Interview with Dean Brookes, Tait Communications

We speak with Tait Communications’ new GM for Asia Pacific to get an insight into the company.

Critical Comms recently sat down with Dean Brookes, Tait Communications’ new General Manager for Asia Pacific, to get the latest updates on the company’s products and some insights into its ongoing approach to developments in the critical communications sector.

Brookes has an engineering background and spent 22 years with Nokia Networks. He joined Tait in 2012, heading up the regional service business unit, before being appointed GM Asia Pacific in April this year.

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CC: Let’s start with the Tait Radio Academy. Why was set this up and what sort of response have you had?

DB: Tait provides a range of professional training services for its clients, and, with the skills and experience that we have inside the company, we’ve taken some initial steps to share this resource. There are three online courses currently available for Basic Radio Principles, Introduction to DMR and Introduction to P25, and we look forward to delivering more.

The reaction has been very positive. We’ve had more than 100 people register already from this part of the world and more every day. We’ve had over 500 registrations globally.

CC: There seems to be a shift underway around the world to a more managed-services model for critical communications solutions. Is Tait involved in this shift?

DB: We see many variations of this: managed service for networks and capital for terminals; capital for networks and terminals, and managed service for network management; and fully managed service.

There have always been customers that prefer OPEX to CAPEX and vice versa. Companies such as Telstra, Vertel and TeamTalk have been providing radio networks as a service for decades. Tait also provides network management services for customers such as NZ Police and Brisbane Airport who own their own networks but require the additional 24/7 support. The latest trend that we’ve seen with some major tenders is Device-as-a-Service.

Tait maintains itself in step with the market requirements, using both internal and external funding to provide OPEX models.

CC: What’s your view on the provision of public safety mobile broadband, especially the potential to use public carriers either solely or partly?

DB: We believe that mobile broadband complements mission critical radio very well. It will depend on the application whether a dedicated, purpose-built device and network is required compared to off-the-shelf carrier products and services. Tait is ensuring that our mission critical radio solutions can be integrated with the mobile broadband services of today and tomorrow. We look forward to the recommendations of the Productivity Commission for PSMB.

CC: What about the general push for PTT-over-cellular services and smartphone products?

DB: Tait views PTT-over-cellular services and applications as complementary to radio communications — it is an extension of a critical communications solution, not a replacement. Professional mobile radio provides purpose-built devices and networks that are dedicated to the customer’s need — rugged devices with long battery life, coverage where you need it, battery backup for sites, simplified user interfaces, one-touch calls, minimum delay in calls across the network, simplex operation for off-network comms, emergency modes to improve worker safety, and so on.

For all of our customers who use dedicated radio networks and devices for all these benefits, smartphone apps such as UnifyVoice from Tait or ChatterPTT from Logic Unlimited provide additional value and connectivity for those in other parts of the organisation who wouldn’t otherwise need to carry a radio, or for when they’re away from site. For example, a dedicated radio network is provided for coverage of a mine site, but with smartphone apps like those mentioned, you can monitor and connect to that network from anywhere with mobile broadband or Wi-Fi connectivity.

CC: This leads into LMR. Does Tait see the LMR sector growing, shrinking or remaining static in the coming years?

DB: Tait sees a medium/strong future in LMR. We’ve invested a lot in delivering the latest for P25 and DMR to help our customers get the most out of these technologies, and we are designing this technology to complement carrier services and broadband alike.

We’re not just investing in product development either. We’ve opened a new international headquarters in Christchurch and are one of the few critical communications suppliers headquartered and manufacturing in this part of the world, with a lot of support available to our customers in this region from Christchurch, Brisbane and Melbourne.

CC: What’s the status of GridLink? Is it a fully operational technology? Is it getting traction amongst users and potential users?

DB: GridLink is now available and has been operational with a number of customers around the world in recent times. There is a great TV article on our website showing how this technology has helped Electricity Ashburton minimise power outages during recent snowstorms.

GridLink is a great example of getting the most out of your investment in a critical communications system. If you’re deploying a radio network to provide dedicated voice comms and location services for the safety and productivity of your team, you can use the same network infrastructure to provide SCADA and telemetry services for monitoring and remote control of sensors, pumping stations and so on.

GridLink is based on DMR Tier 3 and uses industry standard DNP3 and IEC interfaces. We strongly believe that open standards and interfaces is the key to delivering better value for our customers. Open standards and interfaces protect the customer’s investment and provides flexibility and freedom of choice in the long term.

CC: Where do you see the best customer fits for DMR Tier 2 and 3 solutions?

DB: We’re a big believer in the value that a Tier 3 trunked solution provides for customers — that’s why we’ve focused so much on it in recent years, and it is good to have been rewarded with so many significant contracts for Tier 3. If you look around the world at customers such as Queensland Rail, Vertel, Entropia and Alliant Energy, all of the largest DMR Tier 3 systems in the world have been provided by Tait. With Tier 3 there is so much more we can do for customers, like the GridLink SCADA option.

We know that there are many customers out there who are used to conventional analog, and DMR Tier 2 is the direct replacement for that. For many of these customers, though, we believe that when they consider migrating to digital, it is worth considering digital trunking or Tier 3 for a little more investment and a lot more value. Digital trunking is more affordable than ever before, simpler to use, does more, is easy to install and maintain — it is worth another look.

But conventional systems do make up a big part of the market, and so now we’ve delivered DMR Tier 2 solutions. We’ve had a great response from many customers who chose Tait quad-mode terminals over the past couple of years for use with their analog networks; now that a Tait Tier 2 base station is available, they’re making the change to digital.

CC: What can you tell us about Tait’s intrinsically safe radios?

DB: We’re very pleased to soon be releasing a completely new platform for intrinsically safe radios that is compliant to the international IECEx standard and the Australian ANZEx standard for both P25 and DMR. There have been a number of stop gap standards used by various vendors over the years, and we’re very pleased to deliver something that specifically meets the Australian standard. Under this standard we’ll have an option that provides up to 5W power output, which is important for the coverage requirements of many of our customers.

CC: Finally, are there any parts of the critical comms sector that Tait is particularly focused on at the moment or in the near future?

DB: We continue with our strategy to focus on mission critical and business critical communications. As well as the traditional customers in this sector, with our DMR Tier 3 products we are engaging a wider base including transport and mining.

Image caption: Dean Brookes, GM Asia Pacific, Tait Communications.