North West Ambulance Service is first to adopt new Airwave messenger
David Sangster, Airwave’s UK Services Director: “It is a robust messaging device with the added benefit of receipt acknowledgement. It is a world first and offers significant advantages over analogue paging systems.”
Airwave, the leading provider of critical voice and data communications to public service organisations in Great Britain, has secured a contract with the North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) to provide TETRA Messenger to their community first responders.
Following a successful trial in the latter part of 2011, NWAS has procured the service for a three-year term and placed an initial order for 330 devices.
TETRA Messenger is a secure, resilient, two-way messaging and alerting solution, which provides messaging on Airwave’s secure TETRA Network.
According to David Sangster, Airwave’s UK Services Director: “It is a robust messaging device with the added benefit of receipt acknowledgement. It is a world first and offers significant advantages over analogue paging systems.”
The addition of the GPS functionality means that control rooms can pinpoint the whereabouts of on-duty responders and manage their resources more effectively during an incident.
“The device is simple and easy to use and offers users the functionality to store up to 40 pre-defined messages. In the past our responders were unable to respond in a situation which made it difficult for us to know who was available and where they were located,” says Ray Lunt, NWAS programme director.
The pre-programmed responses (respond and react) can be easily integrated into existing control room systems giving the operators access to real-time updates.
David Sangster concludes: “TETRA Messenger empowers organisations to manage their workforce resources more efficiently as a result of better incident management.”
Source: www.airwavesolutions.co.uk
