Underground mining is a tough, dangerous environment, no matter what a worker’s role entails.

In this setting, with multiple risks from heavy machinery, dirt, dust and explosive materials, it’s essential to maintain a reliable communications link between every individual and vehicle, team leaders and the control room.

Without a trusted communication network, there is a significantly increased risk to staff safety and a greater chance of interruption to operations.

The communication solution has to provide loud, clear audio to ensure instructions are clearly heard even in close proximity to heavy machinery and drilling equipment. It needs to be easily used in dark environments, and it needs to be tough enough to keep working through heavy knocks, drops in water, ingress from dusty mining waste, or a combination of all three.

Sepura’s proven fleet of TETRA radios are now available in VHF frequency bands, providing even better coverage to organisations operating in underground sites.

Where coverage has previously been a concern or something to be carefully managed, the greater signal propagation of the VHF frequencies proves an ideal solution, providing complete coverage in dangerous environments where safety is paramount.

Sepura product manager Ben Tabor explained how VHF TETRA radios improve underground coverage

“Radio waves in lower frequencies have longer wavelengths, meaning they travel further distances,” he said.

“Because of this, the coverage is enhanced even in constricted underground spaces and operators can reduce the physical infrastructure required to support the solution, enabling significant savings in equipment and maintenance costs.”

The solution helps to fill a gap in the market for quality VHF TETRA radios, complementing the reliability, security, and mission-critical protocols of TETRA with the powerful audio processing of the SC Series radios, ensuring clear audio in loud, wet or dusty conditions.

Automated safety features

• “Always on” communication is the bedrock of a mission-critical network, with users permanently connected on a highly resilient network.

• Mining organisations can now add dynamic control features to their existing radio solution though Sepura’s AutoMate app, enabling greater staff safety and improved situational awareness.

• AutoMate is an intelligent application that automates radio activity and workflow based on a user’s location. It works on existing TETRA networks, with no upgrade to infrastructure required.

• Once triggered, the app executes routine and safety-critical tasks to deliver fast results, reducing the risk of user error and safeguarding operational team members, who are then free to focus on their critical tasks.

Examples of automated actions

•   Switching a user’s talk-group (eg when entering a blast zone)
•   A vehicle speed warning on-site, causing an emergency alert to be sent to the site controller
•   A safety warning sent to users in a specific location (eg in an explosives or chemicals storeroom)
•   Unlocking secure locks due to the presence of a nearby authorised radio, improving site efficiency and maintaining security

Alerts and notifications are fully configurable to match and enhance an organisation’s workflows.

A flexible set of triggers and radio actions can support operations, and automations can be linked and combined according to logic or priority.

Wireless programming
When it’s necessary to update the configuration of a radio or install a new app, license or programming detail, radios are naturally taken off operational duty for amendments to be made.

Fleet managers face logistical headaches as a result of having to bring radios back to sites to install radio upgrades in the traditional way. In addition, organisations are increasingly being challenged for resources and time.

But for responders in the field, their radios are an inseparable communication device, without which they cannot communicate with their team or continue with their operational roles.

Mission-critical radios users can now save time, reduce costs and minimise the time radios are out of service by upgrading their Sepura radios to over the air programming (OTAP), enabling seamless remote upgrades with minimum disruption to radio operation.

OTAP enables users to connect to secure, approved Wi-Fi networks to install or download radio configurations, phonebook updates, fleet maps, PIN/PUK codes, updated privacy settings or licence files.

OTAP also includes asset management by identifying any at-risk radios that have been inactive for a period of time, and ensuring synchronised upgrades are made to the fleet in a manner that suits operations, avoiding out-of-step configuration that may affect continuity.