Thought Leadership

How Simulcast works — greater coverage with fewer frequencies

October 15, 2013

Simulcast (simultaneous broadcasting) means multiple base stations transmitting the same voice (or data) signal on the same frequency at the same time. This means that every frequency pair – probably your existing channels – can each provide greatly extended coverage across a very wide area. The secret to Simulcast is high-stability transmitters and signal timing, structured and implemented by coverage experts to negate potential interference.

To understand how Simulcast works, let’s look at some simple simulcast networks: Continue Reading

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Thought Leadership

Beyond Bluetooth™

August 22, 2013

By Trish Messiter, CEO, Clarinox Technologies & Anthony Lister, Senior Systems Designer, Tait Communications.

Long-term value from short-range connectivity; wire-free and hands-free possibilities for critical communications.

In this age of smartphones, touch-screen tablets and imminently wearable computing, the ubiquitous radio communications device seems to be just as resilient to change as it is to the rigours of the environments in which it’s used.

Emergency response personnel are literally weighed down by technology these days as they double-up and triple-up on gadgets to get the... Continue Reading

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DMR, P25, Thought Leadership

Brains beat brawn in radio linking

August 8, 2013

By Paul Daigneault, Chief Executive Officer, MiMOMax.

A common misconception among radio professionals is that a large bandwidth is needed when linking analog and digital PMR base-station sites. However, this isn’t necessarily the case.

With the development and adoption of more spectrally-efficient radio technologies, it can be argued that there’s no overall shortage of radio spectrum. However, the unique propagation properties particularly associated with radio waves in UHF bands make this the most sought-after and crowded band in the usable spectrum. As a... Continue Reading

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Thought Leadership

Under the Hood — Specifying voice quality for your digital network

August 1, 2013

By Scott Quintavalle, Vice-President Systems Engineering , Tait Communications.

When Public Safety radio networks were analog, life was a lot simpler. There was little variation in the way audio was delivered, and measuring signal strength was a reasonable indication of audio quality for radio users, so long as there was not too much environmental noise or interference.

While digital radio undoubtedly delivers a host of benefits, it does cause a few headaches for technical and operations people who need to define and maintain a level of... Continue Reading

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P25, Thought Leadership

Expert Panel: No Single Point of Failure?

July 23, 2013

What it means, how it’s done, and how you decide what you need — a panel of three Tait experts share their knowledge on the subject.

The spectral efficiencies, interoperability and data transmission benefits of P25 are just part of the story; network operators are also working with much higher expectations of network robustness, tougher KPIs and risk of litigation. In public safety, near enough just isn’t good enough. That’s why Public Safety network operators now specify networks with no single point of failure. But what exactly does that mean? Continue Reading

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Tait News

The Great Commission

July 2, 2013

A look back on 25 years of commissioning MPT Trunked networks around the world.
By Jason Cox, Senior System Manager, Tait Communications.

My first real commissioning trip was to China in the early 90s. We were providing MPT 1327 networks to the Gong An (Chinese Civil Police). The first Tait MPT networks used an EPROM (Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory) to store all of the programmable parameters and firmware.

These EPROMs needed special programmers to program them, and they needed to be reprogrammed every time you made a change. Luckily, EPROMs were erasable. Unluckily,... Continue Reading

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P25, Thought Leadership

CIO’s Perspective: A strategic approach to radio technology — Part 2

June 25, 2013

In this two-part series, John Emerson, Chief Information Officer at Tait Communications, looks at what a CIO needs to know when considering a radio communication system.

Last week, in Part 1, we covered some of the important pieces of the radio communications puzzle that CIOs need to address, including, open standards, coverage and reliability. This week we look at the other aspects of radio systems that need to be considered.  

Security
With increasingly sophisticated and aggressive cyber-attacks, security has become a must-have. Not... Continue Reading

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Thought Leadership

CIO’s Perspective: A strategic approach to radio technology — Part 1

June 18, 2013

In this two-part series, John Emerson, Chief Information Officer at Tait Communications, looks at what a CIO needs to know when considering a radio communication system.

The ubiquitous cellphone works well for most of us, most of the time. Occasionally we get a dropped call or two when coverage plummets, or the odd network outage means we can’t download emails or browse the internet. It’s frustrating, but rarely life-threatening.

Put yourself in the shoes of a police officer or utility worker in a hazardous situation or remote area and reliable... Continue Reading

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P25, Thought Leadership

When three is better than one — combining the powers of public and private networks

June 13, 2013

Anyone who has experienced first-hand a disaster like a severe storm or earthquake will distinctly remember those fleeting moments directly after the event — grabbing your cell-phone to call your family and hoping like crazy you’d reach them, knowing full well you might only have a few minutes before the public cellular network overloads from everyone else doing the exact same thing. The inability to contact loved ones is heart-wrenching, and it’s the not knowing that causes panic in a community — and where chaos... Continue Reading

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Thought Leadership

Managed Services — Success is deciding what not to do

June 11, 2013

By Judd Cain, Executive VP Global Managed Services, Tait Communications.


“People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I’m actually as proud of the things we haven’t done as the things we have done.” —Steve Jobs, 1997
Most organizations begin with a small group of passionate and committed people who pull together to manage the whole array of business functions that need to be handled for... Continue Reading

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