The Anti-Social Behaviour and Community Safety team at Tendring District Council covers the towns of Harwich and Clacton-on-Sea (pictured) on the Essex coast. The department phased out two-way radios several years ago as officers found frequent signal blackspots, and were relying on’ mobile phones for communication while on patrol. But the patrollers found this inadequate, largely because of the inconvenience of setting up group calls on the move to keep all officers in touch with each other at once. Hence the council approached Brentwood Communications, a distributor of IDARO; a device and app that provides voice communication and other services.
Community Safety Officer at Tendring Adam McGoldrick said: “We were looking to improve communication between teams and officers. IDARO enables quick communication without the need to reach for your phone, unlock and dial numbers. The system is versatile, you can either use the roaming SIM card or a wi-fi network. For example, our seafronts team in the summer have poor phone single down on the prom, but we have WiFi there so their radios stay linked at all times.
“IDARO has allowed officers to stay in contact during their working day safe in the knowledge that should they require emergency assistance, they can activate their SOS button, and this will alert other officers who will be in a better position to either respond or call for assistance. It has also provided officers with a direct link to our CCTV control room.”
Brentwood Communications is a distributor of IDARO in the UK and Europe. The company’s CEO, James Miller, pictured, said: “Two way radios are still the gold standard for workplace communications because they are simple, robust and incredibly reliable. But it is a fact that they are limited by transmission range. By operating via a wireless internet connection, including 3G and 4G mobile networks, IDARO removes those limitations.
“It’s a real revolution for professional communications. Instead of being limited to talking to colleagues in the same building or on the same site, you can talk to colleagues, individually and in groups, anywhere in the world, all at the touch of a button. And it’s not just voice communication, either. Text and live chat, video calls, picture messaging, connecting to team apps and work platforms – IDARO can do it all.”
Tom Boatman, Head of Innovation at Brentwood Communications, adds: “IDARO has three essential components, what we call its ‘three pillars’. You need a device, the IDARO app, and an internet connection.
“With the IDARO app, users within the same call groups can use their existing mobile phones or a purpose-built radio device. We recommend mobile-ready smart radios because they are tougher, built to industry standards and easier to use than conventional smartphones. For example, they feature that push-to-talk button, that old standard of two way radio that lets you talk to a group with a single touch.”
Tom added that IDARO also offers unlimited integration with other apps and work systems, meaning users can combine communication with other essential functions all in one device. “In that sense, it’s again just like using a smartphone. Security teams can benefit from adding location sharing services to further improve incident responses, for example by using real time route planning apps to get to the scene as quickly as possible in case of heavy traffic or road closures.
“Broadcast calls routed through a control room help to relay critical information quickly and efficiently where it is most needed. To this you can add live video streaming, again at the touch of a button, helping colleagues heading to a scene understand the context of an incident better and also gather evidence which might be needed later.”
