INDUSTRY NEWS
SIDEBARS:
Ericsson & Hobbs In New Mexico
Impressed by Ericsson radio systems in nearby municipalities, Hobbs, New Mexico, became the third city in the state the choose Ericsson's digital trunked radio system to provide for its citywide communication needs. The city will use an 8-channel, single site system to support all of its agencies, beginning with the police and fire departments, as well as another 4-channel emergency back-up site and a Single Channel Autonomous Trunking (SCAT) site that will support wide area communications that otherwise would be hindered by Hobbs' surrounding, rugged terrain.
"The systems in New Mexico and West Texas made a big difference," said Major Tony Knott of the Hobbs Police Department. "We were able to look at new and existing Ericsson systems and talk with their users. There was no need to go through the same bidding process as the other New Mexico agencies, since we needed a system that is basically like theirs."
Strong local dealer support from Caprock Communications, an Ericsson dealer in Hobbs, was also an important factor in the city's decision to choose Ericsson. "Their stability within the community was a major issue to us, along with their excellent quality of service," Hobbs said of Caprock Communications. "It is important to us that we have a local shop to service our needs."
Three other New Mexico cities - Albuquerque, Las Cruces, and Los Alamos - also use Ericsson trunked radio systems.
Community Phone Patrol in Fort Lauderdale
Heeding President Clinton's call to Americans "...to put high technology on the side of law and order," Communities on Phone Patrol (COPP) donated 40 phones to 10 Fort Lauderdale (FL) neighborhoods as part of its nationwide effort to distribute 50,000 cellular phones to community policing organizations in high crime areas.
The AT&T Wireless Services-donated cellphones, pre-programmed to call only 9-1-1 and the local police department, will be used to reduce crime and solve public safety problems.
COPP was jointly formed by the Community Policing Consortium and the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA) Foundation for Wireless Telecommunications in May, 1996, when President Clinton called for one million volunteers to join community watch groups to patrol their neighborhoods in the fight against crime. "The COPP initiative is the inevitable result of our work over the years to create and fine-tune community policing programs for Florida's high crime neighborhoods," said Tartelton Jones, director of Corporate Communications for AT&T Wireless Services. "Now, communities across America can experience the benefit of community policing with cellular phones."
Motorola Making Progress in Michigan System
Motorola has completed Phase 1 on the new Michigan Public Safety Communications System (MPSCS) - on time and within budget, according to Michigan Governor John Engler. Phase 1 includes most of southeast Michigan; work in Phase 2 in ongoing in southwest Michigan is scheduled for completion in fall, 1988, with Phase 3 and 4 (northeast and northwest Michigan) will follow.
Engler said the new State Police radio system is operating throughout southeast Michigan. The MPSCS, which will replace the State Police's 1940s-era radio system, is expected to improve law enforcement and public safety and serve the communications needs of many state and local agencies.
When completed in 1999, the MPSCS will be one of the most advanced public safety radio systems in the nation. It also has the distinction of being the first contracted Project 25 compliant statewide system in the US. Project 25 is the new functional and technical standard for digital two-way radios created and adopted by a consortium of two-way radio user groups.
E. F. Johnson Contract in Illinois
E. F. Johnson Company has begun work on a Multi-Net II trunked radio system for McLean County, geographically the largest county in Illinois. The 800 MHz three-site simulcasting system will serve seven public safety agencies, including the McLean County Sheriff's Department, police and fire departments in the cities of Bloomington and Normal, and all rural police departments, plus the Normal Public Works Dept.
The new system will use more than 500 Multi-Net mobile and portable radios, as well as touch-screen consoles for a new dispatch center.
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Tritech's VisiCAD Arrives in Denver With its popular VisiCAD for EMS system installed in numerous EMS agencies throughout the world, American Tritech reports the first installation of its combined VisiCAD for Fire/EMS system will occur at The Denver Fire Department. Denver Fire serves a population of over 500,000 within a 165-square mile area, with more than 45 emergency vehicles. "VisiCAD gives us the ability to identify the exact location of every fire unit throughout the city, so we can dispatch the closest appropriate unit to an incident," said DFD Captain Carl Johnson. "This will significantly reduce our response time and save lives in the process." According to Johnson, the VisiCAD system is also expected to allow the department to allocate resources more efficiently. VisiCAD for Fire/EMS gives fire dispatchers the ability to automatically create fluid, dynamic response plans and then determine the personnel and equipment resources that are sent to an incident. "Before, we had to manually create our response plans, taking up to several weeks," said Johnson. "VisiCAD now does this for us in a matter of minutes." Additionally, the system can identify both the personnel and equipment aboard each fire unit, allowing dispatchers to strategically place specialized equipment, such as the "jaws of life," throughout the city and have VisiCAD recommend resources by the equipment needed for specific types of calls. VisiCAD for Fire/EMS incorporates vehicle routing, high-resolution integrated mapping functionality, comprehensive graphical reports, and a fire and EMS triage system. Built around the reliable, scaleable Microsoft Windows NT platform and the high-performance Microsoft SQL Server Database, the system gives dispatchers complete data access and control, and the redundancy and reliability required of mission-critical applications. "With its automatic vehicle location and integrated mapping features a linked to the Microsoft SQL Server Database, the solution enables fire departments to deliver real results, quickly and economically," said Ken Reeves, industry marketing manager, justice and public safety, at Microsoft. |
TRANSITIONS
DataRadio has added Jerry D. Hopkins to its management team. With over 22 years experience in corporate communications and marketing, Mr. Hopkins has worked on hundreds of national accounts and gained extensive international experience as Communications Manager for the US division of Akzo Coatings Inc., headquartered in The Netherlands. For DataRadio, he will be responsible for managing all corporate communications, developing and implementing marketing strategy, coordinating market research and new product development.
Patricia G. Hales, former Director of Finance and Administration for SmarTrunk Systems, a manufacturer of radio trunking and wireless communications equipment for developing countries, has been elected Vice President of Finance and Administration and Corporate Secretary. In addition to supervising all of the company's accounting and financial functions, Ms. Hale is system administrator for the Company's internal management information system and is responsible for all human resource functions.
Michael G. Paul, former managing director of business strategy and marketing at MCI Systemhouse, has left to start his own PR firm. Mr. Paul developed and implemented Systemhouse's strategic marketing and PR campaigns for six divisions, including its International Public Safety Group. MGP & Associates will specialize in reputation management, crisis PR, media relations and strategic marketing.
XYPoint Corp, a provider of wireless location services, has named Thomas J. Wolf as director of marketing. Most recently, Mr. Wolf worked for Denver-based US West as a director of its market strategy development group, where he created marketing strategies for various wireless groups within the company. He will be responsible for marketing XYPoint's location-based network services.
