Samara Region Emergency Centre Tackles Emergency Situations with Vertex Standard
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15 октября 2012
Difficulties with warranty and post-warranty support by service organisations exacerbated the challenges the SREC faced – most notably the lack of presence of maintenance and repair centres across the region. Vladimir Gorsky, Senior Sales Manager at ZAO Articom - Vertex Standard’s regional partner and principal supplier and technical consultant to the SREC - extrapolates: “In order to have the radios repaired, the SREC had to regularly turn to non-dedicated, low-profle service centres which resulted in long delays due to a lack of original parts and a dearth of maintenance technicians. In addition, the general quality of service was poor and quite often the ‘repaired’ equipment proved to be faulty and so had to be returned once again. As a result, radios were out of service for long periods which had a major impact on emergency team communications. According to the SREC’s service records, up to 45 percent of the radio pool could be in for repair at any given time.”
Addressing the Need for Improved Communications and Reliable Support
Responding to the urgent need to address the shortcomings of its communications system, the SREC - in consultation with ZAO Articom - evaluated a number of vendors’ offerings, before deciding on a Vertex Standard two-way radio solution. Their choice was motivated by: the company’s global reputation and the brand being synonymous with high quality, superior performance and feld-proven technology, an excellent relationship with the supplier (particularly in terms of delivery, availability of product, customer and technical support services) and last but not least, the best price-performance ratio on offer. The new two-way radio solution - implemented jointly by ZAO Articom and ZAO SV Telecom - comprises VX-231 portable radios for feld teams and VX-2200 mobile radios used as base stations and installed in fre trucks and other emergency vehicles.
Customer Overview
The Samara region is one of Russia’s largest industrial areas covering 54,000km², with the majority of the population living in the cities of Samara and Togliatti. It forms part of the Volga Federal District some 870 kilometres south east of Moscow and has a population of over three million spread across 27 municipalities. Established in 2005, the Samara Region Emergency Centre (SREC) provides public safety services to the greater Samara region in line with the country’s nationwide public safety initiative which is supervised by the Ministry of the Russian Federation for Civil Defence, Emergencies and Elimination of Consequences of Natural Disasters (Emercom). Emercom focuses on three core activities: civil defence, fre safety and emergency management. It has emergency centres in each of the country’s 44 regions that receive calls through a national ‘112’ emergency telephone service. The SREC has highly-trained personnel on hand to react promptly to any natural or man-made disaster in tandem with mobile feld emergency teams. In addition to its regular tasks of managing various emergency situations, conducting search and rescue operations and general fre fghting, the SREC is involved in numerous public events where it provides civil defence and emergency management-related training to the region’s citizens. As a result, personnel rely heavily on their two-way radios to keep in touch with team members, other feld teams and vehicle-based, mobile control centres. The Challenge The SREC had been experiencing signifcant performance problems with its ageing two-way radio feet. These included inconsistent signal quality and range as well as a lack of programmable radio options, essential features and hands-free accessories for ease of use.
Easy To Use and Deploy Yet Powerful Solution
Coordinating rapid response teams throughout such a large area and across a broad range of terrain in all types of weather conditions demands a particularly robust and reliable, yet easy to use communications solution. The choice of the VX-231 portables takes two-way radio communication to a new level for the SREC. Although compact and lightweight, they are rugged in construction and performance is not sacrifced as the radios deliver a 5W output with 16 channels and two programmable keys. This is particularly important for team members as they have to ensure nothing gets in the way as they go about their work while still having quick and easy access to instant communications. The safety of Samara’s emergency personnel is paramount and as with all Vertex Standard radios, safety features abound in the VX-231. For example, both the Emergency and Lone Worker alert functions help mobile and centre staff monitor team members at an incident. The Lone Worker mode operates around a built-in timer that requires the user to reset it at a predetermined interval. If it is not reset, the radio then automatically switches to the Emergency mode for assistance. With the Emergency alert option, a silent alarm and live audio is transmitted to the dispatcher to request help. Gorsky adds: “The radios’ programmable buttons allow rescue teams and fre brigades to have rapid access to other teams and to keep in touch with mobile emergency units and fre trucks. And together with the built-in voice activation (VOX) capability for hands-free communication, which is used extensively, personnel are now operating much faster and more effciently in the feld. The built-in encryption also ensures the SREC network is not compromised.” One of the agency’s most important technical pre-requisites for the mobile radios was the ability to support 16 channels with a power output of 50W. The VX-2200 met these requirements easily with the added advantage of offering a broad range of functionality and features representative of more expensive mobile trunked radios. The radios are specifcally designed to deliver fexible mobile communications and support 128 channels and 8 groups.
Delivering Now and Geared for Future Expansion and Field Applications
To date, 167 VX-231 radios have been deployed for emergency teams and VX-2200 radios are being used for 17 fxed communication stations and 33 fre trucks. In addition, the SREC has commissioned a number of all-terrain vehicles which will be used as mobile control and supervisory units in the event of a fxed control centre failing. These vehicles are equipped with a VX-2200 mobile (used as a base station), VX-231 portables, antennas and computer equipment for monitoring and control. The SREC plans to extend the two-way radio network to cover the entire Samara Region. And in the short term, the agency will be making a signifcant investment in radio headsets to allow teams to communicate hands-free in emergency situations.
About Vertex Standard
Since 1956, Vertex Standard has maintained a focused commitment to delivering quality radio communications equipment that supports business productivity and public safety worldwide. We are proud to have never lost sight of this commitment and are relentless to do what it takes to continuously support your business and achieve total customer satisfaction. Vertex Standard is more than a two-way radio manufacturer. Think of us as a true partner working to do everything possible to make you more productive and successful at what you do every day.
About SV Telecom
Founded in 1995, SV Telecom specialises in the design and supply of professional mobile radio systems and related technical support services. SV Telecom has been a Vertex Standard distributor since 2010 and has a large customer base across all industry sectors and local government.
About Articom
Founded in 2006, Articom has been an authorised dealer for Vertex Standard products since 2011. The company’s main activity is the provision of professional two-way radio solutions for government agencies and industrial and commercial organisations across Russia. This includes radio equipment repair, technical advisory services and project support.
©2012 Vertex Standard LMR, Inc.
Источник публикации на русском языке (декабрь 2012):
Декабрьский новостной бюллетень Vertex Standard в котором размещена статья про Самарский проект СВ Телекома и Артикома.
Источник публикации на английском языке:
Декабрьский новостной бюллетень Vertex Standard публикация на английском языке.
