Appleton Center

Background

ThedaCare™ is a community health system consisting of seven hospitals and 35 clinics across 14 counties in Northeastern Wisconsin. It is the third largest health care employer in the state, with approximately 6,800 employees serving over 235,000 patients. The Appleton Medical Center is an integral part of the ThedaCare health system, specializing in cancer, heart, and orthopedic care. The analog radios being used by the security staff were not providing adequate coverage throughout the center, with communication lapses and poor audio quality. Additionally, they were looking for a radio system that would allow secure communications between Appleton and two other hospitals in the ThedaCare system.

Hytera Solutions

To address these issues, Hytera Dealer Nielson Communications, recommended both the PD682 and PD782 radios. The PD782s are built to military standards, making them durable enough for everyday use by the security staff.   Features include man-down functionality, a dedicated emergency alert button, and clear, crisp voice communication throughout the coverage area.    The smaller PD682 radio is the perfect choice for management and administrator use, and still offers many of the same capabilities as the PD782.
 
Features

Higher Spectrum Efficiency, Higher Channel Capacity
The TDMA technology allows twice the channels based on the same spectrum resource. This relieves the stress of increasing shortage in spectrum resource.
Secure Communication
Besides the encryption inherent to digital technology, both the PD7 and PD6 Series radios provide enhanced encryption capabilities (such as 256-bit encryption algorithm). It has analog scrambling, and digital encryption using Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) and ARCFOUR (ARC4) encryption methodology to both voice and data.)
Superior Voice
With the adoption of the AGC technology in combination with the application of narrowband codec and digital error correction technologies, Both the PD7 and PD6 Series radios are capable of ensuring your voice is clear and crisp even in noisy environments or at the edge of the coverage area.
Emergency Button
The PD7 Series radios allow for a user to signal an emergency situation by holding the dedicated emergency top key. The emergency signal can be programmed to be audible or silent and will be
sent to the radio(s) that have been set to receive it.
Smaller, Sleeker, Lighter
The PD6 Series has a light weight PC & Metal frame design. P602 is 4.7 x 2.13 x 1.1 inches weighing 10.23oz, PD662 / PD682 is 4.8 x 2.17 x 1.1 inches weighing 10.93oz. This is the perfect radio for those requiring a light-weight option with many of the capabilities of the PD7 Series.
System Monitoring & Control
Hytera's RDAC software allows for the monitoring and control of the system from a remote location. The channel change can be performed either via RDAC PC tools, via the repeater's front panel channel knob and via the channel steering from the repeater's rear port.
Rugged & Reliable
The PD7 and PD6 radios comply with MIL-STD-810 C/D/E/F/G standards. The Ingress Protection reaches IP67 (6: Totally protected against dust; 7: Protected against the effects of immersion up to 1m for 30 minutes). It's the highest IP level for land-based wireless radio application.

Outcome

The IPConnect feature of the Hytera DMR radios gives users the ability to talk to multiple locations, as well as all security personnel. They can also make private calls to individual radios when sensitive information needs to be shared. The radios send and receive messages, in addition to call alerts and emergency alerts in the event an officer should push the emergency button.



Facilities management and the ThedaStar Air Medical helicopter use the DMR radio network for their individual department communications, but can still contact security directly. The ability to communicate across campuses has increased the efficiencies and safety throughout the ThedaCare system. Plans are to build out the DMR network throughout ThedaCare's main facilities to make a wide area push-to-talk communication network for security.