» News » How Digital Twoway Radios Drive Golf Club Efficiency

Find out how two-way radios allow teaching professionals, pro-shop staff, course managers, greenkeepers, maintenance staff, irrigation experts, caddies and timekeepers to communicate instantly and effectively; saving costs, improving efficiency, ensuring resources are mobile and available where needed to deliver a better experience to players.

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Case Studies:
How Digital Two-way Radios
Drive Golf Club Efficiency

With a typical 18 hole golf course covering 100 acres, everyday communications between teaching professionals, pro-shop staff, course managers, green keepers, maintenance staff, irrigation experts, caddies and timekeepers can often be both costly and time consuming especially if mobile phones are used. By contrast, two-way radios allow staff to communicate instantly and effectively, saving costs, improving efficiency, ensuring resources are mobile and available where needed to ultimately deliver a better experience to players.

The beauty of two way radio communications is that once you have received your license to operate, all communications between users are instant and free save the cost of the equipment; these are just two examples from a wide range of benefits that two way radio communications provide to golf club management.

Let's look at some other benefits in more detail

	Management of Health, Safety & Security	Faster more effective response to emergency situations such as illness and injuries on-course. Warn players and staff of the risk of storms and lightning. Provide on-course staff with ability to report security issues.
	Feedback on course condition	Respond instantly to player feedback on the condition of the course.
	Reporting breaches of course etiquette	Allows staff on course to report to club management on breaches of club rules and etiquette.
	Improved Tournament Management	Instantly connects tournament management with timekeepers, the pro-shop/player registration desk, practice area, car parks, referees, marshals, officials, caddies and other on-course staff.
	Managing pro shop resources	Ensuring teaching professionals are kept updated on arrivals, caddies are organised, carts are available and players’ equipment is to hand.
	Increased sales	Improve stock availability on beverage carts, at on-course catering outlets and pro shop.
	Improved player experience	The seamless management of players from arrival at the club,through the pro-shop, during play and at the clubhouse.

Equipment selection

Having established the range of benefits that two-way radios can offer a golf club, the next consideration is the selection of equipment.

Given the large area and topography of golf courses, a number of factors come into play. First, is there a requirement for radio communications to cover every part of the course including inside buildings and for different user groups to have their own channels? Analogue two way radios have been in use for many years and while the functionality of analogue equipment has improved the technology has inherent limitations:

Analogue or Digital two way radio. Which is better?

Rather than describe any shortcomings of analogue two way radio, which will in any case only be relative to specific applications and circumstances, the table below details some of the advantages of the Kenwood NEXEDGE® digital two way radio system to illustrate the extended benefits of digital technology, especially if you are an existing analogue user:

	Increased range	Digital transmission provides a stronger signal at the extremities, giving a much greater usable range.
	Improved speech quality	The AMBE+2™ Vocoder employed by NEXEDGE® is a state-of-the-art voice compression digitization technology that offers superior clarity at varying signal strengths. This reduces the number of lost or misinterpreted calls caused by the effects of external background noises including environmental noise levels - especially important in windy conditions.
	Increased security	Improved security against eavesdropping via NXDN® digital air interface. NEXEDGE® also includes NXDN® voice and data scrambling for security against external threats while providing confidentiality within the same system and talk group.
	Reduced bandwidth consumption	All NEXEDGE® equipment operates on 25 & 12.5 kHz in analogue mode and 12.5 & 6.25 kHz in NXDN® digital modes – effectively doubling or quadrupling the number of channels available.
	Direct calling	Set up your NEXEDGE® system to allow radios to call each other directly, without other radios hearing or being aware of the conversation.
	Text Messaging	NEXEDGE® radios can be used to compose and send short text messages using the keypad (or select from a list of pre-programmed messages).
	Feature rich	A NEXEDGE® system can be configured to provide GPS tracking, lone worker security, over the air programming, remote kill/stun, man down and radio to telephone integration.
	Extended battery life	NEXEDGE® hand portable radios/walkie talkies offer low power consumption compared to analogue radios, important for all day golf tournaments.
	Digital/Analogue Mixed Mode	Unlike most other digital radios, NEXEDGE® Digital Two-Way walkie-talkies feature an Analogue/Digital Mixed Mode which allows them to communicate automatically with any existing analogue radios whatever the make; providing a straightforward and economical way to use existing radios while migrating to the benefits of digital without compromising service quality and reliability.
	Future Proof	NEXEDGE® digital two way radio systems are designed to grow with your requirements starting with hand-portable walkie-talkies and mobile units for one to one communications with the ability to scale the system up to a trunked networks able to accommodate large user groups spread over wider areas.
	Durability	All NEXEDGE® hand portable walkie talkies conform to US MIL-STD-810 C/D/E/F/G for ruggedness and durability and are IP54/55 Water & Dust Intrusion rated, making them ideal for operation in open and harsh environments.
	Discrete operation	You can connect a discrete microphone and earphone accessory to any NEXEDGE® hand portable radios/walkie talkie so transmissions cannot be heard by others, important while on-course during a golf tournament. NEXEDGE® hand portable radios are also small and light making them easy to carry or keep hidden out of view.

Kenwood NEXEDGE® digital two way radio systems are already widely used across a variety of end-user applications around the world, but perhaps the most relevant example can be found closer to home at the exclusive Stoke Park Hotel and Members Club in Buckinghamshire.

Tee Time for Stoke Park with NEXEDGE®

Designed by Harry Shapland Colt and opened in July 1909, Stoke Park's 27 hole Championship golf course is probably one of the finest parkland courses in the country and has provided the inspiration for many of the world’s most testing holes, including Augusta’s infamous 16th at the centre of Amen Corner.

Over the years, the course has seen many impressive rounds, including the first PGA Matchplay tournament in 1910 and James Bond's epic golfing duel with Auric Goldfinger in the 1964 classic 007 movie.

The golf course, pro shop and academy is part of a five star hotel and private members club complex which includes three restaurants, gymnasium, championship tennis facilities, spa and health club all set within 350 acres of historic parkland and gardens.

Today, the beautifully presented course is testimony to the hard work of the 22 ground staff and a host of high technology equipment under the direction of Alex Millar, Estate Director.

With a busy club, pro-shop and academy serving discerning members and visitors, it became very obvious several years ago that there was a requirement to improve communications between members of staff to maintain and improve on the already high levels of service to members and guests. To achieve this, Stoke Park commissioned a Kenwood analogue two-way radio system which was been put to use to great effect up to November 2011, when as part of a series of ongoing improvements, they upgraded to a trunked Kenwood NEXEDGE® digital two way radio system to provide 100% coverage of the estate and the ability to expand the network and further improve guest services through increased user groups and location features.

The new system installed at Stoke Park consists of both NX-220E (Display and full keypad) and NX-220E2 (Display only) hand portable radios operating in a trunked network with three traffic channels and one control channel.It is configured so that each department has its own dedicated channel to eliminate cross-chat and for all radios to automatically reset to their home channel ensuring calls are never missed.

Tim Harris, Head Assistant Professional at Stoke Park's golf club summarises how the new radio system helps his team underline the discrete yet attentive service which distinguishes Stoke Park with this observation: "We use our NEXEDGE® radios to keep the golf operation running smoothly but unobtrusively, for example during tournaments, our registration team communicate with starters, course marshals and officials, while on a day to basis, we use the radios to coordinate our teaching professionals and support team to make sure people and equipment are always ready, in the right place at the right time..it's this attention to detail that makes a real difference and allows players to concentrate on their game and in turn, reduce their handicap".

While the system installed at Stoke Park is considerably larger and more sophisticated than most 'golf only' clubs will need, the benefits of a Kenwood NEXEDGE® digital two way radio system can be experienced with just two hand portable radios and built from there to a complete multi-user group system.

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