St Katherine Docks is central London’s only marina and home to a variety of high-end restaurants, bars, and offices. The site has a team of 30+ staff, comprised of security officers, front of house staff and a control centre team.
The Tower of London, adjacent to the site, has the highest level of footfall for any attraction in the UK. Managing the safety and security of the huge number of overflow site visitors is therefore paramount.
Maintaining critical communications
Recently, St Katherine’s have upgraded their security systems to further improve health and safety for residents and visitors. This has included a migration to digital two-way radio handsets to ensure seamless communication across the site.
St Katherine’s is a busy operation, with a large closely-co-ordinated team. Radio communication is essential to relay time-sensitive information to team members. St Katherine’s had previously been using old analogue two-way radios for all site communications. The handsets struggled to fulfil the demands across the complex, with the team commonly reporting coverage issues.
Hytera radios
St Katherine’s moved from their old handsets to a state of the art digital system to improve safety and efficiency through reliable coverage. The team were supplied Hytera PD785 and X1p radios from authorised Hytera partner Chatterbox. The DMR devices chosen are compact and lightweight, offering a highly portable solution for the security team.
Security officers at St Katherine’s work 12 hour shifts as standard, actively using their handsets throughout the day. Battery life was therefore a key consideration for the site manager. The Hytera handsets benefit from the latest lithium ion battery technology, giving them an extended talk time per charge.
The Hytera system also offers Priority Interrupt, which enables management users to interrupt all voice communications on a channel to relay crucial information to all radio users simultaneously if required.
Chatterbox worked closely with St Katherine’s closely to ensure the migration fit the budget and deployment timescale, opting to lease the system with Chatterbox providing valuable support, training and future upgrades and scaling where necessary.
Enhanced coverage
The Hytera handsets have been used by the team with great results. Security staff have noticed improved coverage, particularly in the sub-ground levels of the site. Meanwhile, the site manager is reassured that critical communications will get through, safeguarding the site’s residents and visitors, whilst additional features can be added to keep the current system, in-line with emerging technologies.
