ADRF recently announced the launch of PSR-78-8527, a half-watt public safety 700/800 MHz digital repeater designed to reduce the cost of small and medium-sized building owners, trying to support emergency radio and cellular communications in their facilities .

Dennis Burns, ADRF Director of Public Safety, stated that the new PSR series of half-watt repeaters are designed to be deployed in buildings of 50,000 square feet or less-this category accounts for 6.3 million of the total commercial building market. Around 88%. Previously, ADRF had already served this smaller construction market sector through its 2-watt product, whose power output had to be dialed back when installed in a smaller facility.

"Usually, on a 2-watt product, you can [cover] as much as 150,000 to 200,000 square feet, depending on the wall structure, etc.," Burns said in an interview with IWCE's Urgent Communications. "For a half-watt product, the best location is 40,000 to 60,000 square feet. In that area, we want to make sure that we have something that can solve the huge market opportunity in the range of 50,000 to 60,000 square feet, and 2 watts [solution] really It's a bit overkill.

"Our customers keep saying,'We like ADRF equipment, but sometimes buildings don’t need 2 or 5 watts of power. Do you have something smaller and cheaper in that space? We don’t, so last year we started thinking Develop a new product."

ADRF officials believe that PSR-78-8527 can meet the needs of the small and medium construction market because the half-watt indoor repeater supports countless LMR and LTE connections on the 700/800 MHz frequency band in a smaller form factor. According to Burns, The cost is much lower than the 2 watt alternative.

"It is at least 30% lower, so its price is much lower," he said. "We are actively pursuing this field, so we hope to have the right products at the right price.

"There are several other half-watt manufacturers on the market today, so we said to ourselves,'We want it to be flexible. We want it to be a beautiful small package. Another thing we need to do is to ensure that the economy will It’s aggressive, so we must have correctly priced it."

Burns stated that this savings will continue after the initial purchase of PSR-78-8527, as owners of half-watt Class B digital repeaters will also see lower rates than when using ADRF’s 2 watt solution Energy costs.

"This is one of the reasons we are talking about reducing the total cost of ownership," Burns said. "For a 2 watt [repeater], you usually have to equip a large backup battery unit so that you can get a full 12 hours of battery life at 700/800 MHz and use it as a dual-band solution.

"With this unit, what we are trying to do is to optimize it so that you can use our small backup battery unit, which is smaller, lighter, and much cheaper. Use our small backup battery unit with two For each frequency band, you can get about 13 and a half hours, so you can use a small backup battery device and exceed the 12 hours required by NFPA."

In addition, the new ADRF repeater is designed to be easy to install, Burns said.

"This is an independent, passive BDA," Burns said. "Suppose you have a small retail store of 25,000 square feet. If you hang this device on the wall and install a donor antenna and four to five distribution antennas in it, then you can operate normally. This is a Very simple to install, but it’s a complete system...it comes with a wall bracket, you just need to put it on the wall."

Burns said one reason for the easier installation is the smaller profile of the PSR-78-8527, which weighs 35 pounds—20 pounds lighter than the ADRF 2-watt repeater—and has a smaller footprint. The smaller size enhances deployment options, but it does not reduce the long-term value of supporting first responder LMR and LTE (including Verizon and FirstNet/ATT services) communications, or it is installed in a NEMA Class 4 enclosure.

"It's a small package — it's very light and flexible, whether you're doing a catheter or just a wire connector; we try to maintain this flexibility with the connection options on the bottom," Burns said.

"It's 700/800 MHz. If you don’t have FirstNet available today, but FirstNet will launch later, you don’t have to install new hardware, because it will support all hardware-it will grow with you, which is great ."

Burns said the new half-watt repeater has received all certifications. He said it can be sold immediately, and ADRF plans to start shipping built-in products later this month.

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