Education

Two-Way Radio Communication Making Schools, Colleges and Universities Safer, More Secure and Vibrant Places

Improving safety, security and amenities for pupils, staff, and visitors across the campus and beyond.

The range of risks within the education environment has changed significantly over recent years, bringing safety, security, and the processes required to implement an active duty of care policy, both on campus and off-site on field trips, into sharp focus.

Campuses have become more prominent and spread over multiple sites. Buildings are more complex, and many activities occur outside regular hours and term times.
Within the campus, risks to safety and security can include illness, injury from accidents and natural disasters or malicious acts including vandalism, theft, arson, bullying and personal assault.

The ability of staff to report threats and incidents quickly and efficiently before they escalate is essential to managing risks, containing situations, and implementing emergency evacuation and lockdown plans.

It’s fair to say that the need for reliable, instant communication to manage down risks has never been greater, helping foster an educational environment that is safe, secure, efficient, and conducive to learning.

Benefits of Two-Way Radio Over Mobile Phones

Robust, low purchase cost, no dialling, waiting for a connection, dropped calls, service contracts, call, or data charges are just some of the benefits of two-way radio, providing instant communication at the push of a button indoors and out without unnecessary distractions.

Hand-portable two-way radios (walkie-talkies) can provide one-to-one, group and all-user communication options, giving you the flexibility to build a radio system that supports your operations. Whether it’s calls between teaching or support staff or alerting all team members anywhere on campus in the event of an incident requiring urgent assistance.

Radiocommunications Meeting the Diverse Needs of the Education Sector

More educational facilities than ever rely on KENWOOD two-way radios as their preferred method of instant communication on and off-site, whether in critical emergencies or simply as a simple-to-operate, reliable tool to maintain safety, security, and operational efficiency.

Typical applications include:

ProTalk License-Free PMR446 – Ssimple and Effective

The simplicity and convenience of analogue and digital license-free PMR446 technology have made it a popular choice in the education sector. Its reliability, ruggedness, and ease of use have enabled instant communication among teaching and maintenance staff on campus. While also improving safety and the coordination of activities on field trips, allowing separate groups to stay in touch at the push of a button.

Digital dPMR446 is by far the most popular format with professional users. It offers better reception throughout the coverage area. With 32 digital channels and 16 analogue channels, it’s particularly suited to operations in congested city areas, larger open campuses, or where channels are allocated to specific departments. Durability, long battery life between charges, and simplicity of operation in all conditions are among the key attributes of the current generation of KENWOOD ProTalk dPMR446 radios, along with many other advanced features previously found only in licensed radios.

KENWOOD Licensed Digital Radio – the Flexibility to Meet the Demands of a Modern Campus

For large campuses or those across multiple sites, a licensed KENWOOD digital radiocommunication system brings even greater benefits, including:

KENWOOD DMR and NEXEDGE NXDN digital protocols both offer the capability to build flexible and scalable systems suitable for covering single or multiple campuses. In contrast, the native analogue/digital Mixed Operation capability (enabling radios to communicate seamlessly with existing licensed analogue radios) provides a predictable and cost-effective migration path to full digital two-way radio implementation, and the basis for a future-proof, resilient campus-wide communication system.

A KENWOOD DMR or NEXEDGE NXDN system equipped with GPS devices can not only provide multiple communication channels and talk groups, but also support GPS-based navigation. But the optional KAS-10/20 software also lets you monitor and track every radio, so you always know where staff are and can pinpoint and alert those closest to an incident to reduce response times.

Health & Safety (Including Site Lockdown and Evacuation)

Lone workers, including teaching, support and facilities staff working outside regular hours and term times, can have their radios programmed to automatically call them at predetermined times to check on their status. Should there be no response, an alarm will be raised. Similarly, a function key on the radio can be assigned to trigger an emergency alert, which is transmitted immediately to all other radio users.

In addition to the efficiency that radio communication brings to coordinating everyday campus activities, it also supports health and safety and security policies, for example, alerting other staff to the presence of a stranger on campus, calling for assistance, and reporting accidents, bullying, and anti-social behaviour.

However, radio communication excels in the event of a significant incident, whether that be a medical emergency, staff at risk or a more serious event that requires key staff everywhere on campus to be alerted instantly and to initiate evacuation or lockdown procedures.

Proven Performance

KENWOOD two-way radio systems are widely used in schools, colleges, universities and education facilities around the world, including secondary schools in the UK, the University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa), Macquarie University (Australia) and Western Kentucky University (USA).

KENWOOD NEXEDGE Digital Radios deliver campus-wide coverage at Trinity College Dublin

Founded in 1592 in the centre of the city, Trinity College Dublin is closely related to Oxford and Cambridge universities and is the only one of the seven “ancient universities” of Great Britain and Ireland that dates back to before 1600, located in Ireland....

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Rock Hill School, South Carolina

The Rock Hill school district’s communications operate on a 62-site NEXEDGE NXDN system to provide continuous coverage throughout North and South Carolina, and on an extended 128-site system that extends to Georgia and Tennessee.

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Western Kentucky University, Kentucky

Western Kentucky University spans a 400-acre campus with more than 100 buildings, some of which are built into the side of a hill, up to 20 feet below ground. Read about the NEXEDGE NXDN system serving this topographically challenging site.

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Martinsville, Virginia City Public Schools switch to an NEXEDGE NXDN trunked radio system

In a move to improve security on and off campus, Martinsville City Public Schools upgraded its analogue system to NEXEDGE NXDN to create a comprehensive critical communications solution: day-to-day communications, emergency panic buttons, GPS on school buses for location tracking, wireless speakers, and radio-activated PA speaker announcements.

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Security & Privacy

As more products are connected by IP and to networked information and automation systems, there is a growing risk of leakage and theft of personal and other information, fabrication or destruction of data, and hijacking of products.

As one of the world’s leading manufacturers of radiocommunication products and solutions, we take our responsibility to ensure the security and integrity of our products and the data we hold in systems developed on behalf of our customers. Click for more information on JVCKENWOOD’s Group Privacy Policy.

Product Security

Secure encryption is an essential requirement in radiocommunications to protect against eavesdropping, jamming, and other malicious attacks on a radio system.

All KENWOOD digital radio devices are equipped with a voice scrambler feature as standard, while licenced NEXEDGE NXDN and DMR radios are further protected with more advanced encryption:

ProTalk PMR446: Voice inversion scrambler

NX-1000 Series: Built-in digital scrambler as standard, optional upgrade to ARC4 Encryption for DMR

NX-3000 Series: Built-in digital scrambler as standard, optional 56-bit DES encryption, and upgrade to 256-bit AES (NEXEDGE NXDN & DMR), 40-bit ARC4 encryption for DMR

NX-5000 Series: Built-in digital scrambler and DES-56 bit (4 keys) as standard, optional hardware upgrade to 56-bit DES and support to 256-bit AES (NEXEDGE NXDN and DMR) and 40-bit ARC4 encryption for DMR)

Information Security

The Communications Systems Business, Professional Systems Business and the Healthcare Business units of JVCKENWOOD Corporation are certified to ISO/IEC 27001:2013 international standards for information security management systems and JIS Q 27001:2014 Japanese industrial standards. Both of which specify standards for information security management systems and establish requirements and implementation of the framework to protect information assets.

Sustainability

JVCKENWOOD Corporation is rolling out ISO14001 certification as an integral part of our environmental management system. To date, it has obtained certification at all of its business centres and eleven affiliate companies in Japan and all of its production companies outside Japan. Please visit our corporate website for further information on our environmental and sustainability policies.

Built Tough to Withstand Rain, Dust and the Rough and Tumble of Everyday

As you would expect, all KENWOOD professional handheld walkie-talkies and mobile radios conform to MIL-STD-810C/D/E/F/G for ruggedness and durability, and are IP54/55/67 Water & Dust Intrusion-rated, making them suited for use in any environment.

In addition, KENWOOD can offer ATEX IECEx devices for use in hazardous, explosive atmospheres.

Explore KENWOOD Solutions for Your Campus

To discover more about the millions of KENWOOD devices in use by countless customers in hundreds of applications around the world, including the innovative, multi-protocol NX-5000 Series (NXDN, DMR, P25 and FM Analogue), NX-3000 Series (NXDN, DMR and FM Analogue) and exceptional value offered by the entry-level NX-1000 Series hand portable walkie-talkies and mobiles. Please click on the banners below.

For more information on KENWOOD digital system solutions including, DMR Tier 3 trunking and Simulcast, NXDN Type-C, Type-D and Gen2 trunking, click here.

License-Free PMR446

License-free Digital & Analogue PMR446 is ideal for applications where instant one-to-one or group communications are required over short distances, indoors & out.

► PMR446

NX-1000 Series

Feature-rich, entry-level hand-portable and mobile radios available in Digital DMR, NEXEDGE Digital NXDN and Analogue versions.

► NX-1000

NX-3000 Series

Mid-tier hand-portable and mobile radios with GPS and keypad options, in switchable DMR plus FM Analogue or, NEXEDGE NXDN plus FM Analogue configurations.

► NX-3000

ATEX / IECEX Safety Radios

NXDN ATEX hand portable radios are designed for users requiring ATEX devices and incorporate a host of advanced safety features.

► ATEX

System Solutions

Extend the flexibility, scalability and performance of a KENWOOD DMR or NEXEDGE NXDN system with single-site & wide area trunked capabilities.

► Systems

Software Suite

Empower your KENWOOD DMR or NEXEDGE NXDN Digital operations with cost-effective and simple to implement KASC-20E AVL / Dispatch software suite.

► KAS-20E