Colombian Red Cross—Error-free Digital Communications with Hytera DMR System

Background

The Colombian Red Cross is a non-governmental organization which undertakes humanitarian missions for excellence in the country and is part of the largest humanitarian network in the world: the International Red Cross and Red Crescent, which is present in 186 countries.

Challenges

The Colombian Red Cross is a multi-disciplinary organization presents throughout the Colombian. It interacts with various governmental and private institutions, and in some cases runs its own communications systems to be able to cope with emergency situations together with them. In many cases, the Colombian Red Cross is the core part of the two-way communications in the event of emergencies in the country, integrating different technologies and vendors to create both temporary networks and networks that are kept in constant operation and with the ability to integrate different institutions' networks for the decision-making and events support. These challenges became more tangible on the Summit of the Americas, and Hytera products were the perfect solution to their needs.

Solutions

In order to guarantee timely and appropriate communication in their work, the implementation of the DMR solution was necessary since it required higher communication security and improved method of access to the network for a greater number of simultaneous communication, capabilities to send text messages and manage applications with full-digital communication. So the Colombian Red Cross started to migrate the analog VHF network to a digital one. For starters, this was established in 7 departments of Colombia in a very strategic way supporting events and emergency situations that occur at each site.

Why choose Hytera?

The Colombian Red Cross was looking for a safe and efficient communication of higher quality and can integrate communication networks of different cities for simultaneous communications. Hytera DMR RD98X repeaters were selected by its higher efficiency of coverage, IP interconnection, and continuous cycle and power capacity fully compliant to DMR digital standard.



Also Hytera portable terminals PD78XG-V1 and mobile terminals MD78XG-V1 were selected for different teams to realize simultaneous and point to point communication with higher level of protection, location information of the terminal to be delivered on the screen and larger coverage for longer communication distance between each other.

The Summit of the Americas presented a great opportunity to test the network and identify its strengths and weaknesses. It was thus Hytera digital radios were configured and used 7*24, that is to say, working 24 hours a day for the 7-day event to ensure total coverage and no lapse in communication with Bogota via IP interconnection that allowed two different networks to be connected for follow-up and monitoring of the work.

Voice from Customer

"The support and availability given by Asecones, Hytera dealer in Latin America, for Hytera products allowed 5 specialists of the Colombian Red Cross to be able to set up and program the network used by the institution for this event. In addition to this, we can say that we use a product useful with good technology, robust for continuous, heavy work, and moreover, that does not show any failure taking into account the demands of working 24 hours, with temperatures between 16 and 32 degrees Celsius. It is also noted that the team is very friendly to the user which facilitates easy handling and manipulation. We believe that Hytera teams and radios add quality to our humanitarian action."—Salinas Buitrago Marinson, Deputy Director for Operations, National Relief Department of Colombian Red Cross.

Source: Hytera