Reliable plant communication, both external and internal, is crucial in industrial plants. For remote analytics, maintenance and troubleshooting a reliable, smart and interconnected communication system is of very high importance.
With the latest communication technologies a lot of functionality has merged into smart telephone and communication systems, combining the advantages of the previously separated systems.
The following functionalities are in common use today:
• Desk or wall mounted phones and mobiles phones
• Intercom (plant communication network)
• Paging
While telephone and mobiles (analogue or digital, conventional or by satellite) serve mainly external communication, intercom and paging systems are mainly used for plant internal purposes. The actual arrangement, location and number of the apparatuses depends strongly on the plant requirements. The systems itself is modular, extendable and equipped with a programmable main unit and can be interconnected. By using modern field bus technology, the performance and comfort of communication systems have tremendously increased at reduced cabling and installation costs. Not only functionality is a design criteria, but also environmental conditions.