Our New PRO Station Takes the Pain Out of Installation

Blue light phones are central to public safety systems. They’re also one of most challenging elements to install. Until recently, their high visibility placement in parking lots, parking structures, pedestrian malls, parks, plazas, and campus walkways came at a steep price because of labor-intensive deployment. 

Josh Fagan is Director of Operations at Risk Response Team (RRT), a security integrator in Metropolitan Atlanta whose clients include state and local municipalities that use blue light phones. Here’s how he describes the way companies like his have traditionally installed an emergency phone tower:

“You have to dig a hole several feet wide, put in huge anchor bolts, and then pour concrete. The truck rental alone can cost as must as $1800 per day. Each tower is extremely heavy, so three men are needed to lift and position it in place. You must also pay an electrician to run wiring to the spot. A blue light phone takes at least two days to install at a price around five to six grand. Sometimes, it can cost as much as $8,000.”

Pedestal PRO has devised a way to take the pain – and much of the price – out of emergency phone tower installation. We’ve done it by rethinking the design of blue light phones from the inside out and from the ground up.

Reimagining the Emergency Phone Paradigm

Let's start with the "inside" part. Manufacturers of blue light phone towers usually sell the internal technology bundled with the structure. Customers order a tower equipped with a proprietary intercom system and cameras, and that's how it ships. By contrast, Mr. Fagan describes Pedestal PRO's PRO Stations as “almost like a server rack, in which integrators install the technology hardware needed for the application. It's a whole different way to think about the solution.” 

Customers specify the intended intercom, cameras, and other hardware when ordering a PRO Station, but Pedestal PRO doesn't sell the security devices, and our units ship without them. We precut holes and configure the towers' interiors to support everything, and the technology is installed onsite by the integrator via the units' removeable back panels. Unlike traditional blue light phone stations, PRO Stations support solutions from any manufacturer, allowing the tower’s systems to integrate seamlessly with the property’s security technology ecosystem. 

The PRO Station’s exterior is just as novel. The 104” aluminum tower weighs only 62 pounds ships via UPS, FedEx, or LTL. That’s hundreds of pounds lighter than traditional towers – and light enough for a single man to lift and maneuver. Even so, the unit can withstand sustained Category 4, 135 mph hurricane-force winds. 

The units are also beautiful. They feature a patented, low-profile architectural design, programmable high-visibility LED light strips, and may be ordered with custom colors, fonts, and graphics. "The look of these towers just wows us," says Vernon Ryle, Head of Sales at RRT, "and we know our customers will be impressed too. I really like the branded option where the customer can have their logo and color scheme incorporated in the design.” 

A pre-fabricated anchor allows PRO Stations to be mounted in the ground with no poured concrete. Technicians can position them just off the pavement and backfill the hole with dirt and gravel. For parking lots, parking structures, and other locations where placement is on a cement surface, we offer a fast foundation anchor designed for use in wet concrete. “Instead of three men taking two days to install a tower, we could probably put up three PRO Stations in a single day with just one guy,” says RRT’s Fagan.

“Because the units can operate by battery or solar power, there’s no need to run power,” adds Ryle. “This makes them ideal for existing sites.” 

Gaining High Visibility within the Security Sector

As the folks at Risk Response Team have told us, "The PRO Station looks better, comes at a better price, and the installation is far easier than other blue light phones. This is something we can really attack with."

Your company and customers can benefit too! To learn more, read an interview with our company’s President and Founder, Pike Goss, that originally appeared in the March 2023 Issue of Security Business Magazine and SecurityInfowatch.com.