New company may boost safety radio

Airwave Solutions Australia has been formed in a partnership between Airwave Solutions (UK), a private mobile radio network operator, and Broadcast Australia, an independent national wireless communications network operator. The company is the only provider with a dedicated and independent focus on safety communications in Australia.

Airwave Australia's chief executive officer, Malcolm Keys, says government agencies are seeking to introduce enhanced digital functionality and security into public safety networks, without compromising resilience and coverage.

“Our view is that the most assured path to achieving these goals is to deploy a single, shared, premium-quality network for all users,” he said. “This is the most efficient use of government resources and has the added advantage of allowing cross-agency communication in a major incident.”

Airwave has already demonstrated the strengths of this network model in Britain, where the company has established one of the largest and most complex public safety communications services in the world.

The network currently serves more than 250 organisations across England, Scotland and Wales - including police, fire and ambulance - and has played a key role in several significant political and environmental incidents.

Broadcast Australia has nearly 600 transmission sites across the country, its network being centrally monitored 24 hours a day. The company has extensive field service resources, including 125 field service technicians and over 500 first-in maintainers.

Airwave Solutions Australia has formed its board of directors, which is chaired by Gerry Moriarty and also includes representatives from the British Airwave company and Broadcast Australia executive committees.

Malcolm Keys (left), chief executive officer, with Gerry Moriarty, chairman of the board.
 

Airwave Australia has also appointed Paul Isaacs as engineering manager, joining the Australian team after six and a half years with the British company, most recently as head of technical design and innovation.

Before that, he led the team of 50 engineers that delivered Britain’s TETRA trunked radio network, which now serves more than 250 organisations across the whole of Britain, including police, fire and ambulance.

His short-term focus in his new role will be to demonstrate the advantages of a single, shared public safety communications network for all users. The Airwave approach promises network resilience, security, coverage, responsiveness and interoperability for a wide variety of public safety agencies.

Isaacs will also be responsible for the engineering design of public safety networks, selecting best-of-breed manufacturers, managing the engineering team and establishing key infrastructure such as equipment certification labs and redundant switching centres.

Paul Isaacs has been appointed engineering manager at Airwave Solutions Australia.