San Antonio OpenSky System?

[mwjones]

My employer is looking at replacing an ailing EDACS system, and MA/COM has proposed an OpenSky system for the replacement.

While I know OpenSky is not well liked on the New York/Pennsylvania boards, I'm being told that the Toyota Plant in San Antonio may have a system. The RR Database shows a conventional EDACS system, but doesn't show an OpenSky system.

Has anyone in the San Antonio investigated this possiblity? A team (including myself) is coming to San Antonio for a meeting with MA/COM early next week, and they're including a visit to the Toyota facility. I'm just wondering if this will be a legitimate apples for apples comparion to what we're going to get, or a snow job to make the sale.

 

[mike_webb59]

OpenSky? I would have thought that a visit to San Antonio would be for the Provoice System that's deployed out here.

Just a thought.

Mike

 

[mwjones]

OpenSky? I would have thought that a visit to San Antonio would be for the Provoice System that's deployed out here.

Two reasons, we're private industry, not public safety, and they don't make Provoice gear for 900MHz, which is where our current licenses are (same reason P25, as much as I would like to, is not on the table).

The MA/COM dealer we're working with is based in San Antonio, and I would put money that they installed the Toyota plant, hence going there.

 

[TXEMT]

Last I heard the toyota plant was UHF trunked and it was intstalled by M/A Com and they had some provoice talkgroups, I live to far away to get anything maybe someone closer to the plant can help out..Look in the database under Bexar County and there is a Heading for Toyota under the trunked system section, has a couple freq. in there but has not been updated in awhile.

 

[mwjones]

Last I heard the toyota plant was UHF trunked and it was intstalled by M/A Com and they had some provoice talkgroups, I live to far away to get anything maybe someone closer to the plant can help out..Look in the database under Bexar County and there is a Heading for Toyota under the trunked system section, has a couple freq. in there but has not been updated in awhile.

I did look in that database, and it still shows it as EDACS with Provoice. That's why I'm asking the question, to see if there's any reports of them going OpenSky (supposedly the deal is that the controller and repeaters will work in EDACS mode until the switch is thrown to work in OpenSky mode.)

 

[motorola_otaku]

Let's see.. you live in Houston, and your employer uses an "ailing" 900 EDACS system. You must work for Continental Airlines.

I hate to play devil's advocate, but you do know that if y'all went with a LTR system you could deal with vendors local to you, and have the security of being on a tried, tested, and proven platform with multiple equipment vendors.

 

[mwjones]

Let's see.. you live in Houston, and your employer uses an "ailing" 900 EDACS system. You must work for Continental Airlines.

I hate to play devil's advocate, but you do know that if y'all went with a LTR system you could deal with vendors local to you, and have the security of being on a tried, tested, and proven platform with multiple equipment vendors.

I cannot confirm or deny that the system you mention is the one in question. I can say that my involvement in my employer's operations are global, with a number of radio systems in the US alone. I did not mention what city the system is in, so I will let you continue to guess (unless you know something and aren't saying).

We have had presentations from both players, Dailey-Wells (MA/COM Tyco) and Motorola, and internal work is now taking place to decide which choice better suits the operation's needs.

I was not involved in selecting the Vendor, but will have some influence in which vendor we go with. Therefore an LTR solution was not put on the table. Also, with frequency availability at a premium in some major metropolitan areas, digital voice was a must to support more activity on the limited frequencies we already have - not just on the ailing system but in other locations as well. Last I checked, EF Johnson didn't have a digital voice solution (unless you went P-25, and none of the manufactuers have a P-25 900 MHz solution, yet).

 

[motorola_otaku]

I was not involved in selecting the Vendor, but will have some influence in which vendor we go with. Therefore an LTR solution was not put on the table.

Yeah, that sounds about right. Never let a logical decision get in the way of company politics.

The only way you are going to increase loading capacity without adding additional frequencies is to utilize a system that uses multiple voice paths on a single discrete frequency; i.e. TDMA. P25 in its current incarnation does not support this, and like you mentioned it isn't available in 900 MHz anyway. MotoTRBO does, but is also not (yet) available for 900 MHz and doesn't have a trunking implementation available for sale (yet.) Then there's iDen, but I wouldn't wish that fate on anyone. TETRA would work for your overseas locations, but isn't available in North America - Motorola doesn't want to cough up their part of the technology, presumably to protect TRBO and P25 system sales. So I guess that leaves you with OpenSh*t or some other one-off IP-based combined data/voice system. I'm sorry.

You might ask your Dailey-Wells rep about P25IP, just to see what their reaction is. ;p It's basically the MA/COMM brand stamped on the P25 standard, but might be available for 900 and has been installed at two major airports in Poland.