COMMUNICATIONS ANYWHERE

Altech Alcom Motomo

Altech Alcom Motomo, part of Altech Radio Holdings is a specialist in the turnkey design, engineering and installation of advanced digital radio communication and telemetry networks for the commercial government and public safety sectors. The company has long benefited from a close technical relationship with communications giant Motorola, utilising Motorola’s radio communications technology as part of an extensive project portfolio across Africa. The relationship extends back to 1985 when Motorola South Africa became a subsidiary of Altech group; a leading South African technology group within the information technology, multi-media and telecommunications sectors. To date, Altech Alcom Motomo serves as a leading distributor of Motorola technology for the EMEA region.

The company employs a skilled workforce predominantly comprising highly qualified engineers divided into specialist functions including engineering, project management, system testing and field engineering. For each project the company takes responsibility for implementation of the necessary network infrastructure from masts and towers through to base stations and supply of radios and accessories.

One of the key markets for Altech Alcom Motomo is

the turnkey installation of Terrestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA) networks for public safety applications. TETRA is especially suited for use by emergency services like fire and rescue, police, ambulance services as well as transport services such as rail and airports which require dedicated communications, sometimes over long range and in areas of bad commercial coverage. TETRA systems offer a multitude of advantages for these types of applications by being able to link individual and group communication, supporting high levels of encryption and multiple fail safe and overload systems to ensure communications in a disaster scenario. Another key feature to this type of technology is the ability of the system to relay communications through Direct Mode Gateways beyond network infrastructure meaning that the system may operate over a very high coverage area using comparatively few transmitters.

Altech Alcom Motomo implements communication technology which is capable of covering entire countries as part of an integrated radio communications network. Whilst the technology is similar in nature to GSM mobile telephone networks, this type of technology has much greater resilience with better security capabilities built into the systems.

Altech Alcom Motomo was responsible for implementation of the City of Cape Town Communications Network which supports communications for a number of public services including police, emergency services, utility workers, national park staff, law enforcement and security. This vast system supports more than 10,000 users covering 7 former local authority zones. One of the major drivers behind the project was the hampering of public services caused by a lack of a common integrated radio communications platform. This led The City of Cape Town in commissioning Altech Alcom Motomo to supply the new TETRA communications network and installation of all necessary infrastructure including 28 base stations and new state-of-the-art central control room

Effective communication between functions is a very important factor in any business. This is even more apparent in large public service organizations covering wide geographical areas which demand reliable communication between users performing important tasks for a multitude of different services. Endeavour Magazine examines a company that is very much at the forefront of digital radio technology supporting the backbone of public safety infrastructure.

Altech Alcom Motomo

dispatch. The company is also responsible for maintenance and support of the entire system, which boasts a record of 99.9% availability over 10 years since installation. Noel Watermeyer, Director for Altech Alcom Motomo shares his view on the project:

“This was the first project of its kind for us. As well as being our first digital network and the only local government owned network covering all their municipal users. We have had very positive feedback on the project. To this date the system is still working very well and we believe the City of Cape Town is still very proud of their network.”

Another key project for Altech Alcom Motomo is the installation of an advanced TETRA network for the South African Police Service in Gauteng. The network links 30,000 radios covering 67 sites with emergency call systems, GPS, whilst also supporting conventional telephone calling and SMS. In addition to the work with the SAPS, the company has also supplied TETRA networks for the Angola and Botswana police services.

Altech Alcom Motomo is heavily involved in the supply of advanced Supervisory Control and DATA Acquisition (SCADA) systems for the monitoring and control of industrial processes in a number of heavy industrial sectors including refining and mining.

The company is working with major utility companies in the public infrastructure sector such as water and electricity supply. This includes systems integrated for national power utility Eskom as Noel explains:

“For Eskom we have installed remote data retrieval units at substations which gather information and send it back to the main control room. This provides engineers with real time information which they can use to monitor and respond to processes effectively.”

The company works within the water supply sector providing systems to support the effective control of resources:

“Our systems are also installed at water supply facilities to monitor and control reservoir levels by linking directly to the pumping systems.”

The potential applications for such technology do not end here and there are further markets on the horizon where Noel believes solutions can be implemented effectively:

“From a monitoring and control perspective such systems can also be used within the wind energy market for wind farm operators. The renewables sector is one which promises a great deal of growth in South Africa which we are looking also looking at closely.”

Altech Alcom Motomo demonstrates a company which is committed to highly technical solutions which make a real difference in a public services environment. What particularly sets the company apart is the effectiveness of the systems implemented for each scenario which represents the company’s commitment to the individual understanding of every client’s requirements. This is backed up by solid technical partnerships to further support functionality, resilience and longevity of every system. The overriding factor beyond the benefits the company’s systems can offer for the industrial and utility sectors is the difference such systems can make for public safety, particularly emergency services. In the event of a major disaster or emergency situation it is the effective communications between different emergency services facilitated by Altech Alcom Motomo that do not just protect public safety and welfare, but also save lives.

We supply into the following industries:

ʭ EW system houses ʭ Tactical Radio manufacturers ʭ Radar manufacturers ʭ Avionics manufacturers ʭ ESM manufacturers ʭ Land and Aviation Radio systems manufacturers ʭ Transport system manufacturers ʭ Process control system manufacturers ʭ Industrial electronic system manufacturers

Tel: +27 12 345 6132Fax: 086 617 6830

E-mail: info@ecssa.co.zawww.ecssa.co.za

Altech Alcom Motomowww.alcommotomo.co.za+27 11 235 7640

Written by Martin White

www.littlegatepublishing.com