Emergency call buttons

There’s also a feature called ‘page cancel’. Paging from the unit can be stopped by swiping a pager over the front of the unit. Additionally, if a group of people have been paged, when the unit is swiped by a pager then an automatic message is sent out telling all other team members that the emergency has been handled.

Range on the unit is approximately 250 metres in a factory environment, but LRS also makes signal boost repeaters to extend the range for factory wide coverage.

The unit can work on AA-type batteries for up to a year from just one set. When the battery starts to fail, the unit will page a person or group to advise them of the battery condition. There is also a mains adaptor available so batteries are not used in critical situations where guaranteed continuation of operation is essential.

 Ian Litherland, environmental, health & safety advisor for an aerospace business based in the West Midlands, is a current user of the emergency call button.

He said: "On site we work a variety of shift patterns, with the site being occupied 24 hours a day, 5 days per week, with weekend work undertaken as required.

"We identified that we have occasions where some of our colleagues are required to work alone, where, although the site may be occupied, the location of the work could mean that very little communication would normally occur.

"We investigated several solutions for lone worker cover including telephones and radios with lone worker and man down functions.

"The product that we eventually chose was the HTQ TH-8000 lone worker radio combined with HTQ TH-2800 radios for general communication and lone worker monitoring. We also purchased an Opus RSU1 radio based remote signaling and interface unit to communicate externally from site in the event of an emergency. We have since purchased the TC 700TX, an intrinsically safe version of the lone worker/man down radio for use in areas with the potential for explosive atmospheres. 

"The implementation of these radios has been a great success. The radios are easy to use and, for our site, the perfect answer to monitoring our colleagues who are temporarily working alone.

"The HTQ TH-8000 and TC 700TX systems work by emitting an alarm for both the lone worker and man down functions, this alarm is then picked up by any monitoring radio, either  another HTQ TH-8000/ TC 700TX in another area, or one of the HTQ TH 2800 general communication/monitoring radios.

"The HTQ TH-8000/ TC 700TX also transmits a signal to the RSU1 unit, this in turn communicates to 3 pre-set mobile telephone numbers. The system always ensures that someone is notified in the event of an incident."

Litherland concluded: "The support from Long Range Systems (LRS) has been exceptional throughout the purchase and set up process for our system. I would highly recommend both LRS and the equipment that we purchased, the HTQ Lone Worker radio system combined with the RSU1 radio based remote signaling and interface unit is the perfect solution to our lone worker needs."