Hytera US launches H-Series family of DMR products

Hytera US yesterday launched its H-Series family of redesigned DMR products that includes features like artificial-intelligence-powered voice enhancement, 24-hour battery life, and as much as 25% greater effective coverage, according to a company official.

Ty Estes, marketing director for Hytera US and Hytera Canada, described the H-Series as “a comprehensive new product line” of DMR Tier II and Tier III portables, mobile radios and repeaters developed by Hytera during the past couple of years.

“The products have been redesigned from the ground up. It’s an entirely new platform, so there is none of the predecessor technology from the i-Series,” Estes said during an interview with IWCE’s Urgent Communications. “They’re smaller, they’re lighter, have longer lasting batteries, farther range—basically, wholesale improvements across the board to the radio system.

“It really raises the bar, in regard to the technology, the quality and the ruggedness.”

Tom Wineland, vice president of sales for Hytera US, echoed this sentiment.

“The H-Series is simply the first of its kind in the industry when it comes to functionality, user experience and ruggedness,” Wineland said in a prepared statement. “Hytera has been a leading provider of DMR radios and systems and has continuously improved products based on customer feedback. The Hytera H-Series is the culmination of this experience and spirit of innovation, and elevates the industry standard in DMR radio communications.”

Hardened to meet IP68 specifications, the lighter, smaller H-Series radios feature excellent audio quality that is powered by artificial-intelligence (AI) technology, Estes said.

“One of the real game-changers is the artificial-intelligence-based voice enhancement; it’s pretty amazing how much background noise that thing can reduce,” Estes said, noting that he believes Hytera is the first to market with this AI-based technique. “It has deep-learning ability, so it basically can learn your voice and basically extract that from up to 36 dB of background noise.”

Omdia's Take

“This is a very interesting development. AI technology has a major part to play in noise cancellation and having the latest in AI and battery technology it continues to show the importance of LMR technologies with such technology advancement. Also great to see the DMR standard still evolving with more to come. 2022 will be another big year for DMR technology as traditional LMR still demands respect in professional communications communities.”

— Thomas Lynch, Omdia research director

Click here to learn more about Omdia and its industry reports.

This audio quality is complemented by greater effective coverage from the DMR radios, according to Estes.

“They’ve also got higher attenuation and higher sensitivity, so we’re seeing up to a 25% increase in transmission distance over flat ground, compared to our previous line,” he said.

In addition, Hytera’s new portables—each of which support a screen, although the sizes vary by model—can operate all day on a single charge, Estes said.

“I think we’re the first radio that can run 24 hours without a charge—that’s on high-transmit power with a duty cycle of 5590,” Estes said.

These new batteries require a new type of charger—included in the packaging for each portable radio—but the H-Series products work with many existing Hytera accessories and operate on a variety of LMR network, including DMR-standard systems, Estes said.

Even with many new features, the H-Series products will cost only “nominally more” than Hytera’s existing DMR product, Estes said.

A key characteristic of the H-Series portfolio is that they are Hytera DMR products that the company has developed on its own, so it should not be subject to any of the litigation challenges from Motorola Solutions that has surrounded Hytera DMR offerings in recent years. This approach also is a factor in the length of time that Hytera has taken to launch the new family of products, Estes said.

“It’s been a couple of years,” Estes said. “I think it has taken awhile, just because there’s so much innovation, this stuff doesn’t happen overnight, and the fact that we’ve had to build the product basically in a clean room—from the ground up—because of all of the issues with Motorola.

“When somebody usually launches a new product line, 75% of that technology is existing. But this is all new, from the ground up, so this is why it has taken us awhile to fully develop the line, make sure that it’s bulletproof and then launch it with so many improvements. And the pandemic and the chip shortage didn’t help, either.”

But some of these factors could result in the timing of the H-Series launch proving to be beneficial, according to Estes.

“You have essentially no other radio companies launching new products right now,” he said. “We’re launching these products in the middle of a chip shortage and supply-chain challenges, and we have immediate availability of the product.”

The H-Series portfolio was introduced in Europe and Australia in recent weeks, and Hytera US unveiled the new family of DMR products to its dealer channel this week, Estes said. Next month, Hytera US plans to begin extensive marketing of the H-Series line in several enterprise sectors, including security, education, construction, hospitality, property management, agriculture and manufacturing, according to Estes.