Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Police Mobile Data Project
The Challenge
Bedfordshire & Hertfordshire Police were looking to develop technology to allow officers to spend more time on the road and tracking criminals.
The objective was to reduce the need for officers to return to the station to file a report after visiting a crime scene or dealing with an incident.
To enable this, officers would be issued with Panasonic FZ-G1 “Toughpads”, and vehicle docking station connected to a touch screen display with secure internet connectivity via a 4G router device.
They needed an antenna that would provide 4G, WiFi and GPS functions to support their new “Toughpads” even in possibly low coverage areas.
The Antenna
LGMM-7-27-24-58
Panorama’s LGMM-7-27-24-58 is a rugged low profile combination antenna that houses five isolated, high performance elements. It has been designed to support the new generation of vehicular LTE routers.
The antenna contains: two ultra wideband elements covering 698-2700MHz with MiMo support at 4G/3G/2G LTE frequencies, a high performance GPS/ GNSS antenna with 26dB gain LNA, and two dual-band WiFi elements covering 2.4/5.0 GHz.
The antenna is ground plane independent and therefore can maintain a high performance even when mounted on a non-metallic surface.
All the antenna elements are housed inside a durable weatherproof and ruggedized housing that provides the antenna with strong protection against the elements and vandalism.
The LGMM-7-27-24-58 is ideal for mounting on any vehicle, requiring only one hole to mount it can be easily installed at minimal impact to the vehicle. The antenna can also be attached with a purpose-designed flexible spacer that allow the antenna to be accommodated on uneven or ribbed roves.
The Client
Between them the Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Police services are responsible
for over 2 million people and operate over nearly 2,000km2 of central England.
The system integrators, Westbase Technology, are leading distributors of hybrid networking solutions across the UK and Europe. They have unparalleled product and industry knowledge and often utilise Panorama’s antennas as a perfect fit for customers’ requirements.
The Solution
In the summer of 2020, Surrey SAR welcomed a new mild-hybrid vehicle into its response fleet, through a grant from the UK Department for Transport. Following its blue light conversion to ensure it provides the fastest response times possible while carrying life-saving equipment, the new vehicle was turned into a fully functional initial response vehicle (IRV), which acts as the command point before the larger control van arrives.
Surrey SAR needed to equip their custom-built IRV with a bespoke state–of–the–art communications system which required multiple antennas. The charity uses a digital VHF radio system working across multiple repeater masts dotted across Surrey. They also use an in-vehicle router with an any-network unlimited 4G cellular data SIM to allow a search planner situated back at base to remotely send mapping straight to the vehicle and that can create a WiFi bubble around the vehicle for local area connectivity. They also needed GPS to allow real-time tracking of the vehicle.
Panorama’s GPSD MiMo Sharkee™ antenna proved the perfect solution, thanks to its GPS/LTE/ WiFi/VHF functions, in one hole mounting, reducing the antenna real estate on the roof. The sleek antenna design was also a bonus as it complemented the style of Surrey SAR’s new vehicle.
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