There has been keen interest in Tait's new P25 digital radio products at the first public unveiling, the APCO International Annual Conference and Expo in Montreal, Canada.

Tait demonstrated operational P25 portable, mobile and base station radios at its booth at the Expo, held from 8-12 August.

"A significant number of major customers were interested in our P25 products," says New Product Strategy Manager, Linda Smith. "We've been talking about our P25 development work for some time now, so customers were looking for the opportunity to get their hands on operational products and they liked what we'll have to offer.

"Our three key points of focus are quality, functionality and value - strengths that our main customers are looking for in digital radio equipment."

Most of the functionality of the UHF variants of P25 terminal and systems equipment was demonstrated, along with interoperability between analogue and P25 digital equipment, and compatibility with other manufacturers' digital radios.

 

Linda Smith says Tait remains well on track for launching its initial conventional P25 system and terminal products in the first and second quarters of 2005.

Product Manager Digital Systems, Dr. Jan Noordhof demonstrated analogue and digital voice calls through a P25 base station/repeater, as well as some sophisticated dual mode functionality. "Our P25 base station will have the ability to differentiate between incoming analogue and digital P25 calls on a per-call basis, and retransmit them accordingly."

Other infrastructure demonstrations included analogue line operation. "This is a standard feature with our base station, so no additional devices are required to interconnect with an analogue base station or an analogue despatcher."

Tait's unique, IP-based P25 network architecture was also displayed at APCO. "We have taken a much simpler approach than other manufacturers. Our network design is like an office PC LAN but with base stations instead of PCs.

"We use Cisco routers and other IT network components to link our base stations. This is off-the-shelf equipment from reputable manufacturers, which makes setting up and maintaining our system simpler and more cost-effective. Auxiliary parts are not custom so they are readily accessible and competitively priced."

Tait demonstrated three P25 terminals at APCO: the TM9155 mobile, the TP9155 limited keypad portable, and the TP9160 full keypad portable.

"Our testing has shown the performance of our P25 terminals to be highly competitive," says Product Manager Digital Terminals, Lyle Johnson.

Tait expects to release conventional P25 VHF, UHF and 800MHz systems in the first quarter of next year. VHF and UHF terminals will be released in the second quarter, with 800MHz terminals and trunked P25 equipment to follow.

Read more information about Project 25.