP Site Connect digital radio network.
The system was deployed by Motorola Reseller Pennine Telecom and has significantly improved operations by enabling Hopwood Hall’s security, facilities and management teams to communicate via two-way radios and make calls to external telephone lines from anywhere on campus.
The addition of TRBOnet Enterprise dispatch software from Motorola’s Application Partner, Neocom, has given personnel access to a range of customised features such as scheduled texting, voice recording and comprehensive reporting – while still keeping within the college’s tight budget.
Attracting over 8,000 full and part-time students each year, Hopwood Hall prides itself on a 95% pass rate and offers a broad range of qualifications, from accountancy to trade apprenticeships, art, engineering and management studies.
The challenge:
Hopwood Hall College previously had two stand-alone communication systems at its Rochdale and Middleton campuses, with analogue two-way radio providing on-site connectivity between specific work groups and a telephone interconnect solution for contacting desk-bound staff.
As numerous staff members travel between the campuses, the college needed unified communications across both sites, to enable better co-ordination and more streamlined operations. This was particularly pressing for security, facilities and management personnel, as the existing system required them to physically be on site in order to control daily operations. The college was also keen to take advantage of the increased functionality offered by digital radio to further improve efficiency.
A demonstration of MOTOTRBO with TRBOnet Enterprise dispatch convinced Hopwood’s Corporate Services Coordinator, Gareth Tuxworth, that this solution would best serve their needs. Having used Pennine Telecom several times in the past, the college invited them to tender and managed to realise substantial cost-savings as a result.
The solution:
Within a day, two DR 3000 repeaters had been installed at Rochdale and Middleton campuses, using MOTOTRBO IP Site Connect to deliver reliable, seamless communication between the two sites. Over twenty DP 3600 digital portable radios were supplied, with dedicated talk groups for security, facilities and management personnel and an all-call feature that can override communications in an emergency.
The radios have an orange emergency button which can be quickly activated to trigger an alert if the user is in trouble and enables the control room to identify which radio has transmitted the alarm. Personnel security is further enhanced by the lone worker feature which automatically sends an alert if the user fails to respond. The radios can also be remotely activated to enable them to transmit data to the control room without user intervention.
The ability to send text messages allows for discrete communications and MOTOTRBO’s TDMA technology enables simultaneous voice and text transmissions, thereby doubling the capacity of the existing licensed channel.
With Neocom’s TRBOnet Enteprise Dispatch software, Hopwood Hall’s two-way radio users can connect to telephone extensions and outside lines easily, enabling them to reach colleagues even when they’re away from their desks.
The application also records all conversations between radios - including text messages - and logs each event with time and date stamps, providing an audit trail for historical reference.
In addition, TRBOnet’s Scheduled Text Message function enables Hopwood Hall to send reminders about scheduled fire tests to specified users on particular dates and at predetermined times.
The benefit:
MOTOTRBO is a sophisticated digital communication solution; however, its familiar user interface enabled Hopwood Hall’s staff to make an effortless and rapid migration from analogue two-way radios with minimal training required. The consolidation of communications onto a single network across both campuses has greatly improved efficiency as personnel can contact one another without having to worry about which campus they’re on.
“The system has significantly increased functionality, allowing us to record calls, send regular scheduled text messages and it has a front-end system that enables us to view all calls made,” noted Tuxworth.
“The SMS function is proving particularly useful for reminding staff about scheduled fire tests: it beeps and beeps until you answer it so you can’t forget,” he added.
Product Name:
2 x DR 3000 MOTOTRBO repeaters
25 x DP 3600 MOTOTRBO portable radios
IP Site Connect
TRBOnet Enterprise Dispatcher
