Real-life test of TreeTalk terminal and system. Part 1. Hands-on.

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TreeTalk has begun conducting the real-life tests of the voice terminal. Now the prototypes are being tested in the cars, which is riding around the city and near suburbs in a mode of normal use. Thus, during parking, warm-up and on the move the terminals are subject to temperature extremes from -30 to +20 Celsius (-22 to +68 Fahrenheit). All this time, the built-in audit system records the slightest failures in the network connection, the electronics and embedded firmware.

First trial run confirmed all of the declared advantages of TreeTalk solution. Yes, it still looks like a professional (conventional or trunked) two-way radio. It inherits the pluses of LMR/PMR: broadcasting, constant connection, instant calls, and simplicity. Additionally, TreeTalk adds its own features.

The differences are becoming clear from the very beginning.

Proto_DINFirst, users of the TreeTalk devices do not need to spend time and effort to complex mounting. The device fits the standard 1-DIN slot perfectly and there is still enough place remaining for the car audio. Professional transceivers are heavy and usually hot. They are energy consuming, thus require dedicated power line from the car battery, made of thick wires. In contrary, TT terminal is light in weight and require minimum power (0.5 Amp). It is omnivorous (10-26 V), so did not require any special DC-DC converter. Its installation is easy, because our specimen has not any wires or connectors on the back panel to connect somewhere.

Strict design looks good in the dashboard of the car. Frontal speaker gives a sound loud enough, even on the medium volume level.

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Second, TreeTalk terminal works without any external antenna. Radio hobbyists and professionals know that antenna, sticking out of the car top, is a weak spot and eternal headache. It is always going to be lost or broken, and the cable tends to be tangled and torn. So no antenna – no problem.

Third, the terminal is very friendly. All manipulations with the buttons are accompanied by signals or voice announcements (in English). If you miss the last message, led indicates that it is recorded — you can just push ‘REPEAT’ button to listen to it. (If you did not understand or resolve some important information, you can make that again).

(To be continued…)

Field Tests – 2016. Winter.

TreeTalk has conducted regular field tests of the voice terminal prototype.

The terminal is designed for professional control room and group real time communications. In fact, this is a new class of mobile devices, in which the traditional strengths of radio communication (instant connection, broadcasting and simplicity) were coupled with the advantages of modern data networks. The voice signal is digitized, compressed, and transmitted by the Terminal to other similar devices and dispatching computers without loss of quality. Thanks to a specially developed protocol, even low-speed second-generation network, covering 90% of the world population may be used as a transport medium.
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The methodology of the current test was designed to assess the stability of the device and firmware in real operating conditions.
Within 14 days the equipment was tested around the clock in the laboratory. After that, withinIMG_2611_600 7 days the experimental model of the terminal was working in a car that was moving around the city and nearby suburbs in a mode of normal use. Thus, during parking, warm-up and on the move the terminal subjected to temperature extremes from -30 to +20 Celsius (-22 to +68 Fahrenheit). All this time, built-in audit system was recording the slightest failures in the network connection, the electronics and embedded firmware.
Then, a mobile measuring and laboratory benches were installed and the parameters of the speech signal were measured (in particular, the signal-to-noise ratio and frequency response), which describe the intelligibility and voice recognition when it is transferred from the terminal to other terminals or to the control room computer.

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Current testing has been specially planned for the winter period and held in harsh conditions. However, most of the tests completed successfully, clearly confirming the advantages of the TreeTalk terminal  in the reliability and quality of the voice, and the convenience of handling over conventional and trunked radios.
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Users of TT terminals do not need to spend time and effort to obtain radio frequencies, search for a suitable location for the control tower and to install bulky antennas. It will be sufficient to purchase the required number of terminals and combine them into a virtual channel via a simple web interface to start using. TreeTalk LLC specialists believe that their technology, due to the convenience, the digital signal quality and additional features, will soon replace the obsolete analogue radio and will be used wherever you need a reliable, constant and instant voice communication.