Instant communication with Push to Video solution

Communication has been the lifeblood of businesses since time immemorial. From the days of written memos, fixed-lined telephones, and fax machines, the office of today has evolved to emails messages, enterprise chat messaging, and video calls.

Without the ability to communicate intent, coordinate instructions, and exchange ideas, work in most organisations would grind to a halt. But while modern digital tools have undoubtedly increased the efficiency of knowledge workers in their cubicles or working from home, the communication needs of employees in places such as hotels, warehouses, airports, factories and security agencies demand a different set of tools.

Often on the move between places or different parts of a building or compound, workers in these industries nevertheless need to stay in contact with their colleagues to coordinate work or to update them on new developments.

For instance, an engineer repairing a machine might need to tell a team member waiting at another part of the factory when it is time to reset the power breakers. Elsewhere, a security agency might be tasked to coordinate the transportation of high-value assets across town, while a hotel employee at the front desk might have updated instructions for the baggage porter.

To help these workers work more efficiently and generally improve their productivity, organisations must give them the ability to communicate in real-time with colleagues or team members even when they are away from their desks.

This is hardly a new requirement, of course, and organisations had for years relied on walkie-talkies to enable instantaneous communication. While it worked well in the past, the limitations of traditional “push to talk” or PTT walkie-talkies are increasingly apparent in this age of digitalisation. This ranges from a lack of service quality, voice-only communication, and rigid and non-intuitive allocation of broadcast groups that make them difficult to use.

Fortunately, a new generation of PTT now offers advanced capabilities such as messaging and even push-to-video communication on top of voice PTT functionality. Some are based on radio technologies, though uptake of PTT solutions that works over cellular networks, also known as PTT over cellular (PTToC), is growing at a much faster pace. 

Why is PTToC growing so quickly? For a start, it leverages 4G or 5G standards as defined by the third-generation partnership (3GPP) to deliver a host of capabilities to benefit workers from a wide range of industries. This means, there is no infrastructure cost to deploying PTToC, compared with traditional wide-area systems that require a hefty upfront investment and lengthy lead times.

A PTToC solution can be rolled out quickly, while the pervasiveness of mobile networks means organisations benefit immediately from round-island overage and the inherent security of mobile networks from the get-go. And because there is no need to rely on proprietary radio technology, PTToC handsets are also much more cost competitive.

With so many benefits, it is perhaps unsurprising that the global PTToC market is growing rapidly and is projected to reach US$55 billion by 2027, according to research by Research and Markets. 

StarHub SmartPTT is a PTToC solution designed to support workers in the field or on the move, regardless of whether they are working in a hotel, transportation hub, or manufacturing environment. The solution is purpose-built for a variety of use cases and can address the niche requirements of various industries. And with StarHub solely responsible for end-to-end service delivery, this means that it can be quickly and seamlessly deployed.

Locations where SmartPTT can be used might include:

• Construction and Mining
• Logistics and Transportation
• Petrochemical manufacturing sites
• Manufacturing and Warehousing
• Retail and Hotels
• Smart factories
• Security and Emergency services

Under the hood, SmartPTT leverages the StarHub mobile network to offer a rich range of capabilities, with support for PTT, push-to-video, multimedia messaging and highly versatile group communication. For the latter, the administrator has complete versatility to speak to one person, speak between groups of persons, or combine groups and communicate with all groups – right in the field.

With StarHub’s extensive experience in both telecom and information technology, businesses can be assured of a quality service that includes ruggedised PTT camera phones, mobile lines, customisable user application, training, and comprehensive after-sales support with guaranteed response times. Businesses can hence focus on serving their customers, with StarHub serving as a one-stop shop to take care of the business’s communication needs.

Learn more about StarHub SmartPTT here.