Push-to-talk experience re-imagined

Businesses are giving the all-familiar Push-to-Talk (PTT) radio and infrastructure a second look, with over broadband or (PoC) solutions increasingly being adopted to plug gaps in communication workflows, provide better cost management, enhanced workplace safety and security. Market watchers are watching this trend, forecasting a double digit CAGR growth in PTT market size from 2019 to 2027.

In Motorola Solutions’ latest offering — the MOTOTRBO Ion device — the company has taken the simplicity of PTT further by reimagining the PTT experience and benefits. More insights in this Q&A interview with Praveen Raina, Director for Device Product Management at Motorola Solutions Inc.

Q: The business communication landscape is constantly evolving to accommodate new requirements and user preferences. PTT technology, however, has endured this evolution. In fact, with the ongoing pandemic challenges, more businesses are turning to PTT communication technology. Why is this?

With the sudden and rapid onset of the pandemic in many countries around the world, a number of business operations have had to quickly adapt to new operational requirements to reduce risk of infection and spread. All these new rules introduced uncharted complexity and cost parameters.

By adding PTT devices to their operational infrastructure, businesses found a simple and cost-effective way to adapt their new operational parameters. Simply put, PTT proved itself as a cost effective way to expand businesses’ communication needs in the shortest time, giving the quickest access to affordable real-time, secure business communication capabilities.

On why PTT technology has maintained its resilience, let’s look at the verticals it has widely adopted:

• Manufacturing
• Utilities
• Transportation and logistics
• Security and facilities management
• Retail, warehousing and hospitality
   

The common thread in these industries is how PTT deployment addressed businesses’ pursuit for simplicity and productivity at every level in the business. It’s a voice-centric business communication technology that lets users reach the right workgroups directly with the push of a dedicated button. No protracted delays in dialling, ringing or answering. It’s the most efficient mobile voice communication — something that’s not available in any other communication tool today. Teams can make quick changes to workgroup allocation so the right teams are always connected. For those operating in noisy, industrial environments, PTT also offers good quality voice communication, ruggedness of device — to withstand harsh handling and working conditions, including use of gloves.

And finally, it’s a direct communication technology that can be deployed over private networks ensuring full control of quality of service — while offering encryption when used over public broadband networks.

Q: In deciding on introducing a new category of PTT device, the MOTOTRBO Ion device, what data or insights did you draw from?

The MOTOTRBO Ion’s value proposition and design was an extensive 18 months research by our CTO design teams with our enterprise customers. We validated that users valued the ability to integrate different systems into one larger ecosystem, with the goal that they can be part of a collaborative environment to achieve greater productivity improvements.

As a new category of device running on the Android OS, Ion puts more power in the hands of users, with the intelligence to automatically switch between available networks, be it DMR/LTE/WiFi so users do not have to worry about their network coverage.

For users, it’s about bringing the simplicity of PTT further, giving them the ability to find and incorporate new enterprise applications very quickly into their own operational ecosystem via the Android Ecosystem.

Q: Can you explain more about the capabilities of the business-ready MOTOTRBO Ion device? What does it offer to businesses that they cannot do today with the current line-up in the market?

The traditional PTT device gives users and businesses instant voice and real-time data such as GPS location and role-based push alerts or mass notifications. This removes delays and miscommunications.

With the MOTOTROBO Ion, there are also exciting possibilities. As a PTT device running on a hybrid network platform, we are bridging business workflows and user activities that were previously running on two separate silo ecosystems — either your workflows are powered by DMR or LTE. But now you are bringing both worlds together. Our new PTT device also gives users access to a library of productivity applications on Android OS. Users can pick and choose what they need and build out their own productivity possibilities without adding more devices to how they work.

With the maturity of the Android ecosystem, it also means that you can create customised applications, access third party applications and integrate them all seamlessly on a device. This allows users to build and enable their own ecosystem and to enable their own relevant workflows.

For users — it’s about: having resilient always-on voice, broadband data and multimedia capabilities to connect with team members, to keep their operations informed at all times and keep the businesses running smoothly. There’s also the convenience factor. Instead of carrying two or three devices, you can now work from one device, achieve better streamlined workflows without having to compromise on your access to specific apps you need at work.

Q: Can you explain the seamless Voice PTT experience that MOTOTRBO Ion offers?

Seamless Voice PTT is a software enhancement that delivers to users a seamless PTT experience over LMR and LTE networks.

The end user would not have to take any decisions based on availability of underlying transport, i.e. LMR or LTE, but have greater confidence in conducting PTT over a wide-area coverage without upfront additional infrastructure investment.

Our device offers the Intelligence to recognise the available network where the user is located and switch between LMR/Wi-Fi/LTE seamlessly so PTT functionality is not compromised.

In instances where managers or teams are travelling out of range, the automatic network switching ensures they are always connected — be it a manufacturing facility or construction teams operating across multi sites, or a mining crew.

When your device is designed to be your communication companion (as a PTT device should be for our users), it means you trust in the delivery of your communications, regardless of the underlying network access.

For more information: motorolasolutions.com/ion.

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/pitchitstocker