Groningen Seaports Upgrade Maritime Radio Dispatch to RediTALK-Flex

Groningen Seaports (GSP) is responsible for safe shipping in the North Sea ports of Delfzijl and Eemshaven in the Netherlands, bordering Germany. The Harbour Control Centre (HCC) is manned 24/7 and uses a VTS radar system, a camera system and a VHF system to communicate with shipping.

The current system was outdated and no longer met users’ operational requirements.

As such, Groningen Seaports were looking to upgrade their VHF system that operates within the Dutch ports of Defzijl, Eemshaven and the approach areas. The system is used for all reports and exchanges that are important for the proper, safe and efficient handling of shipping traffic in those areas.

Upgrade Required

Groningen Seaports were looking for identical workstations to manage 3x VHF Marine channels and 2x private radio channels.

Both ports are required to work independently as a measure of redundancy.

In addition the solution needs an ATIS radar system, improved radio coverage of VHF channel 66, integrate existing base stations and antennas, work with Motorola and Kairos radios, whilst being easily expandable in the future.

Interoperability, reliability, high audio quality and easy operation were paramount requirements.

Inspired by the Sonal solution implemented at the Antwerp Port area, Groningen Seaports opted for an Omnitronics RediTALK-Flex dispatch system comprising 5x RediTALK-Flex consoles on ELO touchscreen PCs, 2x located in their Harbor Control Center (HCC) in Delfzijl Port, 1x in the Emergency Room and 2x Emergency HCCs in Eemshaven.

The radio dispatch console connects to Omnitronics IPR400 S2 2in1 Interoperability & RoIP Gateways, allowing the 5 operator stations to simultaneously make a SIP connection with each connected base station.

All operators can now follow the two-way conversations of their colleagues on any channel via conference mode.

Custom Engineering

GSP required a customization to the RediTALK-Flex dispatch console, which Omnitronics implemented to suit their need to assign a PTT button per radio channel.

Using a Tipro BeFree desktop speaker box, function keys were linked to the radio channels.
The operator can now switch very quickly between various channels using the PTT key. Some workplaces were equipped with a USB foot pedal control per radio channel.