Our Approach

Our choice of Ofcom licence underpins the high performance, safety and security of our wireless systems:

 

Ofcom’s Distress Alarm Wide Area Licence is designed for “...the use of alarms in distress situations to assist with the protection of people and/or property.”

(OfW73)

 

The licence type has been designed by Ofcom to perform this specific responsibility, unlike those for paging systems. The benefits of this licence are manifold:

 

· It’s Performance: To get some idea of the frequency performance, please have a look at our case studies. The Distress Alarm licence is on a superior frequency for coverage both within and between buildings and allows a broadcast power of up to 5 watts. This gives better coverage over potentially larger areas.  How much larger?  We usually outperform on-site paging systems by a minimum of  2 of their systems to 1 of ours.

· It’s New: There’s an old German saying that says “Only a dead fish goes with the flow.”  Most fire alarm paging systems operate on self select on-site or wide-area paging licences.  These frequencies have a legacy of usage for a variety of roles.  The distress alarm frequency has no such legacy issues, and therefore no chance of legitimate interference.

· It’s Guarded: the Distress Alarm licence is a manual frequency coordinated licence “...which ensures the elimination of interference from authorised users.” (BS5839-01:2002). This is not the case for many paging systems, who must test and certify their own broadcasts on comparatively busy frequencies.

· It’s Flexible: The Distress Alarm licence enables both two-way data and two-way voice communications.  This meets perfectly with our desire to provide integrated solutions to the customer, such as RefugeWatch.

· It’s getting better: The future of Ofcom licences is currently changing.  Ofcom are in the process of liberalising the main stream paging licences into a cheaper, and less administratively heavy, “light” licence category. One part of the liberalisation is the objective to “share” licences, which could prove troublesome for fire alarm pagers. Unlike the light licences, the Distress Alarm licence will become more secure via the MAST database. Effectively this means that your future distress alarm licence will “sterilise” your location for anyone wanting to use this frequency.  Importantly, the decision over whether they can or not will be yours.

 

For more details on our approach, click on the link below:

 

The Wireless Alert Solutions Approach (PDF document)

 

If you would like further information, a free consultation or a  site survey, contact us to discuss your requirement:

 

Email: info@wasol.co.uk or call: 07877 056486

Wireless Alert Solutions Limited

Distress Alarm Warning Systems for the Safety and Security of People and  Property