Background
Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality is located in East London, South Africa. Electrical Department is responsible for the maintenance and repair of the Electrical Reticulation System for East London, Mdantsane, Bhisho and King William's Town areas.
The electrical department was using a mid-band analogue radio system which had been in service for many years and was difficult to maintain and to repair due to the lack of spares available. The system comprised of a mix of brands of analogue equipment, repeaters, mobiles, base stations and
portables. The control room was utilizing base stations on various channels and the required area of operation was limited.
Due to the increasing size of the metropolitan, additional staff and equipments are required to carry out the maintenance and repairs. The existing analogue system cannot afford more user capacities as there are too many group conversations as well as individual conversations. At the same time, with more employees, communication and management efficiency are becoming more critical and important for the department. Their challenge is to find a digital two-way radio system that could supply more than a new walkie talkie. They want a control room with dispatching software with recording and GPS function.
User
Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality, South Africa
Market Segment
Power Supply
Project Time
2015
Product
Hytera Dispatch System
PD78XG Portable Radio
MD78XG Mobile Radio
RD62X Repeater
Solution
-
From 2014 to 2015, M.H. Communications supplied a Hytera DMR conventional network with an advanced dispatching & tracking solution for the department, along with the Hytera Dispatch Software, RD62X VHF Repeaters, PD78XG Portables and MD78XG Mobiles.
The system comprises 5 X RD62X VHF Repeaters linked to 8 X Hytera Dispatch System. Each client using Hytera Dispatch System operates individually and communicates to relevant repeater area. The audio link fe ture in the Hytera Dispatch System allows the repeaters to be linked as required, allowing communications between areas.
Benefits
1. The Hytera Digital Solution with Hytera Dispatch System has greatly improved the clients' operation efficiency. They are using terminals with GPS, which helps a lot with organizing the reaction time of technicians and in turn saves costs.
2. Clients are able to see easily where their technicians are at all times by using the Hytera Dispatch System, which also avoids unnecessary dispatches and improves work efficiency.
3. The Hytera Dispatch System's recording and reporting functions greatly improve the way the clients conduct their daily businesses.
4. With short data message feature, clients' address and contact number can be sent directly from the dispatcher to the responding technicians' radios.
5. With the DMR conventional multi-sites IP network, all the repeaters compose a much larger communications range, ensuring the technicians to communicate throughout the whole area.
6. The RD62X wall mounted repeater is so easily fitted into the control room that quite few space is occupied by this solution.
7. The back-to-back solution between the same repeater models greatly supports the department to smoothly upgrade from existing analogue system into digital system. During this process, digital radios can talk back to analogue radios, which saves costs significantly.
