Tactical Wireless Limited has been shortlisted for two prestigious Scottish Enterprise Life Sciences Awards. The awards recognise the success and achievements of Scotland’s internationally renowned life sciences sector in areas including innovation, investment, community engagement and collaboration.
TWL has been recognised for the Innovation category for its ability to transmit real time data from remote locations, irrespective of the challenges of poor telecommunications infrastructure or connectivity. This is regarded as a ground breaking solution to the significant rural health problem of providing good quality communication in time critical situations. Along with the University of Aberdeen, TWL is also a finalist in the Innovative Collaboration category. The two organisations have developed the Satellite Ultrasound for Rural Stroke (SURS) project. This aims to achieve stroke diagnosis within the critical period of 4.5 hours of onset regardless of location. Further work is looking at the application of remotely supported ultrasound scanning in a broad range of time-critical medical and surgical emergencies.
Omni-Hub provides an open architecture solution based on the integration of commercial off the shelf hardware and is not dependent on any one network. Each Omni-Hub can be networked via Tactical Wireless own secure Omni-Hub™.Net network allowing multiple Hubs to provide aggregated bandwidth, within the Hub and over multiple Hubs. Service resiliency is enabled by the ability of the Hub to access up to 4 cellular, 2 Wi-Fi, 2 satellite and one ADSL routes. This diversity of delivery paths is further enhanced by the bonded WAN router technology that splits the data between multiple routes and multiple head ends. Security is provided by encryption up to AES 256 levels across the entire network.
Peter Morton, TWL’s Managing Director said: “Being shortlisted for one of these prestigious awards would be an honour but being shortlisted for two is incredible. For the Innovation Collaboration category, we worked with Professor Philip Wilson and his team, at the University of Aberdeen’s Centre for Rural Health, to transmit live ultrasound from remote locations in the Highlands and the fact that more than 95% of all images were of diagnostic quality was very encouraging. Both nominations were possible because TWL selected and integrated market leading technology including Peplink routers and VayTek Crossfire video management system."
The annual awards cover the whole of Scotland but Tactical Wireless has been strongly supported by the Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE), a Scottish Government economic and community development agency for a diverse region which covers more than half of Scotland and is home to around 450,000 people. HIE's role is to develop sustainable economic growth across the region. To achieve this it creates infrastructure for future investment, assists large and small businesses with growth aspirations and has a unique role strengthening communities, particularly in fragile areas.
James Cameron, HIE’s head of life sciences, said: “I am delighted to see so many high quality finalists from the Highlands and Islands. This reflects the growth in our life sciences sector and underlines the status of the Highlands and Islands as one of Europe’s most successful and competitive regions. The natural assets, the skills and the ambition among people working for and leading these companies combine to provide tremendous economic opportunities which benefit the region and the country. I am particularly pleased that we have been able to provide support for the majority of the finalists in developing the commercial aspects of their initiatives.”