JVCKENWOOD USA this week announced that support for DMR Tier II has been added to its NX-5000 Series mobile and portable radios, which the are the industry’s first radios capable of operating in three digital protocols—NXDN, P25 Phase I and Phase II, and DMR Tier II—according to the company.

NX-5000 Series radios can be configured to support two digital protocols, as well as FM analog. With the new DMR support, this capability means users can configure the radios for NXDN/P25/FM, DMR/NXDN/FM or DMR/P25/FM usage, based on the customers’ technology migration path.

“We see enormous competitive advantages with the addition of DMR,” John North, vice president of sales for JVCKENWOOD USA’s enterprise systems division, said in a prepared statement. “The NX-5000 Series was already a truly versatile radio that has been well received by customers, because it offers customers an affordable path to digital in a full-featured radio. And now, with the addition of DMR, customers have even more choices about how they want to migrate to digital along with expanded capabilities.”

Existing NX-5000 radios can leverage the new DMR capability with appropriate upgrades, according to a company press release.

“New series firmware and software upgrades facilitate updating existing NX-5000 radios with the new DMR capability, enhancing functions such as remote control by subscriber, mobile relay station, multiple RF deck single speaker output and SD card enhancements,” the press release states.

From an infrastructure perspective, JVCKENWOOD USA earlier this year introduced DMR repeaters that are designed to serve three different U.S. spectrum bands: the TKR-D710K that operates in the VHF band from 136-174 MHz; the TKR-D810K2 that operates in the UHF band from 400-470 MHz; and the TKR-810K that operates in the UHF band from 450-520 MHz.