UK research campus chooses Sepura radios

A 130-acre scientific research campus in Cambridgeshire, UK has opted for Sepura digital mobile radio (DMR) technology to improve its communications.

Due to expansion, the Wellcome Genome Campus needed a communication solution to aid security, health and safety, as well as facility management services.

A number of digital systems were tested before going out to tender; however, Sepura’s channel partner for Central London, Radiocoms Systems, won the contract for its Sepura DMR solution.

Radiocoms has supplied four repeaters with uninterrupted power supply facilities and over 100 hand-portable radios, including Sepura SBP8040 keypad/display devices for the security team and SBP8340 non-keypad hand-portables for use by other staff with specific talk groups, such as engineering and facilities management.

Each talk group uses a different coloured front bezel to easily identify its own radios.

Radiocoms has also provided the security team with SICS eXpress dispatcher and mapping software.

“Sepura’s complete system solution is a superb fit for the Wellcome Trust. The four repeaters provide eight simultaneous talk channels — one for each group — and the handsets are fully featured and robust, with outstanding loud, clear audio, making them ideal for each of the talk groups’ differing needs,” said Mark Blythe, sales director of Radiocoms Systems.

To improve health and safety, all hand-portable radios are equipped with lone worker, emergency button and GPS features so that in case of an emergency, the security team is alerted instantly, with calls being logged and mapped on the application software package for quick and efficient response and resolution.

“Wellcome Trust has chosen a conventional digital system that can easily be upgraded to a trunked digital system, for even greater efficiencies, as their comms requirements grow,” said Cliff Davies, DMR business development manager for Sepura.

“With Sepura’s DMR solutions, this is a simple process that will allow them to capitalise on their current investment.”

The campus is owned by the Wellcome Trust. Its largest component is the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute (WTSI), which employs around 900 people.

It is also the site of the European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI), the bioinformatics outstation of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), which currently employs around 540 people.

Top image: Aerial view of Hinxton Hall and the Sanger Institute, © Wellcome Library. Bottom image: Sepura radio supplied courtesy of Sepura.