Narrowband  |   Broadband  |  2024-03-27

BK Technologies Introduces IntelliPTT Tethering via InteropONE app, BKRplay platform | IWCE 2024

Source: The Critical Communications Review | Gert Jan Wolf editor

IntelliPTT will be the inaugural service provided by BK Technologies that utilizes Bluetooth tethering between a smartphone operating an updated version of InteropONE and a portable radio—the BKR 9000 or BKR 5000.

The BKRplay IntelliPTT feature, which users of the BKR 9000 and BKR 5000 portables will soon be able to utilize to tether these LMR handsets with commercial smartphones via Bluetooth in order to facilitate push-to-talk-over-broadband communications, the company announced today.

BKRplay IntelliPTT, according to James Teel, general manager of the SaaS business unit at BK Technologies, enhances the versatility of the organization's InteropONE push-to-talk-over-cellular service by permitting its activation through the operation of an LMR device that users may find more convenient when employing push-to-talk (PTT) communications.

During an interview with IWCE's Urgent Communications, Teel stated,

"We are essentially utilizing the cell phone platform as a modem... rather than integrating that piece of hardware into our radio, as some of our competitors have done." "The radio has the capability to commence a push-to-talk conversation that is being transmitted via the phone over broadband or any other available connection, including Wi-Fi, LEO satellite, or broadband."

Teel asserts that IntelliPTT has the potential to be advantageous in a variety of situations, including resolving the longstanding LMR challenge of in-building communications.

Teel continued: "This could be a strategy for in-building coverage." "Although I may not have LMR coverage, [the PTT communications] could still escape if my LMR radio is tethered to an InteropONE smartphone that is operating over my Wi-Fi network."

Teel stated that IntelliPTT will be the inaugural service provided by BK Technologies that utilizes Bluetooth tethering between a smartphone operating an updated version of InteropONE and a portable radio—the BKR 9000 or BKR 5000.

If you download the InteropONE app from the app stores today, it has no idea how to establish a Bluetooth connection with our radio. The new development is as follows. It is divided into two compartments. The first is a functional InteropONE application; the second is, of course, a modification to our radio software—neither of which are presently available for purchase.

BK Technologies anticipates concluding Beta testing of IntelliPTT in the latter part of this year. The testing process has garnered more interest than initially expected by company representatives.

"There's been considerable interest," Teel stated. "We anticipated that obtaining an inventory of interested Beta customers would require considerable effort, but the situation has been precisely the opposite. "Please indicate when we can accomplish this."

During exhibit-hall hours on March 27-28, attendees of the IWCE 2024 in Orlando can learn more about IntelliPTT and other BK Technologies products by visiting company representatives at Booth 413.