Nixon and the company has been the radio system to cover the whole work area of a project, such as a pipeline, railway line, power line or highway usually one that is long and remote. The towers and solar-powered sites are usually operation in 2-3hrs and provide all necessary radio coms, mobile and handheld. When the whole communication system is connected right along the project, you can communicate with the whole project at once, which is much more efficient, John says.
In recent years, air conditioned camp communication buildings have also been developed, which have their own back-up generator and houses all the camp com equipment, such as the Internet cafe and pay phones. They also have an equipment room for the satellite, television, office telephones and data equipment.
Quite often the communication building is one of the first pieces of equipment to arrive at the camp site. Set up, this immediately provides communications to the contractors and this is a great benefit to the safe installation of the camp and the job generally, John added. Also, the workers really enjoy the extra recreational facilities, such as free to air and pay TV, plus the Internet cafe.
When a request is made, the company can usually use modern technology to find a solution, such as providing communication between widely separated loops, on the DBNGP (Dampier to Bunbury Pipeline) using VoIP radio links rather than towers and radio repeaters, as preferred for operational situations.
The use of satellite technology also allows clear phone and data communication between remote projects and head office in the city. With Next G mobile coverage available in some remote areas, fixed cellular mobile terminals can be utilized for camp coms, including phones and data, rather than the more expensive satellite option.
Apart from the usual radio coms coverage of numerous central QLD coal mines, Nixons utilize modern technology to solve numerous, diverse mine site problems. Some of these are water telemetry systems to control the supply and distribution of water for the wash plant and water fill points; blast and emergency alarms incorporating a variety of voice recorded messages plus audible alarms, which can be broadcast over the radio system and solar powered boom gates controlled by RFID tags allocated to mining personnel and vehicles a cost effective and green solution to control access to the mine.
The gates can also be remotely operated via code over the radio system. There have been amazing technological developments in communications in the past 30 years and Nixon Communications has been at the forefront of their successful application to the challenges faced by the mining and energy sector.
