The right tools for the job

Construction is big business, accounting for roughly seven per cent of UK GDP, or around £110bn a year. Scale comes with challenges of its own, not least safeguarding the lives of the sector’s roughly 1.27 million workers, about three per cent of whom will sustain a work-related injury each year. In addition, 43 construction workers were fatally injured in 2015/16. In such a potentially dangerous environment, it pays to be able to quickly communicate without the need to try to make yourself heard above the roar of machinery. It’s no wonder then that many companies in this sector make use of two-way radio.

John Phillips, operations director at Brentwood Communications, says it sometimes gets called in by construction firms that are using two-way radios provided by another company but aren’t getting the coverage they require. The main reason for this? “When the radio system was installed, it worked because the building was just a frame, and then as [the building] goes up and the floors and walls are put in, the coverage deteriorates and you may need more sophisticated infrastructure. It’s not the [original radio provider’s fault], it’s just that the requirements have changed because the building has changed since the original installation. It’s important for us to be in touch with the construction company regularly to make sure that as the requirements change, we install different infrastructure because requirements change quickly.