BRIEFS APCO EDITION
Miami-Dade expands relationship with MSV
Mobile Satellite Ventures announced at the APCO International 69th Annual Conference & Exposition in Indianapolis that the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Urban Search and Rescue team, one of only two U.S. fire-rescue organizations that support the government’s international emergency disaster relief efforts, chose MSV’s voice and radio-dispatch services as part of its new command vehicle design.
Miami-Dade Fire Rescue will equip their new state-of-the-art tactical command vehicles with MSV voice, data and radio dispatch capabilities.
According to company officials, MSV’s two-way, wireless Dispatch Radio Service operates on a push-to-talk principle and covers North and Central America, the Caribbean, parts of South America, and up to 250 miles offshore. MSV operates the largest North America network for radio dispatch services supporting up to 15 talk groups from any one terminal. The MSV network includes two geo-stationary satellites and ground stations in Reston, Va., and in Ottawa.
“All of these vehicles are going to have MSV equipment on them because that is the standard for us now,” says Justin Wasilkowski, a 19-year firefighting veteran and member of the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Tactical Communications Group (T-Comm). “A major advantage of MSV radio talk groups is interoperability, which enables us to increase interoperability with other fire departments and state agencies. Going forward as we look to provide support to the Department of Homeland Security, interoperability, redundancy and cross-agency coordination will be extremely important, and MSV helps us with all three.”
The Miami-Dade Fire Rescue USAR team includes rescue specialists, structural engineers, K-9 unit handlers, hazardous material experts, medical personnel, and logistics staff, who are deployed to earthquakes, hurricanes, plane crashes and other disasters across the United States and internationally each year.
Eventide launches digital voice logging, archiving system
Eventide rolled out the VR615 at APCO, the much-awaited sibling to its fourth-generation voice logger, the VR778.
The VR615 shares much with the VR778. Both units feature the enhanced stability of the Linux operating system, and operability from the front panel, which includes a bright TFT display, backlit keypad, and ergonomic jog shuttle wheel.
Standard on both the VR778 and the VR615 are dual redundant 120 GB hard drives in a RAID-1 configuration, the Eventide Call Browser software, and recordable DVD-RAM for archiving. Both units can handle an unlimited number of PCs connected to the network and can accommodate up to sixteen simultaneous users.
Both the VR778 and the VR615 are network compliant, using our feature-rich, license-free Browser, but are not reliant on the network to log calls.
The VR615 is designed for smaller applications ranging from eight to forty-eight channels, whereas the VR778 can accommodate up to 160 channels.
Eventide launches digital voice logging, archiving system
EFJohnson Co. introduced its new infrastructure product: the Netelligent Project 25 Conventional System at APCO International.
The Netelligent P25 Conventional System will provide public safety, public service and federal agency users a secure, feature-rich and user-friendly system to support their activities.
At the heart of the Netelligent P25 system is the EFJohnson 2600 Repeater. The 2600 can support a multitude of features and can be expanded, using VoIP technology, to interconnect multiple 2600 repeaters into an integrated digital system.
Additional features of the Netelligent P25 System include EFJohnson’s Over The Air Rekeying/Key Management Facility (OTAR/KMF), providing a reliable and secure way of managing encryption throughout the system and EFJohnson’s Virtual Console, a state-of-the-art P25 dispatch console designed to operate with off-the-shelf PC computer platforms that users can customize to an individual dispatcher’s roles and responsibilities.
Other features of the Netelligent P25 Conventional System include the Voter, Logging, Simulcast, and Gateway, providing the first responder with communications that are secure, flexible and reliable.
