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Brentwood Communications returned to help an old friend with an upgrade of its two way radio fleet.
We have been supplying Woodlands School in Basildon with two way radios since 2011, when we first sold them unlicensed Motorola XT420 and XT460 handsets to assist communications between teachers and office staff, and for use out on the playing fields and by grounds and maintenance staff.
But between 2014 and 2015, Woodlands School underwent a major upgrade of its own. The school buildings were completely overhauled, and undertook a complete re-build.
The new 11,000 sq ft premises, which includes a £1.8 million vocational training department, won a series of awards for its contractor. It is now a vibrant community hub, providing education to 1500 pupils aged 11 to 16, with cutting edge classrooms equipped with the latest technology and 4G all-weather sports facilities also used by local clubs.
There was just one problem. Following the rebuild, staff discovered that the two way radio coverage they got was not as good as it had been. People trying to pass on messages from opposite ends of the grounds could not get through, and signal quality in certain places was poor.
Better coverage
We sent our engineers to take a look and assess what was going on. It appears that the rebuild had put a few more barriers in the way of a good radio signal – specifically, all the steel used in the building frame was causing problems.
We recommended that it was time for an upgrade – two way radio itself wasn’t the issue, it was just that the unlicensed Motorola two way radio models were not powerful enough to maintain a good signal on these modern premises.
We recommended the Lugra Evoke – like the XT420 and XT460 models, a simple, robust, easy-to-use model that offers no gimmicks, just excellent quality mobile audio.
The two big benefits of the Evoke are one, that it has a more powerful output and therefore a better signal range, and two, that it is a licensed radio. With licensed radios, you pay to use specific radio bandwidths, rather than the open public frequencies you use on unlicensed radios. Having licensed radios means you have your own communications channels specifically for your staff to use and are safe from external eavesdropping that could occur on public frequencies.
As a sweetener to the deal, we even offered to take back the old Motorola stock in part exchange for the Lugra handsets – because we’re nice like that. And it must have been a good recommendation, because since the first Evoke handsets were shipped, Woodlands has been back to us several times to buy more!
Find out more
Not getting the coverage you want from your two way radios? Our expert engineers will carry out a no-obligation site survey and offer you honest, professional advice on how to get the best quality communications possible on your premises, at a price you like.
Get in touch with us today on 01245 403520 to talk about an upgrade.