Meet Our Techs: The Experience Behind ChiComm

John Syron started working at Chicago Comm in March of 2011, so he may be considered a rookie around here. But he could certainly fool you into thinking he’s been doing tech work for much longer. If the Chicago Comm technician's were a baseball team, he’d probably get rookie of the year with his track record so far.

     John graduated high school in 2008, and immediately enrolled in DeVry’s networking and communication management program (going on to earn his bachelor’s in just 2 ½ years). His ambition and eagerness to get started in the industry led him to a career fair before concluding his time there. Ever heard the saying: Luck is when preparation meets opportunity? John's luck must have paid off at the fair because he received 4 job offers! Ultimately though, John chose Chicago Communications and the company was thrilled to bring him on board.

What we discovered at this year's Motorola Channel Partner Expo

It was a momentous year at the Motorola roadshow in Las Vegas. Our yearly trek to understand products, goals and networking with colleagues really put a vision in our minds. As a follow up to my notes on the Public Safety (Future of the DBlock) aspect of the Motorola Expo this year, we also looked into the future with Digital Mobile Radio (DMR); and for Motorola this means MOTOTRBO. A technology that lends itself to gain two voice paths for one channel, it effectively doubles the ability of a customer’s radio system for voice traffic. In addition with Application Developers who write software to these radio platforms, we had a chance to review the concepts and systems that allow unique platforms such as GPS, Texting, Personal Location systems and Interoperability to be displayed in one location.

 Tom's Tech Talk (#2): Analog vs. Digital with Motorola’s MOTOTRBO

With the current evolution of technology, two way radios have been slow to change. Motorola within the last several years has developed a radio platform that will not only allow for a migration path from analog to digital, but also allow for third party developers to create software products to enhance the functionality of the system.
     Analog radio allows a user to basically push to talk and release to listen. There are variations within this that can allow users to do GPS and status messaging. These required the use of the channel to send data across it when no voice communications were present. With Motorola’s MOTOTRBO digital platform, an existing analog user can buy the repeater and use it in analog. As the user budgets for new equipment, when complete, the entire system can be converted to digital.
     Why Digital? To start with, by using a repeater in the digital mode, Motorola allows for two completely simultaneous conversations over the same channel. With radio spectrum a commodity, this allows for minor modifications to the license which allows the TDMA protocol to handle two concurrent calls. In addition, having this digital capability allows a user to Privately Call another user so the typical Party line radio communication is not heard. In addition to features like private call you can do simple text messaging across
the system to communicate.
     To further enhance the system’s ability is the “Third Party Application Vendors”. Through licensing, Motorola has allowed for their system to be used as a backbone to allow for wireless applications such as GPS, Telephone, Email and Indoor location services by outside developers. In essence a system purchased that originally was used for push to talk and release to listen has now created tracking, monitoring, texting and telephone, all from a single radio channel.