Zoos & Wildlife Parks

Two-way radio brings together worker and visitor safety with animal welfare and efficient operations

Providing a safe and secure environment for humans and animals, free from the threat of injury is a basic requirement for all zoos and wildlife parks, whether an inner-city petting zoo or a UNESCO International Man and Biosphere Reserve.

Running a safe, secure and efficient zoo with staff often working alone and out of sight caring for animals, carrying out essential maintenance and repairs and making visitors feel welcome creates unique challenges to zoo and wildlife reserve operators and custodians.

Risks are many and varied, much more so than in ‘ordinary workplaces’, with extremes in weather, uneven terrain and slippery working conditions, and the unpredictability of wild animals adding to the hazards.  

Risks can include:

Regular training and maintenance alongside robust and well-practiced health and safety, rescue, lockdown and evacuation procedures are all prerequisites of zoo and wildlife park operations, so too is a requirement for a reliable and resilient communications across all areas of a site enabling employees to better organise supplies and tasks, report status and problems and critically, to get the support to deal with them before they can escalate. This is particularly the case in larger zoos and parks with dangerous animals and where employees may find themselves working alone in remote locations.

RADIOCOMMUNICATIONS SUPPORTING SAFE ZOO AND WILDLIFE PARK OPERATIONS

Two-way radiocommunication provides the most powerful means to bring together teams of people, giving each person the reassurance that they are never more than the push of a button away from assistance, most especially in the event of an incident where access for emergency services, site lockdown or the rapid, safe and orderly evacuation of people and animals needs to be managed.

Zookeepers and their radios work side-by-side in the same harsh environment, so it is critical that the radio devices used and the system that supports them will function without interruption especially in last resort situations when mobile phone coverage and IP connectivity are not available.

And even in this age of smart, connected devices, for example, mobile phones, tablets, and hybrid LTE/PoC radio, the simplicity of radiocommunications still brings compelling advantages.

Robust, low purchase cost, no dialling or waiting for a connection, no dropped calls, no service contracts or usage charges, no switching between applications or fragile touch screens to break are just some of the benefits - providing instant voice and data communications at the push of a button indoors and out without distractions and enabling the use of discrete coded instructions by voice and data should the content be of a sensitive nature.

Two-way radio systems have been used to support zoo and wildlife park operations for many years, initially in analogue format. Today, digital technologies like KENWOOD DMR and NEXEDGE NXDN which can not only deliver effective wireless voice and data communications indoors and out over wide coverage areas, but also incorporate advanced worker safety features and compatibility with automation and productivity applications are increasingly employed.

RADIOCOMMUNICATION ENABLING ROBUST HEALTH, SAFETY AND SECURITY POLICIES

Two-way radio systems can provide one-to-one, group and all users communication options, giving you the flexibility to build a radio capability that underpins your operations with voice and data calls to link management, hosts, guides, catering, maintenance, grounds, shops, security and first aid teams or communicating with all staff, everywhere on site to call for assistance or in the event of a major incident.

Put simply, think of two-way radio as the communication tool of first and last resort; connecting individuals and groups instantly at the push of a button and continuing to work even when mobile networks get overloaded or IP connections crash.

KENWOOD TWO-WAY RADIO SOLUTIONS – FROM CITY CENTRE PETTING ZOOS TO WILDLIFE PARKS AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN

Not all zoological and wildlife parks are on expansive sites requiring sophisticated radio systems. Thousands of smaller animal attractions are open to the public and while communication requirements may be more modest, they remain critical to safe daily operations. KENWOOD offers reliable, digital two-way radio solutions to suit all types of attractions.

ProTalk License-Free PMR446 – simple and effective

The simplicity and convenience of license-free PMR446 technology has made it a popular choice for smaller animal attractions where its reliability, ruggedness and ease of use provides instant communication between individuals and groups over shorter distances at the push of a button.

Digital dPMR446 is by far the most popular license-free technology among professional users: offering clear reception to the full extent of the coverage area, durability, a long battery life between charges and simplicity of operation in all weather conditions. These are just some of the key attributes of the current generation of KENWOOD ProTalk digital dPMR446 radios, along with many more advanced features only previously found in licensed radios.

The ProTalk TK-3701D for example is better equipped than most license-free hand portable radios and features:

- native analogue to digital mixed operation
- a second programmable PTT button
- 32-digital and 16-analogue channels for congestion free operation even in cities
- construction to US MIL-STD Specification 810G
- IP54/55 weather protection

For an entry-level radio delivering instant one- to-one and call-all-radios capabilities straight out of the box, there’s little to better it.

Licensed DMR and NEXEDGE NXDN radio systems

For larger zoos and wildlife parks including those spread across multiple locations, a licensed KENWOOD digital radiocommunication system brings even greater benefits, including:

KENWOOD DMR and NEXEDGE NXDN digital protocols both offer the ability to build flexible and scalable systems suitable for covering single or multiple sites, while the embedded native analogue/digital Mixed operation (enabling radios to communicate automatically with existing licensed analogue radios), provides a predictable, economical migration path to digital two-way radio operation at an affordable cost and a solid basis from which to build a future-proof radio system.

A KENWOOD DMR or NEXEDGE NXDN system equipped with GPS devices can not only provide multiple communications channels and talk groups but also, with the addition of optional location services, for example employing KAS-10/20 software or Trackuracy ‘asset’ tracking suites, you are able to monitor and track every radio so you always know where staff are and can pinpoint and redeploy resources where they are needed or alert those closest to an incident to reduce response times.

Health & Safety (Including Emergency and Evacuation situations)

In addition to the efficiency that KENWOOD radio communication solutions bring to improving security, coordinating day-to-day zoo activities efficiently and enhancing the visitor experience, it also serves to help you comply with health and safety requirements/regulations.

However, where radio communication really excels is in the event of a major incident. Whether that be a medical emergency, staff at risk or a more serious event that requires key staff everywhere on site to be alerted instantly to initiate emergency, rescue, lockdown or evacuation procedures

All KENWOOD DMR and NEXEDGE NXDN hand portable and mobile in-vehicle two-way radio devices feature an Emergency Key and Emergency Call features as standard, while more advanced models additionally offer built-in or optional GPS modules, Lone Worker, Motion Detection and compatibility with Location services including as KAS-10 and KAS-20 AVL/Dispatch suites and the Trackuracy platform which make them suited for incorporation in a robust and comprehensive health and safety policy. Once activated, these advanced safety features can include:

EXAMPLES OF PMR446, DMR AND NEXEDGE NXDN SYSTEMS FOR ANIMAL ATTRACTIONS

KENWOOD DMR or NEXEDGE NXDN system solutions for visitor attractions need not be complicated or costly. A simple, effective system providing indoor and outdoor coverage throughout an attraction above and below ground can be built employing either digital PMR446, DMR or NEXEDGE NXDN technologies as appropriate, for example:

EXCEPTIONAL AUDIO QUALITY EVEN IN NOISY ENVIRONMENTS

Background noise can be an issue for communications in animal attractions, making voice communication challenging. Effective noise cancellation results in clearly audible voice communication irrespective of the level of background noise, a crucial safety and security requirement in managing crowds, especially in the event of a major incident.

KENWOOD radiocommunication devices benefit from JVCKENWOOD Group’s 60-years’ experience in producing consumer audio and visual equipment (Trio, JVC and KENWOOD), renowned for exceptional sound quality.

This transfer of knowledge and experience has led to the development of a number of novel and innovative solutions which overcome the problem of cancelling ambient noise while improving the audio clarity of the transmitted voice - in any operating environment.

DISCRETE OPERATION

You can connect discrete microphone and earphone accessories to KENWOOD radios so transmissions cannot be heard by others, important when coordinating security and emergency operations. Kenwood NEXEDGE NXDN and DMR hand portable radios are also compact and light making them easy to carry or keep hidden from view. Click here to explore the range of accessories available for KENWOOD radio devices including high-capacity batteries, multiple chargers, microphones, speakers, headsets and earpieces.

COST-EFFECTIVE MIGRATION FROM ANALOGUE TO DIGITAL

The beauty of a KENWOOD digital two-way radio solution is that your investment in new equipment when upgrading from analogue can be phased over time as all KENWOOD digital radio devices feature automatic analogue/digital Mixed operation (which allows them to communicate automatically with any existing analogue radios whatever the make) providing a predictable and cost-effective path to full digital implementation.

BUILT TOUGH TO WITHSTAND RAIN, DIRT AND THE ROUGH AND TUMBLE OF USE IN OUTDOOR AND INDOOR SETTINGS

Radios used at visitor attractions need to be robust, able to operate constantly for long periods and in all weather conditions.

As you would expect, all KENWOOD professional hand portable walkie talkies and mobile radios conform to MIL-STD-810 C/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 – most especially at parks with water attractions!

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

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 for ensuring the security integrity of our products and the data we hold on 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 provide security 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:

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 system 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.

EXPLORE KENWOOD SOLUTIONS FOR YOUR ZOO AND WILDLIFE PARK

Two-way radio provides the most effective means to communicate between cross functional teams reliably and instantly everywhere on a site, which is why KENWOOD two-way radios and systems are in use at many leading zoos and wildlife parks around the world including the Kruger National Park (South Africa), trunked systems at National Parks in Tanzania and Kenya, and digital conventional systems operating at Opel and Leipzig Zoos (Germany).

Opel Zoo is fully covered with KENWOOD DMR Keeping everything running smoothly on the 27-hectare site occupied by Opel Zoo calls for a powerful radio system connecting all the different areas, technicians and administrative staff. The zoo’s team is now using a KENWOOD DMR digital radio system with repeater to achieve full coverage of the sprawling site. Find out more ►

Kruger National Park upgrades to NEXEDGE NXDN With close to 10,000 square kilometres of mixed terrain to cover and the risk of incidents and hostile encounters, the KENWOOD NEXEDGE NXDN system not only meets the need for critical instant, reliable voice communication but also provides GPS tracking so that resources can be deployed or augmented efficiently to protect borders and wildlife at Kruger National Park. Find out more ►

Leipzig Zoo operations now supported by NEXEDGE NXDN digital technology Leipzig Zoo is home to some 850 animal species and subspecies and is committed to a unique concept in species-appropriate husbandry. Its techniques, conservation and education programmes are lauded as exemplars for zoos of the future. Find out more ►

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.

If you’d like to learn more about our TRACKURACY, our real-time Bluetooth Low Energy asset tracking and monitoring solution, click here.

Alternatively, please post an enquiry to us or contact an authorised KENWOOD Communications reseller.

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