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Brother’s plans for BAPCO exhibition
Bearing in mind the contents of Sir Ronnie Flanagan’s report, it is likely that the Brother stand (number 444) at BAPCO exhibition will be very busy indeed. Unless public safety professionals can print in situ, Michelle Molloy, Brother Business Development Manager (Mobile Solutions), believes the full benefits of mobile data will never be realised.
Regular BAPCO Journal readers will know that British Transport Police officers are already using Brother’s handheld mobile printer MW-140BT in conjunction with O2 XDA II PDAs for the printing of A7 size stop and search receipts, and the results speak for themselves. Spent time completing paperwork has been reduced by up to an hour per day.
Brother will however not just be celebrating recent success like the aforementioned British Transport Police pilot. It will also be launching new products and giving visitors sneak previews of what the future will look like, in print (pardon the pun).
The company will be showing off its A6 mobile printer, a device that in size is – says Michelle – ideal for the fire and ambulance services. “This is the right size for this market because of the need for a larger format. Fire safety officers for example need to leave print outs on sites after checking premises, and ambulance technicians need easy-to-read patient data.”
There will be more communication tools to play with on the Brother stand. “In June this year we’ll be launching our new RFID intelligent label printer, the RL-700S. I already have some sample units in this country and we are keen to get feedback,” said Michelle.
Brother’s RFID is the smallest reader/writer module in the market and it aims to aid in people, document and asset management. The unit will come with a software development kit to allow engineers to integrate the passive label printer with Windows applications. Application examples include:
- Inventory system improvement by creating on demand intelligent labels that can store information such as; service history; ownership details; user information.
- Trackability enhancement of personnel; smart labels can identify staff, contractors and visitors with compatible door access systems.
- Traceability of documents/binders; RFID labels can outline who created the documents and when, as well as information on contents.
Brother has already had interest from the Criminal Justice Courts for the RFID printer, says Michelle, who are looking at ways of improving their document management. “We would be happy to hear from professionals in the emergency services who would like to take parts in trials – we firmly believe in placing evaluation out to the market for the feedback.”
The new device also offers cost savings over traditional RFID printers in that it will retail at around £699 instead of the £999 mark, and the purchase minimum of tags will be set at 30, unlike competitors’ 1,000, adds Michelle.
