-
Welcome to the WDWMAGIC.COM Forums!
Please take a look around, and feel free to sign up and join the community.
Sprint/Nextel Radios leaving?
- Thread starter PhotoDave219
- Start date
DisneyCane
Well-Known Member
Just a totally pointless fact to add. Originally, iDEN stood for integrated dispatch enhanced network. When it was first designed it was designed as a large area, cellular PTT network with call capabilities. When Nextel cobbled together the spectrum to launch a nationwide network, the focus turned to making it a cellular phone network that had PTT capability and the name was changed for marketing.
Tom Morrow
Well-Known Member
It isn't Disney's fault that the Nextel service is shutting down...
wishiwere@wdw
Well-Known Member
We've already started using them at my attraction. They're Motorola SL4000s.
(picture from the Motorola website)
The only real difference is that they don't have phone capabilities and direct connect like Nextels do, so guests are going to start hearing a lot more radio traffic.
Was stuck at a bus stop for a while yesterday and the CM assisting was talking to me about this exact radio. He said besides other ongoing problems, the battery life has been a huge issue. It was only 2pm and he was already on his second radio due to the battery not lasting.
t3techcom18
Well-Known Member
Battery life and needless chatter are the biggest issues.
Needless chatter is in, when most attractions and departments had their own proper channels/frequencies, most areas are now looped together.
For example: where one attraction had group chatter from their own building, now some buildings have to deal with chatter from all across the entire area AND Maintenance AND Engineering AND Merchandise.
Let's just say most CM's hope this is just a temporary solution as these radios are extremely problematic and are cause for major concern among CM's right now.
t3techcom18
Well-Known Member
Looks like an iPhone 4S in a black OtterBox.
DarthDisney
Member
Disney and Apple are joined at the hip now , so there is no surprise there. There are apps out there that let you push to talk on any network to anyone in your contacts that has the app. We use this in the parks and on the Road there instead of our old CBs. Seems like Disney could figure this one out, if some company making free apps for android can.
Macca250
Well-Known Member
They're AT&T according to my managers. And the mindless chatter is the most aggravating thing ever, the majority of DAK is on a single OPS frequency, so not only is it distracting when you're trying to talk to guests, but really difficult to get an opportunity to talk on it yourself! Some cast members have been given headsets, but I overheard a lot of the cast members over at custodial are complaining they block out too much noise and make it difficult to hear guests. And I went through two radios yesterday in just a single eight hour shift so the battery life is painfully bad. So far, it's been a nightmare. Anyone know if this is permement? Seems like a major step back to me....
These actually have nothing to do with phone networks, these are digital trunked radios and share very little technology with cellular (CDMA or GSM) other than the basics like the radios communicate only with the towers and not one another. The system is very flexible and the problems you describe (other than battery life) are simply signs of incompetent set up. You don't assign frequencier per se, you assign talk groups and you can have several hundred distinct and seperate talk groups within a given system. When the radios tranmit they don't transmit from one to another, they transmit back to a base station which then retransmit out to all of the radios that are currently on that talk group. I can't imagine why Disney would get these from AT&T, I would think Disney would own their own system in which case they could create as many talks groups as they wanted. You can program the radios so that any given radio can select from a specific list of talk groups, or only has a single talk group. You can also have "priority" talk groups that break in. In is also easy to record any and all communications on these radios with tags that identify the radio, tower, and other information involved. One of the other nice things about trunked radios is that most of the emergency responders and public agencies use this tech and when needed, you can bridge between systems and share talk groups, for example when I deal with a train accident I can use my agency radio to communicate directly with state police and EMTs even though "normally" we cannot hear each other at all.
So they're screwing up the employee experience and operations of the resort at the same time that they are dealing with the NextGen guest experience being one calamity after another?
This is going to end SOOOOO well. I feel for those working at this resort at the moment.
Meanwhile, oh look, Universal just leaked out ANOTHER new E-ticket ride....
Crazydisneyfanluke
Well-Known Member
Is there a current discussion on this? where did your find it?
I hope this mess ends soon, good communication is key to anything. Just hope it gets sorted out soon!
spacemountain89
Active Member
yeah the radios suck. you can send call alerts to other radios but if they don't answer in 4 seconds it drops the call. In most locations the ringer isn't loud enough for that person to hear. Battery life is only about 6hrs and as of yesterday maintenance did not have radio contact set up with the engineering base. Hopefully that was fixed today.
maxairmike
Well-Known Member
Wait, they're using an AT&T system for the radios as well as the new company iPhones? I thought they were "rolling their own" radio system similar to a lot of other parks I know use, but I knew about the switch to AT&T for the iPhones. I'm just surprised they didn't go with Verizon (they "sponsor" Agent P, not aware of AT&T sponsoring anything) for the iPhones. I have heard a lot about all of the various issues and horrible battery life, but didn't know they were using a carrier for it as well.
TiggersPooh
Active Member
Can't wait for the 4th of July crowd control with those radios... Ugh