Lister Unified Communications has taken on an audio specialist to lead a new venture for the company

Lister Unified Communications has taken on an audio specialist to lead a new venture for the company.

Martyn Phillips, aged 56, has joined the Stonehouse-based telecoms and IT specialist team as senior account manager focusing on developing public address, paging and emergency lockdown systems in schools and colleges.

Martyn, who spent 30 years working for Midland Communications based in Tewkesbury.

Martyn said: "Obviously Lister does other things like telecoms and IT but my role is setting up an audio division within the business.

"I started as an apprentice with Midland Communications in Tewkesbury as an engineer and I worked my way up the company to run their PA and paging division.

"Following the sale of Midland, this no longer fitted the new owner's plans, so it was a great opportunity to come to Lister’s to bolster this part of their business.

"I'm heading up the public address side of the business and emergency lockdowns, basically supplying audio for schools and colleges. Lockdown is quite a big thing at this time, especially with so many attacks happening.

"Educational establishments don't have to do it but alot of schools, colleges and universities are looking at how to keep the kids safe and getting messages across if there is an incident within the premises. It's a system we can install and supply where they issue coded messages if there is an alert.

"Emergency lockdown systems can be integrated into their existing telephony so they can play a message via desktop or an app on a phone. There are numerous ways it can be done.

"I'm building that business up, letting schools know we're local to them and this is what we can provide. I've been in the business a long-time supplying equipment so I can go in and discuss their requirements and put a specification together for them and hopefully supply the equipment at the end of the day."

Martyn, who joined Lister earlier in the summer, added: "The feedback that we've had is extremely encouraging. As we all know from previous incidents, we live in troubled times and a system like ours can make a big difference."

Rob Lister, managing director of Lister said:
"We're really pleased and excited to have Martyn on board. He's settled into the team really well and has lots to offer us with his wealth of experience and knowledge of audio."

For over 20 years, Lister Unified Communications has been providing communications services to many businesses in Gloucestershire and throughout the UK.

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