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RED-M

January 2009

RED-M DELIVERS HIGH-QUALITY BUILDING-WIDE VOIP AND DATA WI-FI NETWORK TO DCSF HQ

Red-M, the UK's wireless communication specialist, has delivered a 21st Century Wi-Fi network throughout the London HQ of a major government department. The Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) now has the first fully-certified wireless network in
Government. The network gives safe, reliable, and resilient communications for up to 1500 staff on 10 floors, and provides DSCF with sustainable productivity and efficiency benefits.

As with many UK Corporate HQ's some of the Government's central London buildings were not designed for the needs of today's modern office. DCSF's London HQ, Sanctuary Buildings was purpose-built in the early 80's, and the Department's Facilities Management Division wanted to transform Sanctuary Buildings into a modern, comfortable and sustainable workspace, with the flexibility to free people from particular desks.

The key contribution from DCSF's ICT Directorate (Chief Information Officer Group) would be a state-of-the-art communication system to meet the current and future needs of this busy government department. In particular, CIOG specified that a wireless network should free staff to work with laptops in meeting rooms, conference rooms and breakout areas.

The project was to be an excellent example of collaboration between the FM and ICT teams, and between DCSF and the private sector. The project manager would be IT consulting and outsourcing firm Capgemini, CIO Group's strategic partners since 2002. Understanding the challenges, Capgemini turned to Red-M to design, install, and commission this enterprise-class wireless solution.

Les Hall, Capgemini's Account Manager said: "We recognised that in order to satisfy or exceed the safety and security requirements demanded by DCSF of their strategic partner for this significant wireless technology project, we would need to turn to Red-M's expertise. Red-M worked with us to design a system that surmounted any issues with wireless radiation levels and delivered DCSF a fully-certified wireless network".

Designing and building a wireless infrastructure to ensure secure, reliable and continuous communication from the lower ground to the 8th level of a 1980's listed building put Red-M's in-depth skills and expertise in wireless design to good use.

Neil Clark, Red-M's CEO said: "This was a high-profile project for a prestigious Government department. There were high expectations of Red-M to deliver a world-class Wi-Fi solution - and get it right, first time! The wireless network we've installed is a great success, fully meeting DCSF's requirement for security and reliability. This is a great example of what Red-M can do to bring state of the art communications technology to these old HQ buildings".

The network is now available throughout Sanctuary Buildings, even in the stairwells, to maintain a continuous connection as people move around. Staff can use applications anywhere, and refer to their emails and calendars in meetings and conference rooms. Groups can get together to collaborate on documents wherever is most convenient and comfortable for everyone.

Ian Adkin, Head of DCSF ICT Service Delivery said: "DCSF is helping to lead the drive towards creating vibrant, sustainable working environments for the modern, technology-aware civil servant. This project is an important step. It frees people from their desks to work and collaborate where, when and how best suits them, it is a great example of innovation in Government".

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October 2008

RED-M PROVIDES MISSION CRITICAL TETRA RADIO INFRASTRUCTURE AND MAINTENANCE
SUPPORT AT HEATHROW AIRPORT

With the completion of Terminal 5, Red-M, the UK's wireless communication specialist, has completed the rollout of Airwave's TETRA service at Heathrow Airport and is now commencing the maintenance and support contract to ensure the networks high levels of availability and reliability are maintained over the next five years.The service must operate in all areas where emergency service personnel need access – this includes all the terminal buildings, hangars, car parks, pedestrian subways, road tunnels and any open spaces.

Red-M's in-depth skills and expertise in wireless design were put to good use to create and construct a wireless infrastructure which ensures users have instant communication. This is not an easy task as Heathrow provides a challenging environment for radio coverage, with remote areas and confined spaces in buildings and tunnels, identified as areas where other communication systems have often failed in the past.

Neil Clark, Red-M's CEO said: "As a long standing and trusted supplier to Airwave, Red-M's wireless expertise made us the company of choice with the experience to carry out such a project - which we have done successfully, getting it right, first time!"

Airwave's Operations Director, Martin Benke said: "Red-M have been a trusted partner of Airwave for many years and throughout the implementation they have been very responsive and easy to work with. We have now awarded Red-M the maintenance contract to ensure the comprehensive coverage is maintained, providing users with the highest levels of availability & reliability throughout the airport."

Red-M has been 'on-site' since 2005, installing the airport wide network in phases, and comprehensive indoor and outdoor coverage is now operational in Terminals 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, all public car parks, pedestrian subways linking T1, T2 & T3, airside road tunnels under the runways and the M4 spur road tunnel. The network also provides seamless external coverage from neighbouring TETRA cells outside the airport boundaries.

Neil continued: "The TETRA system at Heathrow Airport is now fully operational and it is the biggest indoor solution in the Airwave network. Because of the nature of the environment, Red-M has worked under demanding security conditions throughout the past three years.This has meant our engineers and project managers have had to be very flexible and
reactive to changing requirements - a challenge we have taken on with great success! We are now very pleased to announce we have been just been awarded a contract to ensure this mission critical network's availability and reliably is maintained. Over the next five years we will be providing reactive and preventative maintenance for the infrastructure, providing first line support, remote monitoring and coverage verification assessments to ensure continued performance."

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THALES & RED-M PARTNERSHIP DELIVERS HIGH QUALITY RADIO COMMUNICATIONS FOR
CHANNEL TUNNEL RAIL LINK

When Thales UK were awarded a £17m contract for the provision of the Radio Communication Infrastructure on the second section of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL) back in August 2004, they called on Red-M's expertise in radio survey and propagation measurements for support. Like Thales, Red-M has a long track record of successful projects in the railway industry and was the obvious choice as radio service partner. Thales's role was to provide the surface and tunnel radio infrastructure for the GSM-R, Cab Secure Radio (CSR) and emergency response organisations, and working as an integral part of the project team, Red-M engineers and project managers acted as a resource 'on tap' to assist Thales as and when required, utilising their radio test and measurement skills and equipment to the full.

Over the three years before the rail link opened, Red-M supported Thales with Design Verification and Pre and Post Integration testing. The radio network design was mainly based on macro sites and Red-M's detailed analysis identified where any in-fill sites were needed. Doing this before any infrastructure was installed significantly reduced the need for re-working the sites, so saving time and expense.

Once the radio infrastructure, such as masts, cabling and antennas, had been installed, Red-M provided Pre Integration testing. By using test signals Red-M were able to measure the coverage. The resulting analysis was then used to optimise the network. And finally, once the radio systems were operational, Red-M conducted Post Integration testing. A series of measurements were made to verify the live coverage at key locations along the CTRL, ensuring that everything was working to specification and reporting back as appropriate.

Neil Clark, Red-M's CEO said "Red-M is proud to have been a part of this successful venture. During the last phase of the project it was important for us to co-ordinate very closely with the on-site track construction teams. Often work had to be carried out overnight as this was the only safe time to be on the track." The Channel Tunnel Rail Link was a major and complex infrastructure project, which was a challenge for all concerned. But despite its size and complexity, it opened for business as planned and is now providing greatly improved travel links between the UK and Europe. Kevin Moxsom, Thales's Project Manager for CTRL said "We were extremely pleased with Red-M's work on this project. They showed tremendous flexibility & responsiveness throughout & their work was of the highest quality. Red-M's in-depth RF knowledge & radio survey measurement services enabled us to deliver the radio infrastructure necessary for the CTRL to operate as planned, from day one.".

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FIRST FOR THE UK - RED-M LAUNCHES RED-LINK

Until now, if you wanted licensed spectrum in the UK your only option has been to approach Ofcom for your spectrum needs. With the launch of Red-Link, Red-M is the first company to offer an alternative solution.

Andrew Barnard, Managing Consultant at Red-M said: "Red-M is a licence holder for a substantial amount of spectrum in the 28GHz band which we acquired under a new class of technology neutral and tradable licences following an Ofcom auction in Feburary 2008. We are the first organisation to enter the market as a band manager as we will manage the spectrum for our own use and also allow other organisations access to this spectrum with our Red-Link service." Red-Link offers a permit to operate high speed point to point links up to 100Mb/s, and is suitable for multiple technologies and applications, both single or multiple links, where a business wants to take advantage of interference free and flexibly assigned 28 GHZ spectrum to deliver high quality radio links, fully managed by Red-M.

Red-Link supports these point to point links in the 28GHz band which are suitable for dynamic modulation which allows the radio link to support both high throughput and high availability at the same time.

Red-Link Key Benefits:
Super quick frequency assignment (normally within 5 working days)
For Single or Multiple Links
Channel bandwidths - 3.5MHz, 7, 14 and 28MHz
Cost reduced & simplified end user equipment management (as all devices are at 28GHz)
Availability - 99.99% designed as standard (others available on request)
With the added benefits of a simple and ease to use enquiry and order process
And if you need more than spectrum, then Red-M's RES (Radio Extension Service) product
may be suitable. RES provides fully managed, high speed radio communications links substantially cheaper than BT LES circuits.

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