Background
Royal Windsor Racecourse had a communication issue. With a mix of legacy radios that suffered from short battery time, connectivity issues, difficulty of use and compatibility problems, the racecourse team was unable to coordinate a number of functions required to deliver excellent customer service and maintain the high standards of the racecourse.
User
Royal Windsor Racecourse, UK
Market Segment
Sports
Project Time
2016
Product
PD70X Portable Radio
The Challenge
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A fleet of portables would manage communications across the whole of the Royal Windsor Racecourse site for the core time, and additional Hytera hire units could be brought in for major events when staff levels would rise.
It was critical that the handsets were operating both indoor and outdoor, across the various business functions.
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Now, on race day, Royal Windsor operates 5 talk groups: catering, operations, equine, sales and Health & Safety. Key members of the management and Health & Safety team also use channel scan to monitor messages across all of these work groups.
Considering the nature of work carried out by the team, ruggedness and IP rating were important. Staff would often be climbing in and out of cellars, up into canopies and ducts, where radio is an PD70X essential tool that needs to withstand knocks and drops.
The Solution
The decision was made to work with WalltoWall, an authorised Hytera dealer. Royal Windsor Racecourse has worked with Sam from WalltoWall since 2009, receiving expert advice and support, servicing and programming for their radio fleet, and assistance with hire radios at short notice for their larger events.
WalltoWall recommended a Hytera solution, and the radio chosen was the PD70XLT portable DMR with MCA08 MCU multi-unit, rapid-rate chargers.
Flexibility and Ruggedness Required
The PD70XLT is the ideal solution as it is extremely rugged, meaning it can go wherever employees need to go.
A further consideration was ease of use. As staff are often contracted and transient, the radios needed to be simple to use, and easy to train someone up on. Therefore, the PD70XLT ticks all the boxes, with users trained on basic functionality in ten seconds flat.
Battery life was also important, as event day staff can often work long shifts. The PD70X offers unrivalled battery life, ensuring that staff stay connected and can communicate before, during and after the event on a single battery cycle.
A Winning Solution with No Handicaps
The PD70XLT has become an integral part of the Royal Windsor catering and ops team. Efficiency has improved immensely, reducing stock-out situations, ensuring security is quick to respond and critical operations messages are cascaded rapidly.
Coupled that with the long battery life, often lasting shifts from 8am to midnight, and the robustness of the solution, Royal Windsor Racecourse has come to rely hugely on the Hytera solution, and highly recommends them.