GSM intercom solution

May 2014 Surveillance, Residential Estate (Industry)

South Africa has a peculiar problem in the residential market. Complexes and town houses are the norms here, but in Europe this is not a common solution. This is why there was always a need to find an audio or video intercom solution for the town houses.

The normal solution with the traditional wiring is not applicable due to the dimensions of the town house complexes; it would need too much cable and work to reach each and every house. The natural solution would be a GSM based system. We have already explained the advantages of this solution in a previous article (www.securitysa.com/47600n)

This is why after pushing European suppliers to develop a GSM solution for our market without success TRIBPT decided to develop and manufacture a solution in South Africa.

TRIBPT put together a project team to develop something which has to be innovative, easy to install and to be mounted inside existing entry panels housing, to maintain an external appearance of familiar products, and, last but not least, to be locally manufactured and maintained.

The team’s engineers worked on various options and came out with very innovative solutions working together with the manufacturing partner. This is a summary of the technology used for the development and for the manufacturing process:

* The hardware is completely custom developed with an embedded CPU and ANSI firmware.

* An integrated GSM circuit with GPRS data communication.

* An Internet-based remote configuration and monitoring, featuring the latest Web technologies, which allows mobile and desktop access.

* All the electronic components are assembled using high capacity SMD (surface-mount device) machines in a very modern electronic manufacturing facility.

Now there is a range of products called GSM/T which are available to the market with innovative functions like:

* Installation costs are kept to a minimum.

* There are no cables to run to the residents’ houses.

* The SIM card is installed in a dedicated device far from the entry panel. Safe and secure.

* The system can be managed from a secure website for the installation setup and for the management of the system.

* The call costs can be controlled.

* An access control system is included in the version with keypad.

* Residents can enjoy a missed call function. They can call the unit which recognises their number and open the gate, at no cost at all.

The good news is that in South Africa there is no shortage of skills in this field. There are very capable engineers and a high level of manufacturing capacities and with good project management skills, the next step is to take the new products to African countries and beyond.



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