Background
When Neil Logan founded Street Assist in April 2016, his goal was to create a charity that would help reduce vulnerability in the City of Edinburgh’s busy night-time economy.
By the following year, Street Assist had achieved charitable status in Scotland (SCIO) and grown to 170 volunteers.
Their volunteers come from a variety of backgrounds including health/care professionals, students studying relevant subjects,
and many others who just want to contribute and make a difference.
Now seven years on this multi-award-winning charity has provided aid to over 5200 people, many of whom would have ended up in A&E
if not for Street Assist. The project already boasts a £4.4 million saving in terms of costs, resources and staffing for Police, Ambulance and NHS staff.
The challenge.
Street Assist were struggling with an aging two way radio communications system that was no longer meeting their needs as they grew, impacting the safety and operational efficiency of the project. The undulating landscape created issues with coverage areas, while capacity and efficiency of communication were also areas of concern.
With limited funding to invest Neil turned to Radiocoms and requested recommendations for an all-in-one, affordable system that was easy to use, and would grow with their requirements.
The solution.
The primary objective was to deploy a solution that had the capability of supporting teams who were geographically wide spread. Recognising the challenges they faced, as a first step, Radiocoms reviewed the coverage footprint and user features required.
Simon Bingham, Account Manager, Radiocoms, “The recommended solution needed to fit a tight budget and deliver longevity worthy of this investment. The Motorola Solutions WAVE PTX broad band push to talk (BBPTT) system with TLK100 two-way radios were recommended, trusted for making communication and collaboration much more intuitive with its simple ‘one handed operation’ PTT design, to its durability for withstanding drops. With no infrastructure to install, the deployment was quick and straightforward.”
Supported by dispatching software the team in the control room now have full visibility for monitoring, real-time tracking, and assignment allocations, helping them to operate efficiently in a fast-paced and dynamic environment, this all, in turn, has led to more accurate and timely responses to calls and giving their team the reassurance that support is there if they need it.
The results.
WAVE PTX has transformed the way they work and significantly improved their service delivery.
Neil Logan concluded, “The feedback from our team has solidified the success of the new technology. As a result of having a reliable network like WAVE PTX we have prioritised communication and our team feel safer which is always our number one priority. Whether it be responding to calls or requesting back up we have eliminated the frustrations we were previously experiencing. I can confidently say that the project has improved 100%.”
Photo credit: Street Assist
