MEMCO by AVIRE announces the launch of its new service SENTINEL

The Digital Switch (the change from copper to fibre lines) is currently underway throughout the UK and planned to be completed by 2025, with a National Stop Sell of analogue services by as early as September 2023, accelerating the transition even further.

This switch will directly affect the resilience of lift emergency phone lines – particularly during power failures, which is the most likely time when an entrapment may occur.

Over the last year, the MEMCO by AVIRE team have done a series of test labs and field trials together with Openreach, BT, Talk Talk, Sky, Vodafone and Zen. Results were varied and the fact that battery backups will not be provided as standard on fibre lines.

The responsibility to provide this now falls with the lift owners as lift regulations indicate that they are required to provide a resilient 2-way emergency communication connection to the lift. Failure to comply could leave lift owners liable. To help lift owners ensure the safety of their lift communications, MEMCO by AVIRE has launched the only pro-actively managed, resilient lift emergency connection service in the UK, SENTINEL.

Having already supported two other digital switch transitions (in Australia and Switzerland), the new service offered, SENTINEL, seeks to provide customers with all the support they need to assure them and their passengers that there is a reliable lift emergency communication, at all times. SENTINEL offers:

• A resilient 2-way connection to lifts, offering both signal and battery backup to the emergency connection, enabling trapped passengers to dial out, even during a power failure.
• Management of the resilient connection, with real time monitoring of the connection and power status, remote diagnostics and fault resolution. SENTINEL also includes digital audit trails for the lift owners.
• Simplicity, the third-party management of the connectivity transition across entire lift portfolios and without any upfront fees offers peace of mind to lift owners anywhere. With a single, monthly bill, the service is very easy to manage and reliable.
• Futureproof, the service also includes built in lifetime tech upgrades, active battery changes and ongoing portfolio management pieces to ensure passengers always remain safe.

Find out more about the SENTINEL service and how it can help you.