WiFi/PoC Radios

[aydee]

Hi Guys,

Just wondering if anyone is using wifi enabled radios/walkie talkies in their schools? we have a set of 5W business licenced digital radios but they seem to be struggling more and more to get through our buildings and across our site.
I have been looking into Wifi enabled radios, but most of these have sim cards too, which might be useful for PE etc who might be outside. Some advertise that they dont need licences (ie. Icom IP100H) whereas some do need a cloud portal and licences (eg Motorola wave family and others)

Im curious how other schools do this if you use them at all?

[MisterTechMan]

I would avoid relying on Wifi for this - if an AP goes rogue then you've lost your communications too. for the cellular adios, you would again be relying on signal indoor across the whole site 

 

What are make are your current radios? I'd be more inclined to look at a repeater for the existing radios, or upgrading to digital radios 

 

 

 

 

Edited Friday at 09:47 by MisterTechMan
Typo

[aydee]

2 minutes ago, MisterTechMan said:

What are make are your current radios? I'd be more inclined to look at a repeater for the existing radios, or upgrading to digital radios 

We are using https://www.twoway-radio.co.uk/vitaivdg360 these, in digital mode at the moment. we can look at a repeater I guess, but we have just put a new Wifi infra in place so was thinking we could use that tbh.

This is why i asked though, my knowledge of these systems is basically non existant, so those i trust you guys who know this stuff

 

Edited Friday at 09:48 by aydee

[MisterTechMan]

No problem. 

 

I mean, it would indeed work having them on Wifi and you could be happy with how they perform, it all depends how mission critical your radios are. If they are used across the whole school (caretakers, SLT, IT, Reception etc) then it's best to have them as a separate isolated system that isn't reliant on a network. (You wouldn't want your fire alarm/lockdown response to fail because the wifi/AP/switch happened to go down at the same time) 

 

I've not long replaced 25 analogue radios with Hytera digital radios (mixture of HP505 and HP565), we didn't need a repeater in the end as the coverage was far batter than what we had on the older radios, even with the new ones having the shorter "stubby" antennas

 

 

[Sephiroth]

I would advise a repeater for this purpose if your radios are used for any form of critical communication, be it evac comms; safeguarding; medical...

 

We have our radios programmed to use a repeater on 2 channels for day-to-day use for best coverage, with back-to-back channels for "private" comms or building emergency (for example, if the repeater is on fire).

 

As others have said, I wouldn't want to rely on wireless or cellular networks for this level. There's too much complexity where it can go wrong.

[jmak]

We had WiFi "two-way radios" when we moved in to our new building. Everything was chosen by the main contractor - we could say what function was required, they chose the method/product to deliver it. 

 

The WiFi system lasted about a month before we decided it wasn't safe for a critical system and it was replaced by property radios. 

 

We did compromise a bit. Security and first aiders have radios. Facilities staff (cleaners, stores,) have mobile phones with Teams installed.

[itskdog]

Also worth noting if you're using licenced bands (where you pay a small fee to Ofcom every 5 years) or licence-free. Licensed radios can push more transmit power (but of course there's the cost of replacing all your radios at once, you can't do a phased replacement).

 

We're currently using licence-free Hyteras and we trialled some licenced radios that we borrowed from our supplier to test, and it worked even at dismissal time when there were lots of extra bodies absorbing the signal. Now just to try and get budget approval for them...

Edited 12 hours ago by itskdog
typo