Case Study for ELTEC's TC-2000 2-way Paging System

A large city in Kansas bought its first TC-2000 2-way paging time clocks in late 2001. Within 6 months they had purchased approximately 50 units. Although they were using a 1-way paging system they found that the 2-way paging system provided an advantage of being closed loop with confirmation that the remote time clock had received the page. 1-way paging is not capable of providing confirmation that it has received a page.

In 2003, the City bought approximately 50 more units to complete replacement of all 1-way paging devices. The only reason for the delay in completely switching to the 2-way paging devices was budget constraints.

The Traffic Signal Supervisor for the City reported that prior to having ELTEC's TC-2000 2-way paging system he and his crew were spending approximately 400 man hours per year supporting school zone flashing beacon systems. Now that he has completely switched all remote units to the TC-2000 2-way paging system he and his crew are spending less than 30 man hours per year on school zone flashing beacon systems.

As an example of the impact he noted that he had just finished programming his TC-2000 2-way paging time clocks for the next school year. He stated that he has 96 units in the field. When he sent the annual program to each of the units, he had 88 units respond with confirming emails that they had received the program. He then sent the program to the 8 units that had not responded. He reported that 6 of the 8 units responded on this second attempt. He sent the program to the last 2 units that had not responded and they still did not respond. He then sent a technician to the site to investigate. The bottom line was that he was assured that his remote units had the proper schedule for the next school year and his technician had to troubleshoot only 2 devices out of 96. Further, he does not have to wait for school opening to find that some units are not performing correctly.

As we all know, paging is not infallible. The more you page devices, the greater the probability that at least one device will not get the page. Not only does ELTEC's TC-2000 2-way paging system provide confirmation emails that the device has received the page, but it also requires that you only send the annual program once since the system is capable of handling the entire school year's schedule.