Hytera sparkles at Antwerp Diamond Museum with DMR radios
Hytera’s PD785S radio was chosen by the museum to provide greater safety for staff and increase the efficiency of its security procedures
The Antwerp Diamond Museum, situated on the Astridplein close to the Central Station, is the showpiece of the city’s Diamond District. Visitors are taken through the “BriljAntwerps” story, which tells the history of the world’s most fascinating diamonds, brilliantly cut by Antwerp craftsmen. Within the treasuries of the Diamond Museum a top collection of jewels are on display ranging from the 16th century to the present day.
Naturally, a large number of operational security procedures have to be followed by the Diamond Museum security staff to ensure the jewels are adequately protected. Four years ago, the museum purchased 12 semi-professional walkie-talkies to improve the efficiency of communications between security staff.
But in late 2010, the museum decided to invite tenders for the purchase of new walkie-talkies due to reception problems in parts of the museum and the insufficient number of handsets available.
In addition, the museum also wanted the ability to send messages to the dispatcher or to the entire group of security guards at the same time, a feature that would allow security staff to discreetly communicate with each other in places where there is a requirement to keep noise levels as low as possible. The museum also wanted to be able to call a person in a meeting using a discrete vibrating alarm on the radio. A further requirement was a radio solution that provided secure, encrypted digital voice communication to prevent transmissions being intercepted.
Finally, there was a requirement to provide an increased standard of protection for security guards. The museum wanted the new devices to be equipped with certain very specific technical applications, such as an emergency button and a “man-down” feature that would automatically send the caller’s personal ID to the museum’s security control centre.
Several companies sent in a proposal with price quotations attached. The museum selected a reseller from Eurodistribution, the official distributor for Hytera products in Belgium, on the grounds that Hytera’s DMR (Digital Mobile Radio) could meet all of the museum’s predefined requirements. The Hytera PD785S radio was subjected to several on-the-spot tests and came up with some spectacular performance results.
Kaatje Claes, security and surveillance manager at the Department of Culture, province of Antwerp, said: ‘The Hytera PD785S not only meets all the required applications, it is also easy to use, not too heavy and the audio quality is very pure.’
Claude Van Biervliet, sales director at Eurodistribution, said: ‘One of our resellers contacted us to offer a first class product for this project. Together with the expertise and product knowledge of Eurodistribution and its reseller product specialists, we selected the Hytera PD785S for its specific features and its proven efficiency.’
A spokesperson of the Eurodistribution reseller added: ‘The fact that Hytera DMR devices contain a large, beautiful display makes the reading of long messages easy. Securing the Diamond Museum is a big job for us.
‘The semi-professional devices no longer met the museum’s increased safety procedures and requirements. Now they have chosen a professional solution that allows each safety task to be carried out more efficiently.’
Source: www.wireless-mag.com
