By Stephen Robb, SecureMobility, www.securemobility.nz
In today’s world, ensuring the safety of lone workers is paramount, especially in remote areas where traditional communication infrastructure is often lacking. Lone worker safety systems play a crucial role in safeguarding employees by providing real-time monitoring, emergency response capabilities, and seamless communication channels. However, the challenge intensifies in regions beyond the reach of cellular networks, where the risk of isolation can compromise safety protocols and, at the same time, the number of communication options is reduced.
This is where satellite technology steps in. By leveraging satellite communication, lone worker systems can extend their reach to the most remote and inaccessible locations. This technology ensures that workers remain connected, no matter how far they are from urban centres and cellular networks.
Integrating satellite technology into lone worker systems is transforming the landscape of occupational safety. It bridges the gap left by cellular networks, offering a reliable and robust solution for maintaining communication and ensuring the well-being of workers in remote areas.
StaySafe Satellite Mode with Garmin inReach
One of the leading solutions in this space is StaySafe Lone Worker, which includes a Satellite Mode. By pairing the StaySafe app with a Garmin inReach satellite device, a user can access all the features of the StaySafe app, no matter where they are in the world. This includes panic alerts, welfare checks, fall detection, duress alarms, and more.
StaySafe Lone Worker with Satellite Mode
StaySafe Lone Worker Satellite Mode allows an employer to provide continuous communication and safety for lone workers in remote areas. The Garmin inReach device connects to the Iridium satellite network, providing global coverage and enabling the transmission of critical safety data even in the most isolated locations.
When used in Satellite Mode, a user can continue to use all the features of the StaySafe app, and also maintain real-time location updates via the Garmin tracking system.
StaySafe Lone Worker with the One NZ Satellite Text Service
While the Garmin inReach device is highly effective, it requires the purchase of a second device and incurs ongoing operational costs for the satellite airtime plans.
StaySafe Lone Worker provides an alternative, using the One NZ Satellite Text Service, which is being rolled out in partnership with Starlink Direct to Mobile (engineered by SpaceX). For eight years, StaySafe’s Low Signal Mode has enabled the StaySafe app to send information to the StaySafe server in areas where there is no cellular data, using SMS messages. Now, with the introduction of the One NZ Satellite Text Service, the StaySafe Lone Worker app can use this proven feature to send data to the StaySafe server using SMS messages delivered via the SpaceX satellite network.
StaySafe Lone Worker with One NZ SMS Satellite Service
This service provides a seamless and reliable communication channel, allowing workers to access all the safety features of the StaySafe app when outside of cellular range, without the need for additional hardware. As a result, companies can protect their employees more efficiently and affordably, ensuring that safety is never compromised, regardless of location.
By leveraging this new One NZ service, StaySafe Lone Worker eliminates the need for a separate satellite device, making it easier and more cost-effective to ensure worker safety in remote areas. All that is required is one of the growing range of phones compatible with the One NZ Satellite service, and a suitable One NZ phone plan. Users’ phones don’t need any special satellite connectivity (as can be required for Apple Satellite communication).
This feature is unique to StaySafe Lone Worker and makes it the most cost-effective solution for lone worker safety outside cellular range.
Why not just use SMS texting?
While it would be possible to simply use a phone’s SMS messaging app to manually send communication via the One NZ Satellite Service, a lone working policy based around this would have significant shortcomings and inefficiencies. Such an approach replicates the old-fashioned manual intentions board, where a user texts someone with location details and when they will be back in touch. It’s up to the message’s recipient to manually record this and to remember to check when the time of the next scheduled check-in has passed.
Manual SMS-based “intentions board”
Such an approach is entirely manual and, therefore, unreliable. It is also limited in value as it does not provide critical types of alarms offered by StaySafe Lone Worker, including the ability to easily and immediately activate a panic or to trigger an alarm when a fall or non-movement is detected. It also doesn’t provide real-time location updates for users as StaySafe does.
Lone Worker systems, such as StaySafe, address the shortcomings of these manual systems with an automated solution that not only provides additional functionality but is also more reliable and more efficient. They are also arguably more cost-effective if you consider the true costs of staff time and interruptions, including the lone workers sending the messages and the recipients processing them.
To quote a major North American gas company which uses StaySafe Lone Worker: “StaySafe is an efficient and value saving solution that allows us to monitor all of our front line employees distributed over a large geographical spread, from one place. Our team can now check-in at the touch of a button and supervisors will only be alerted when they need to be, freeing up time and allowing them to focus on other important tasks while feeling confident that an alert system is in place to assure the safety of frontline workers.”
Comparing Apple’s Satellite SOS
Some Apple iPhones include a satellite chip that can communicate directly with the Globalstar satellite network, irrespective of which cellular provider the phone is connected to. Someone with one of these iPhones can activate an SOS, which the local emergency services response centre receives, and optionally the emergency contacts they have set up in their iPhone.
Apple Emergency SOS
While it sounds straightforward, the iPhone’s satellite chip is very sensitive to the direction it is pointing in relation to the satellites that happen to be overhead at the time. As a result, the user needs to position the phone by following an on-screen guide. This may be difficult if they are injured, and impossible if they are immobile.
Even if the user is mobile enough to move to a suitable location and orient the phone correctly, this approach still only provides a panic solution that requires manual alarm activation. There are none of the passive alarms, such as fall detection or missed welfare checks, that are critical to ensuring a lone worker’s safety in remote locations.
The Apple Satellite SOS should be viewed as a consumer-level option which is really only designed to be used by a private individual basis as an absolute last resort.
Summary
As industries continue to expand into challenging terrains, the importance of advanced lone worker safety systems, like StaySafe Lone Worker, supported by satellite technology, cannot be overstated. They are not just tools for communication; they are lifelines that protect and empower the workforce, ensuring that safety is never compromised, regardless of location.
By leveraging satellite communication, these solutions extend the reach of worker systems to the most remote and inaccessible areas, providing a reliable and cost-effective safety net for workers operating in hazardous environments. They also help organisations meet their obligations under the Health and Safety at Work Act by providing communication methods and emergency plans.
This table summarises the functions available with the different options described in the article.
The combination of StaySafe’s Low Signal Mode and the One NZ SMS Satellite Service represents a significant advancement in lone worker safety technology. Lone workers can now make use of the market-leading lone worker solution, anywhere in New Zealand, without the need for a separate satellite device, reducing complexity and cost.
Far outperforming simple text-based messaging, StaySafe Lone Worker provides fully automated lone worker alarms, including fall detection, welfare checks, non-movement and duress alarms, anywhere in New Zealand.
Check out how StaySafe Lone Worker helped TasWater’s workers feel reassured that if an incident happens whilst they are working alone, a monitor will be alerted and can send help if required.
