Large Systems
collage.jpg (148756 bytes) Large systems not only have a large number of radios, they can have very flexible and powerful capabilities. The DARPA Grand Challenge, Telluride Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, and Route 66 Music Festival are examples.

Our Large system capabilities are specifically designed around, and are intended to work with, a large number of portables and a large number of channels, where those portables are likely to be widely dispersed or where they are required to work out of locations which are difficult to get out of because of the construction of or the shielding characteristics of the location.

Further, our systems and on-site techniques are specifically designed and configured to separate long-range task groups from short range task groups, while maintaining the ability of all radio users to access all task group channels as needed.

It's not only hardware, it's a workable method to improve how people use radio equipment on-site.

Conventional VS. Trunking

Our systems are conventional, not trunked. Trunking systems are great when the architecture and configuration of communications pathways are known.

Trunking systems are designed around exclusion, not inclusion.
The central idea of trunking systems is isolating task groups (fleets and subfleets) from each other and making it impossible for them to interact with each other and overhear or eavesdrop on each other.  Available communications pathways are limited (or advanced) by the talents of the system programmer. System-wide programming changes are time-consuming.

In a special event or disaster scenario, taskgroups are way too busy to eavesdrop on each other. The likelihood of the neccessity to interact between task groups is very high. These applications are by their nature collaborative. There is no time to train users in how to use a complex system, there is only time to guide them while they do their work.
See "Mother".

The nature of trunking systems is that all communications work through  system repeaters, and the behavior of those systems is defined and controlled by software. They often have very limited or no talkaround capability. A taskgroup may only consist of a few people who are in close proximity to each other. Working their communications through a trunked repeater and tying up system resources is wasteful and can create a bottleneck. The taskgroup may be in locations where they can communicate simplex with each other easily, but where they are borderline or just plain unable to access system repeaters. The attempts to use the system repeaters tie up resources.

Unless trunking systems are very large, just a few time-inefficient extended conversations can seriously impact message throughput.

 

 

Capabilities

* Voting Receivers and remote sites

* Voting Repeaters

* Dispatch and Sub-Dispatch

* Linked and Cross-voted Systems in widely separated locations

* Cross-band linking

* Self Contained Infrastructure via microwave

* Repeater truck

* Synthesized repeaters and voting equipment can rapidly adapt to local conditions

 

Conventional Systems are Inherently Collaborative
Conventional systems are simple and much easier to implement, especially on a large scale. Although users may experience busy channels, they can hear that they are busy and know that they are working.

The normal applications in which our temporary systems get used are collaborative and do not involve business competitors, i.e., two plumbers on the same channel; and those applications, events, and situations benefit from the shared communication and disemination of information.

It is easy and effective for our system dispatchers and operators to dynamically re-allocate channel usage as the event or situation changes.

Even though  this system is complex for a conventional system, it is nontheless quite a bit less complex than a trunking system. These systems can be rapidly deployed, rapidly reconfigured,  and require minimal on-site programming. The record so far for having the transmitter truck on the air is 28 minutes from the time it is parked. It takes two hours to assemble the dispatch and voting system and acquire the microwave link to the truck. In two more hours, we can have 200 portables on the street.

 

 

 

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