"When the customer chooses a digital technology – be it TETRA, Nexedge, MotoTrbo, DMR, Tier 3, dPMR – we believe that the best way of doing that is to use a console, an operator position, to minimize the risk of migrating to digital”, said John Whitcomb, seated at a large touch-screen control panel on the Zetron stand.

By linking the old radio system with the new via a console, he explained, a client could migrate even one radio at a time to digital, if he wished, while still maintaining communication between all his radios through the system – and keeping his options open for the future. Setting up a ‘patch’ on the screen, he picked up a TETRA radio and pressed the PTT, and a fraction of a second later his voice issued from a nearby DMR handportable.

“They may choose to do one group of radios first, or one talkgroup or one radio site or one radio channel”, he went on.

“That way they mitigate any risk in terms of understanding different technologies and also, more importantly, cost. So, each year as they have different budget, they can gradually migrate to digital until they have final obsolescence with their analogue equipment.”

On the screen were touch-panels representing access to radio systems of various technologies, analogue as well as digital, and telephone lines. At PMRExpo, one single operator position was on show, but Zetron can supply much larger systems: for example, British Airways has a system at London Heathrow Airport with 97 operator positions.