Tetra - the latest dish on the menu

All of us have our favourite restaurant and many of us find it so easy to order ‘the usual’ rather than have a fresh look at the menu.

In the last 20 years, the radio communications ‘menu’ has been overhauled so dramatically that you may find that dependable old dish is no longer being served.

New technologies have blossomed in our industry from the early days of Nikola Tesla and Marconi, yet how many of us continue to accept and run with what we are being fed by our suppliers?

Perhaps we are too quick to dismiss the obvious benefits available from the evolution of radio and if we do, we consider through historic jaded viewpoints, and biased supplier loyalties.

If we are to advance our industry, sometimes we must stop and join the dots on where radio technology is trending and understand the drivers and challenges ahead for making any investment into a new radio system or platform.

A simple set of questions may clarify the direction of a new radio investment and guide you to a new level of radio system capability.

Five carefully targeted questions directed at your next meeting with your radio supplier may help you get clarity on where you are at, where your supplier is at and whether you need a new partner.

These questions should result in an interesting discussion or, worst case, a blank look.

What level of voice and data integration can you deliver?

How can I minimise the spectrum I need?

Can you provide more than just talk-and-listen two-way radio?

Tell me about standards - is the system open all areas?

How can I be sure of ongoing value, competition and future pricing?

Tetra, after what seemed endless days of committee standards meetings, has in the past five years moved rapidly so that it can truly claim to have it all together now.

It addresses perfectly all the questions and offers solutions and answers. It seems as each day passes you hear of yet another mammoth country-wide Tetra system being deployed many with tens of thousands of subscribers.

Advanced systems deploying GPS location, short messaging, high-speed mobile data, telephone interconnect, encryption and just about anything else that can make a radio system deliver real workplace efficiencies.

Highly beneficial features allow seamless plug-and-play. In the past, any one of these value-added enhancements was, to say the least, a technical challenge that needed an even greater bankroll.

The amazing thing is that Tetra delivers these integrated benefits in not only the traditional radio hut rackmounted installations but also via small compact pole/wall-mounted systems such as DAMM’s TetraFlex solution which has set new benchmarks in infrastructure innovation and flexibility.

Imagine a four-carrier solution in the size of a suitcase that can be installed in hours delivering voice, data, messaging and duplex telephone interconnection.

Tetra has and will continue to challenge traditional thinking due to the global demand and myriad of technology partners, value-added developers and world-class manufacturers delivering the most elegant of products.

This momentum and competition is working for the users.

A perfect example is the MTP (Motorola Tetra portable) and Sepura’s new 8000 series portable which is a second-generation Tetra radio that has taken the world by storm with its user interface, physical characteristics and proven engineering pedigree.

Also Zonith, a software solutions provider for Tetra systems that provides in-house location and alarm monitoring systems that deliver new levels of network sophistication.

These providers are new age, exciting and bring freshness to a sometimes stale and old-world radio market.

For Australia, the doors are now open with more spectrum expected to become available for low-cost, feature-rich deployment of Tetra solutions.

Tetra has got it all together and warrants a very close look if your appetite demands lashings of talk groups, data, messaging, GPS location and full duplex telephony.

Go ahead and challenge the menu!