12 Oct 2017

Survey: Facilities managers not realising the full benefits of digital two-way radio

A survey of Facilities Management Journal’s readers performed by Hytera in February has found that many facilities managers are not realising the full benefits of modern digital two-way radios.

45 per cent of the 180 facilities managers who responded to the survey said that they experienced blackspots around their site. According to a Hytera white paper, “The Unrealised Potential of Digital Mobile Radio”, which covers the results of the survey, these can be remedied by seeking advice from an authorised system integrator or two-way radio provider, and the use of the correct RF and antenna solutions for a site’s requirements coupled with the latest digital radio handsets and repeaters.

The problems experienced across sites were reported as:

Half (50 per cent) of those organisations impacted by blackspots said that security would improve if these were resolved. Furthermore, 83 per cent of those suffering drop-outs in coverage say they also want better quality transmission from their handsets. 46 per cent said that they operate on a radio-to-radio direct mode basis.

Only 29 per cent of those surveyed said that their radios had a dedicated emergency button - a pre-programmed key on the handset that allows an alarm to be sent in the event of an emergency. Similarly, only 23 per cent of respondents said that the radios their teams were using featured ‘Man Down’ capabilities – which alert a central dispatcher, handset or emergency group when a radio is on its side. The presence of this feature rises to 30 per cent when Health and Safety teams use the radios. The survey also found only a third of respondents use the Lone Worker functionality offered by the latest two-way radios.