The Washington University School of Medicine operates a large campus of hospital, medical and research facilities in downtown St. Louis. The campus has many large multi-story buildings that are used for classes and research. The school’s protective services and emergency management departments rely on a private land mobile radio system for wireless communications throughout the campus to coordinate their campus patrol as well as to respond to requests for assistance from students and all personnel on campus and in the surrounding areas.
As the campus expands and more research facilities are added, the school’s protective services and emergency management personnel are finding it more difficult to communicate effectively in many of the larger buildings.
Project Tasks
The school engaged Televate to evaluate their wireless communications and to suggest solutions to improve communications reliability throughout the campus. Televate performed a comprehensive system review and user needs assessment, including recording signal measurements for the on-campus system and the city public safety system. Following the analysis and research, Televate provided the school with several enhancement options, detailing the advantages and challenges of each, along with capital and long-term cost estimates. The potential enhancements included:
- Expansion of the existing system and the addition of in-building Distributed Antenna Systems (DAS)
- Integration into existing DAS systems previously installed for other services
- Becoming a shared user of a regional public safety system, and
- Interconnecting Push-To-Talk services over cellular (PTToC) with their existing LMR system.
The school is currently evaluating the various options and considering a trial of their preferred approach.