Education
Learning how to make the
best of comms technology
The UK government hopes a wider use of technology in education can reduce teacher workloads,
increase efficiency, and improve accessibility, inclusion and student outcomes. James Atkinson
Itakes a look at how technology is being used in the sector t is dicult to get a clear idea of the installed base of voice
communications technology in the education sector. Some
may just rely on personal mobile phones, but Andrew Wilson,
managing director at Hytera distributor Syndico, says: “There
is significant use of business-level PMR 446 (unlicensed) twoway
radio at school level and a significant DMR use at college/
university level.
“Lots of the solutions our customers put into schools are
simplistic, often PMR446 radios such as the Hytera PD365, which
is a cost-eective product, but with all the traditional benefits of
PMR in that they are durable and simple to use. Most of
the marketing we support dealers with is around this type of
radio solution.”
PMR446 solutions will suit single-site primary schools, but
larger secondary schools, colleges and universities with dispersed
footprints will require a licence from Ofcom for a two-way radio
wide-area solution. Radios allow instant communications between
individuals or particular talk groups, be they teachers, admin,
18 February 2020 | www.landmobile.co.uk | Twitter:@Land_Mobile
Photos: HPE Aruba
maintenance, welfare, cleaning, catering or caretaker/
security sta.
PTT group communications can save time, increase
eciency and boost productivity and team working.
More sophisticated radios can support safety features
such as man-down and lone-worker alarms and GPS
location services. They are particularly useful for
co-ordinating emergency evacuations or lockdown
procedures if the school is under threat, where
instant, group communications are vital.
Radios can be linked to indoor location systems
and connected to other equipment such as fire
alarms, CCTV, workflow and task management
solutions and body-worn cameras. Female students
on campus can connect small personal safety alarms
that will send an alert to control centres and to
security guard radios if they are in danger.
Another option is Push-to-talk over Cellular (PoC).
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