Earlier in 2018, Brentwood Communications were asked to provide radios to the Ministry of Defence in Kenya. The customer approached us with a need for radios that were able to ensure secure and high quality communications, due to the mission critical nature of their work. Motorola DP4801e radios were supplied. This feature-rich model has GPS settings to track the location of radio users, as well as man down and lone worker alerts, making it an obvious choice for a user with large safety and security requirements. Acoustic tube earpieces were also provided, so that the units could be used as discreetly as possible. The order was delivered to Kenya within 10 days of it being placed, thanks to Brentwood’s efficient goods out team, and the Ministry of Defence were extremely pleased with their new standard of communications.
Eden Island Village Management Association, based in the luxurious holiday destination the Sachelles, approached Brentwood Communications in 2017 when they required two way radios to operate across the island. Providing communications for a whole island is no easy achievement, but our engineers took on the challenge, and went to visit our customer. Our engineer installed a base station, complete with antenna and cable, which would communicate with the DP1400 radios we had previously provided Eden Island. The DP1400’s replaced the previous analogue radios the customer had been using. The radios were provided in VHF, due to the outdoor nature of their use. As well as enjoying the sunshine for a day or two, the engineers were able to gain valuable experience installing systems in different environments.
Over the years, Brentwood have pioneered to become the largest global supplier of two way radio technology to superyachts. Supplying large numbers of vessels in the last few years alone has seen our team of engineers travel worldwide to complete site surveys and install bespoke equipment. Regardless of the size of the yacht or the area of travel, the Brentwood team are dedicated to providing seamless coverage for superyachts around the world.
What do we do on an international site survey?
Often we’re called out to customers premises, be it luxury islands on the southern side of the equator or super yachts in the med, due to inherent problems with their communications systems that need the attention of our team.
If the system is a previous installation, we often discuss the issues with the customer face-to-face, to get a true understanding of the problems they’re having and. Quite often, coverage is an issue so we would complete full RF surveys of the location including testing of RF outputs at the antennas, and line testing to ensure no problems are found within the cabling or repeaters.
Once issues are identified, we either rectify this within the cost of the survey or if we are arriving for installation we will install the new kit and ensure all problems are rectified before leaving. Often this involves early starts and late finishes, especially if we are travelling on the same day.
Customers have a copy of all of this once we’re complete so they have it for reference in future, any system diagrams are also passed to the customer. Full documentation is provided and any system recommendation for the future is also passed across.
What have been your favourite overseas projects?
Superyacht M/Y Siren was a good project, we installed a full capacity plus system for the crew. Everything went incredibly smoothly and we were lucky enough to stay on the vessel while the install took place.
The most luxurious stay was a trip to an island in the Seychelles to survey a system for a hotel, which was a brilliant experience.