Airside explores some of the available ramp communications systems available today as safety continues to take top priority
Communication systems are a vital part of ensuring safety on the ramp during ground handling operations.
Like the GSE sector, headsets too have seen evolution over the years as manufacturers strive always to improve safety.
David Clark, whose iconic noise-attenuating headsets can be found at airports globally, designs and manufactures headsets for pushback and maintenance operations as well as de-icing and anti-icing.
The US company defines itself as an innovator in the ramp communications market.
“For over half a century, David Clark has been recognised globally as an innovator in noise-attenuating headsets that protect workers’ hearing and provide effective solutions where noise and/or distance create impediments to communications and crew safety,” says Bob Daigle, market manager for communication systems at David Clark.
“David Clark’s products are renowned for their excellence in rugged reliability and communication clarity – in addition to superlative comfort and wearability – and it’s our superiority in these primary characteristics that is our biggest differentiator [to alternative solutions on the market].
“Ramp crews are notoriously, brutally harsh on equipment such as ours, and to borrow a marketing phrase, our ability to ‘take a licking and keep on ticking’ is what has built a fierce brand loyalty with our customer base.
“Coupled with our unsurpassed customer service, airlines and ramp service providers understand that employing David Clark headsets in their operations gives them an edge in their ability to keep their crews safe, improving their on-time performance and keeping planes in the air,” adds Daigle.
David Clark’s wireless headsets offer a “force-multiplier” to ramp crews in providing the ability to keep a pushback tractor operator and up to three additional ramp agents in constant communication, he explains, so that when a hazard presents itself, all operators can instantly verbally alert each other to that hazard and avoid catastrophe “more effectively than hand signals ever could”.
The company claims that its wireless headset solution is also simple to set up and use – which it says is an important factor in the system’s ability to be an efficient and effective communication tool in a work environment where often-new users are unfamiliar with the equipment.
This ensures crew safety and protection against costly aircraft damage as well as better on-time performance, adds Daigle.
He says the challenge of retaining ground handling staff in today’s airports is accompanied by a constant need to keep newly hired ramp agents safe when working in a “hazard-filled environment to which they are likely unaccustomed, not overlooking the safety and efficiency of experienced ramp workers and all the facets of a busy and often chaotic apron in today’s busiest airports”.
“Situational awareness is vital, and communication between crew members is a critical component of ramp safety,” says Daigle.
Daigle claims that David Clark has been a well-established ramp communications leader for many years.
He says the company is “typically the go-to” choice for handlers looking for the types of equipment it provides.
Therefore, David Clark receives a lot of “first-person market information from our customers”, which allows the company to understand the challenges that the ramp poses.
“Reliability is our bread and butter, so those customers whose willingness to provide their crews with headset solutions instead of relying on hand signals have a leg up in terms of safety and efficiency,” says Daigle.
“Most organisations performing ramp operations understand this, and thus we believe the served available market is not that far behind the total available market for our products.”
He adds that in recent times David Clark has seen growing interest in its wireless systems in particular, since they offer greater mobility and flexibility on the ramp over traditional wired headsets.
The company’s wireless solutions – originally launched in 2011 — allow for direct, real-time communication during ground handling operations.
Daigle emphasises that “while the additional price point of a wireless system created few early adopters, the cost-to-benefit ratio has been more evident to our customers in each passing year, such that exponential growth has been realised and promises to be the case for the foreseeable future”.
On demand for ramp communication systems today, Daigle says 2024 was a “very good year for David Clark” and its products – and that the company anticipates an even better year of sales in 2025.
dBD Communications
dBD Communications is a UK-based manufacturer of wireless headsets, whose systems can often be found on ramp agents during aircraft de-icing operations.
The company partners with Vestergaard, a Denmark-based manufacturer of de-icing trucks.
Speaking to Airside about what makes dBD’s solutions unique, CEO David O’Connell says: “The main thing is our robust signal. Our signal doesn’t drop out.
“A lot of the wired solutions, if they’re worn down, tend to drop out of the connection because the plug’s worn.
“But with our wireless solution, we work in a Bluetooth architecture. Bluetooth is a very robust waveform that isn’t affected by external influences.
“Also we chose quite a high-power Bluetooth module and in our next-generation system we’re going for the maximum radiative power that you’re allowed to do legally.
“Sometimes it’s quite difficult to explain the merits of this because we’ve seen our systems go up to 300-400m – pure line of sight.
“That’s completely irrelevant to someone who’s handling an aircraft because if they’re 400m away they probably can’t even read the livery on the side of the plane. But the point is the signal is strong enough do that,” he adds.
O’Connell says that dBD’s headsets enable ramp agents to maintain communication all the way round an aircraft while maintaining contact with the cockpit. This allows crew to manoeuvre themselves in many different positions away from the aircraft.
“With wing walkers, our system is designed in a way so that the main ramp agent speaking to the cockpit has the cockpit in their left ear and the wing walkers in their right,” says O’Connell.
Another advantage from a safety perspective, adds the CEO, is the battery life of dBD’s equipment.
“At full charge, our headsets will last for 24 hours,” O’Connell says. “What operators don’t need halfway through pushing a plane back is their headsets running out of battery.
“We offer a fast-charging solution where it takes around 30 minutes to charge up to two thirds of the battery life.
“It’s not advisable to completely drain the battery and then recharge the headsets – what our customers tend to do is recharge them on their breaks just to top up the battery.”
Safety is also a vital consideration for dBD, says O’Connell.
He tells Airside: “If you do not co-ordinate aircraft handling activities in the airside environment and have your situational awareness to know exactly what’s going on, there is the risk that you might kill someone if it’s not done properly.
“There are serious threats and risks when it comes to aircraft handling: there’s crush, trip, all sorts of physical hazards around the ramp.”
It is also important that communication is maintained during ground handling operations, adds O’Connell.
“You don’t really want to be losing communication or have the risk of incorrect communication and then find a situation where the tail of an aircraft has collided with a lamppost, or another similar scenario,” he explains.
“There are so many threats around the ramp – and ground handlers are going to have their own risk assessments for each activity, for example during pushback operations.
“With wireless communications, you have the ability to mitigate these risks.”
Wired headsets are much more dangerous, says O’Connell.
He explains: “Changi Airport has now banned wired headsets. We don’t get the same electrical storms in the UK that they’d get in Singapore but realistically the threat goes away when ramp agents are wearing a wireless headset.
“With a wired headset, if an aircraft is struck by lightning it will discharge through your head and you’ll be killed. Then there are also all the trips, the snags, the falls.”
O’Connell recalls an incident shared at an industry conference some years ago where a ramp agent was wearing a wired headset and “something had gone completely wrong, he should have taken the headset off because he was pulled into the hazard”.
However: “With a wireless headset that wouldn’t have happened.”
Wired headsets are still in use today, particularly in Europe, adds the CEO. But he suggests it is inevitable that these types will be phased out by the industry or even banned for safety reasons.
“Eventually I think there will come a time when enough incidents have occurred on the ramp with wired headsets [that] operators, particularly in Europe, will adopt wireless headsets because they will see these incidents could have been avoided if they were already using wireless systems.
“I would go as far as to say wireless headsets will be a requirement. And when we introduce companies to our wireless systems, they don’t look back.
“When you start experiencing the robust waveform, battery management capability, the whole picture, not just the fact it’s wireless, the benefits shine through and clients realise they’re reducing the risks around the ramp.”
