Whinfell Forest, UK

Whinfell Forest is one of these villages in the UK. Providing first class facilities like stylish accommodation, restaurants and a wide range of indoor and outdoor activities from badminton to sailing, Whinfell Forest has all the essential elements to make the perfect holiday, whether you are looking for a family holiday,activity holiday, short break, weekend break or even a spa break. With 863 lodges in 500 acres of pine forest, the effective communicating and dispatching is very important for the 140 staff in daily work, especially on each Monday and Friday, the change-over days, when up to 4000 guests depart and up to 4000 new ones check in.

Challenges

The ageing analog system Whinfell Forest used dated back to 14 years ago when the holiday center opened. One particular problem with it was that the staff was unable to communicate adequately at
the extremities of the large, sloping site due to the poor radio coverage there with the analog system. So the issue was always that the staff was sent to location that was key to operation of the village but couldn't communicate with the supervisor about the status. Under the analog system, the channel was always occupied and there was no spare capacity to handle an emergency call, because all the traffic was coming through in one channel. In order to improve the service, they decided to replace their existing system with following requirements:


1. Full radio coverage in the whole village and superior audio quality;
2. Two voice channels in one frequency and smooth dispatching between supervisor and staff;
3. Robust handsets that could match the demands of working environment.


Solutions

After examining various options and conducting some trials, the team chose Hytera system supplied by Derbyshire-based radio company Zycomm, a distributor of Hytera in the UK.The equipment was installed in June, 2012 with 142 PD78X portable radios, 6 MD78X mobile radios and 2 RD98X repeaters.

 

To make effective use of the talk-groups capability,the digital system was based on a pair of DMR repeaters, each of them providing up to two voice channels through its two time-slots. One of them overed kind of emergency services - fire, security and the medical and technical services. The other repeater covered daily operational services such as housekeeping, leisure and food and beverages.

 

Benefits

Hytera's products and system helped all 140 staff in Whinfell Forest to work more relaxed and smarter with their excellent features:
Digital technology
The advanced DMR technology meant full radio coverage, enhanced voice quality and doubled frequency capacity. The client could arrange the repeaters and frequency properly to handle the daily work, with spare capacity to handle emergency call.


IP67 rating
The tropical-style swimming pool area in Whinfell Forest was quite a harsh environment, with water heated to 30-32 degrees. It was not proper that the lifeguard worried that he's got to disconnect the radio off his belt before diving in. Hytera's robust DMR hand portables, which was IP67 environmentally protected, met the team's requirements well.
Text Message and Job dispatching
The text message and job dispatching applications provided by Hytera partner Zycomm made the work more efficiently. The staff on the helpdesk could take calls at the same time typing jobs into a system and then sending out to the right person. The storeman could receive message like"need a 20 amp fuse, I'll be there in five minutes• and get them ready in advance. These didn't take up the airwaves.

Voice From Customer

"The maintenance guys, particularly, are not the easiest people to please, but they are all loving it.Generally, it's been a big success."

--Mr. John Summers, technical services manager.