CASE STUDY: Two-way Radio Solution for Eurotunnel

Eurotunnel is the most environmentally friendly cross channel operator in Europe. The Eurotunnel Group manages and operates the Channel Tunnel between Britain and France including the vehicle shuttle services.

By the end of 2013, more than 320 million passages had already travelled through the channel tunnel. In 2014, Eurotunnel decided to change their outdated communication system. Hytera's UK distributor ANT Telecom, a bespoke communication provider, won the tender to provide a Hytera two-way radio solution to Eurotunnel. The solution, customised for site-wide & emergency channel communication,went live 5th April 2014.

The limitations of Analogue
The analogue communication system used by Eurotunnel brought many limitations to their daily operation. To provide a better service, Eurotunnel was looking for an effective way to deliver an on-site communications solution that would meet its unique business requirements and deliver ongoing benefits into the future.

A Digital Upgrade for Eurotunnel
Hytera replaced the existing analogue system with a Hytera digital radio solution that provided full site communication, including RD98 repeaters and PD705/785 portable radios.

The solution is used at the Folkestone site (Britain) by traffic marshals within four different divisions; tourist, HGV1, HGV2 and motorway, allowing communication between the teams and the control centre. Eurotunnel also required a new emergency channel functionality that would provide priority emergency communication spanning all four divisions.

Effective, Future-proof Solution
Hytera's flexible and bespoke solution meets some of the more technically challenging aspects of Eurotunnel's requirements. It also offers additional functionality including dispatching, lone worker with location detection, messaging and automatic alarm messaging in order to provide a robust and future-proof communication solution.

We selected Hytera products because of the specification of the devices provided, specifically the high IP level, IP67 and multi lines display. Furthermore, the solution appealed to us because of the emergency call functionality and the possibility to upgrade the system if needed in future, particularly the GPS localisation, trunk mode and man-down alarm functionality.
Digital radio has, in recent years, reenergised the radio market and has given users the chance to replace traditional analog radio systems with a more effective multi-purpose digital offering.

John Keefe, Eurotunnel