IWCE Review
16
Plenty to see here
On the exhibition oor, there was a great deal of
innovation on display. Three of the most interesting
products I saw were RugGear’s RG-C1, a Bluetoothconnected
iPhone case with a push-to-talk (PTT) button;
the Sonim XP8 rugged smartphone (complete with the
SLED proof-of-concept accessory that can support
P25/DMR/NEXEDGE – not simultaneously); and Siyata
Mobile’s UV350, an in-vehicle cellular communications
system which supports in-vehicle cellular calls, PTT over
Cellular services and data applications and acts as a Wi-
Fi hotspot. I also got to see an MCPTT demo on the Softil
stand in which they demonstrated group voice and video
calls between a range of smart devices that were using
a variety of different operating systems (shown above).
Tait Communications was displaying its TP3000
portable DMR Tier II/analogue radio, which has two
simple but ingenious innovations: detachable covers in a
range of colours (to simplify the logistics for distributors
and resellers, while allowing users to change their
radios’ colour when needed) and designated spaces for
labels, making it easier to customise their appearance
and display important information.
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acres. He added that AT&T and Verizon both jumped
in to support the mission, and one of the issues was that
multiple apps were being used for GIS mapping, and
radio programming was challenging due to the size of
theincident.
Turning to the Camp Fire, which in another unfortunate
rst was California’s deadliest and most destructive re
ever, he explained that broadband and Wi-Fi support by
non-prot service providers at the evacuation and disaster
recovery centres was extremely helpful, that the preplanned
LMR interoperability communication plans for
the re service worked well (this wasn’t the case with law
enforcement – “ they don’t like to change their channel”
– and emergency medical services), and that public safety
LMR communication systems stayed up with a couple of
minor exceptions.
However, in the rst 24 hours, the 911 wireline
telephone system failed and broadband services went down
due to damage to the backhaul networks. Other problems
included interference as multiple state agencies deployed
both LMR and network data equipment that impacted
other missions (hence “the need for someone to be
managing the data side of the house”) and a lack of overall
understanding of the big picture (situational awareness
was better in areas where cellular communications were
still available). Kerwin highlighted the need for satellite
system(s) to support information sharing and stated that
having a common operating platform for data sharing
iscritical.
Baker, who was one of the rst-responders who tackled
the Camp Fire, gave a presentation on the incident
complete with photos of truly apocalyptic-looking scenes.
He noted that radio signal levels were very low and he
was told that it was due to attenuation from the amount
of ionisation in the atmosphere, which was created
by the blaze, and this created “some problems with
simplex” but, due to good radio infrastructure in the area,
communications with the dispatch centre were ne. At
one point he and his team were lost because the street signs
were burning. “It was so hot that it was almost hard to have
your hand on the side of the dashboard.” He noted that
in some cases people were stumbling around as though they
were drunk due to hours of smoke inhalation and carbon
monoxide poisoning.
Both Kerwin and Baker made the point that the public
is starting to use cellular services as their primary means
to call 911, receive notications about incidents and share
incident-related information via social media – in the case
of the Camp Fire this was a big issue as a huge majority of
the public didn’t get the alert, “the re hit that fast”. Baker
said in such high-risk urban environments, “you have to
use a xed siren-based system”. He highlighted the need
for better situational awareness and the amount of reliance
on apps and data, noting that even though he and his
colleagues had access to cellular data, if they had been able
to access a satellite photo of the area they would have been
able to take a dierent approach, along with the need to
move to a fully unied cross-agency approach to situational
awareness/mapping apps.
As mentioned previously, my last visit to IWCE took
place in 2017 and it’s worth dwelling on the huge amount
that has happened since then; we’ve gone from the contract
to deliver FirstNet being awarded to AT&T, to the FirstNet
service being live and as of January being used by more
than 5,250 public safety agencies using more than 425,000
connections. With FirstNet expecting to oer a fully 3GPPcompliant
MCPTT service in the second half of this year, it
will be interesting to see how far the conversation will have
moved on once IWCE 2020 comes around.
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