OVERVIEW
"The best relationships start with good communication"
The Teleque Wireless Railway Platform Announcement System is used by most Train Operating Companies (TOCs) around the UK. Its job is to allow staff to make on-the-spot audio announcements over the station's PA system to either individual platforms, zones or the whole station using a wireless handheld transmitter. Improving the station's communications by this technique has been shown to lead to an improved customer experience, and moreover proven to reduce delay minutes, giving a tangible economic case for its installation.
The system has been shown to be particularly useful in the following situations:-
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Rush hour general crowd management
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Directing customers to less crowded carriages before arrival of train
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Change of platform announcements
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Sports venues - Systems installed at Twickenham, Henley, Kew Bridge, etc.
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Gateline announcements
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Train replacement announcements to bus stop PA beyond the station Entrance/Exit
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General arrival/departure announcements - making staff more visible in smaller stations
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Less confrontational announcements to potentially troublesome customers
Now the technical bit!
The Teleque T101 system is a Wireless Railway Platform Announcement System. It allows staff to make audio announcements to any public address zone from anywhere in the station using a handheld transmitter. The radio signal from the transmitter is picked up by a receiver, tuned to the same frequency, and converted to audio which is then fed into the Public address system to be fed out to pre-determined zones over the station speakers.
The transmitter has a custom configuration for every station, this configuration displays the standard 3 letter designator for the station and custom information of the zone i.e. "Plt 1", "Plt 4-8", etc. The zones are selectable by a simple up / down switches on the transmitter, as well as version number and channel configuration.
The receivers come in two formats, wall mount and rack mount:-
The wall mount receiver is supplied in a IP67 rated box and is designed to be mounted on a platform building, the audio signal it receives is then routed back to the PA.
The rack mounted receiver comes in an either single or dual 1U 19" rack format. It can be mounted on the platform and the audio routed back to the PA equipment, or it can be mounted within the PA rack itself.
Using a rack mount system can often improve ease of installation and service access. It also allows use of an antenna distribution unit, meaning up to 4 receivers can share a single antenna pair.
The choice of using wall mount or rack mount is down to the physical characteristics of the station.
The receivers use something called "true diversity", this means each receiver uses two antennae, the signal from each of these antennae is constantly monitored and the resulting best signal is selected . The antennae are supplied in an IP67 enclosure and are connected to the receiver with suitable RF cable.
The system is fully PADS approved