INSIGHTS
Raising the alarm for staff safety – what are the options?
The safety of staff is a primary consideration in any well run organisation, so what are the options for enabling staff, working in potentially hazardous or confrontational situations, to raise the alarm and summon assistance to their location when required? Here are a few considerations in identifying the right solution for your specific requirements.
Do you need infrastructure to ensure communication coverage?
If staff movements are indoors in one building or facility, e.g. a prison, you will require infrastructure designed specifically for your site, for example SafetyNet Mesh, to ensure reliable coverage of the required areas for any robust location monitoring solutions. If staff are working outside, e.g. at a water treatment plant, GPS can provide reliable coverage for two-way radios wherever the signal is good, but where the signal is weak, or if staff are moving between indoors and outdoors, again you will require infrastructure to provide the necessary coverage.
Do your staff already use or need two-way radio communications?
In applications where voice communications using 2-way radio is essential, location services can be added to your radio equipment as a module which attaches to the side of the radio for indoor location and for outdoor wide area positioning the GPS service may be used as well. Location information is passed over a DMR or TETRA radio scheme and SafetyNet Locator software will show the location of staff and provide essential information to other staff when an alarm is raised using the emergency button on their radio. Lone Worker safety and Man Down features are also possible.
If you need radios but don’t already have them, we can offer solutions to provide audio communications combined with location services indoor and outdoor as needed as a fully integrated package.
Do you need a software platform?
The PMR Products’ SafetyNet software platform provides the monitoring and reporting functions, location mapping for staff safety and security. Used at its simplest it can work unattended to convey alerts and location information from one device to another, but it offers the capacity to integrate with data from other systems, e.g. fire or entry systems, higher level software management (command and control) to help organisations make intelligent decisions and take appropriate action.
This gives a broad outline of the factors that need to be taken into consideration in planning or upgrading and alarm system for staff safety but with nearly thirty years’ experience of designing private mobile radio systems we understand that every application is different so please contact us for a no-obligation discussion of your requirements.
