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Major upgrade

01/02/2012 | Channel: Ports & Harbours, Health & Safety

Harbour and coastguard staff on Guernsey who are responsible for safety in ports and around the island’s 48 km (30 mile) coastline, were so impressed by 12 years of reliable service from their Zetron communications control system that when the time came for an upgrade they knew exactly where they wanted to go for the replacement.

Zetron’s partner in Guernsey, Radio & Electronic Services (RES), carried out the phased swap-over during the winter of 2010/11, integrating the new Zetron system with existing ICOM marine VHF and UHF radio, the public phone network, private phone circuits and an existing Zetron telemetry system used to control and monitor remote installations. Two consoles were installed in the St. Peter Port harbour office and a third in the pier head control room, linked by fibre optics. RES used Zetron’s programmable user interface to customise screen displays according to the individual preferences of the operators.

“RES has consolidated more information than ever before onto our touch screens so staff have finger-tip control over radio, telephony and remote systems from one place,” says harbour master Captain Peter Gill. “Remote harbour lights and fog horns are also controllable in the same way. If they need to move away from the consoles to another area, operators can turn on remote monitoring from the touch screens so that live radio and telephone audio is relayed to them over loudspeakers. The new system has enhanced our ability to provide an attentive and efficient 24/7 service.”