Motorola two way radio

Hospital Project Hits Right Frequencies with Motorola Radios

When you think of all the equipment and machinery that the modern construction industry relies on, one thing that is often overlooked is two way radio. Yet you would be hard pressed to find a project where wireless radio handsets weren’t used, such is their importance to works coordination, efficiency and health and safety management.

Another illustration of this comes as one of the UK’s most celebrated surgical hospitals, the Royal Papworth in Cambridgeshire, prepares to open its doors at a brand new £165m home. Construction of the state-of-the-art new hospital, which includes seven operating theatres and 310 beds across a 40,000 sq ft facility, has been undertaken by Skanska and has taken almost four years to complete.

Throughout the project, Skanska has relied on Motorola two way radios supplied by Essex-based communications specialists Brentwood Communications. According to Brentwood, they recommended Motorola digital radios for the advanced performance and features they offer, considering the size of the site and the number of contractors that needed access to the network.

Over the course of the project, Brentwood changed and upgraded the equipment it supplied several times as construction progressed and on-site requirements changed. In the final stages of construction, Skanska personnel were using Motorola DP4400e handsets, a high performance, robust model designed specifically for use in the construction industry.

Safety First

With an IP68 rating for water resistance and dust protection, the DP4400e is tough enough to withstand everything a construction site can throw at it, whether handsets are being used indoors where clouds of cement and sawdust billow everywhere, or outside in all weather conditions. Thanks to digital noise cancellation and intelligent volume control, critical messages can always be heard even when users are working around heavy machinery.

Amongst an impressive range of features, the DP4400e prioritises safety, with a one-touch Emergency Button override feature, which immediately signals an alarm on every handset in the network as soon it is pushed. The model also supports Lone Worker monitoring, which requires colleagues working in a hazardous area to check back in with the network at fixed intervals.

In addition to providing valuable assistance to safety protocol management, the D4400e is tailor-made for coordinating big teams across the largest sites. Private calling means you don’t always have to broadcast messages to the whole network and can target communications without interrupting the whole team. Work ticket allocation helps foremen and supervisors keep tabs on task allocation, and GPS tracking and Bluetooth indoor beacon support even allows them to monitor worker’s movements across site.

The Royal Papworth Hospital, an internationally renowned lung and heart centre, is celebrated for being the location of a number of medical firsts, such as the world’s first ever successful heart, liver and lung transplant. The hospital has been relocated from its original home in the village of Papworth Everard to the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, with the new facility due to welcome its first patients in April.

About Dylan Garton

Dylan Garton is a co-founder, video producer and editor for the Skill Builder social media platforms.

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