Croydon Council selects Simoco DMR radio system

The system was needed for resilient communications technology for its mobile radio users, who are frequently relied on for critical communications across environmental, cultural, sports, housing and planning services.

Simoco’s partner Chatterbox, a radio specialist in South London, installed eight Simoco base station repeaters on four frequencies across two sites, providing eight channels per site. The base stations communicate with each other via microwave links and ADSL to deliver reliable and extended coverage. At the control room, the council deployed a Simoco Xd dispatcher to control the system. Using IP connections to each base station, the dispatcher provides voice, messaging and radio system health monitoring information to the operators.

With more than 10,500 staff, the council is dependent on communications support to help those operating on the ground in various services across the borough. The deployment supports issues that are prevalent to local people, businesses and visitors to Croydon, including parking and ticketing, safety and security, housing and facilities management. Its base stations enable integrated communications so users from all services can instantly communicate with each other and the control center.

Simoco supports the Safer Croydon Radio initiative, which was set up for local businesses such as pubs, clubs and retailers working together to tackle business crime. The council heavily relies on portable radios and base stations to manage schemes such as the shoplifting prevention scheme, Shop Watch. To cope with the demand, Chatterbox installed four additional Simoco base stations to interoperate with the existing Motorola Solutions portables, arming the council with the best tools to reliably and securely communicate throughout its sites.

“With ambitious plans to improve our services across the borough, we know that radio communications is critical to the performance of these services as well as the safety of the public and our 10,500 staff,” said Croydon Council’s Director of Environment Tony Brooks.