https://urgentcomm.com/wp-content/themes/ucm_child/assets/images/logo/footer-new-logo.png
  • Home
  • News
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Multimedia
    • Video
    • Podcasts
    • Galleries
    • IWCE’s Video Showcase
    • IWCE 2022 Winter Showcase
    • IWCE 2023 Pre-event Guide
  • Commentary
    • Back
    • Commentary
    • Urgent Matters
    • View From The Top
    • All Things IWCE
    • Legal Matters
  • Resources
    • Back
    • Resources
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • Reprints & Reuse
  • IWCE
    • Back
    • IWCE
    • Conference
    • Special Events
    • Exhibitor Listings
    • Premier Partners
    • Floor Plan
    • Exhibiting Information
    • Register for IWCE
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Terms of Service
    • Privacy Statement
    • Cookie Policy
  • Related Sites
    • Back
    • American City & County
    • IWCE
    • Light Reading
    • IOT World Today
    • Mission Critical Technologies
    • TU-Auto
  • In the field
    • Back
    • In the field
    • Broadband Push-to-X
    • Internet of Things
    • Project 25
    • Public-Safety Broadband/FirstNet
    • Virtual/Augmented Reality
    • Land Mobile Radio
    • Long Term Evolution (LTE)
    • Applications
    • Drones/Robots
    • IoT/Smart X
    • Software
    • Subscriber Devices
    • Video
  • Call Center/Command
    • Back
    • Call Center/Command
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • NG911
    • Alerting Systems
    • Analytics
    • Dispatch/Call-taking
    • Incident Command/Situational Awareness
    • Tracking, Monitoring & Control
  • Network Tech
    • Back
    • Network Tech
    • Interoperability
    • LMR 100
    • LMR 200
    • Backhaul
    • Deployables
    • Power
    • Tower & Site
    • Wireless Networks
    • Coverage/Interference
    • Security
    • System Design
    • System Installation
    • System Operation
    • Test & Measurement
  • Operations
    • Back
    • Operations
    • Critical Infrastructure
    • Enterprise
    • Federal Government/Military
    • Public Safety
    • State & Local Government
    • Training
  • Regulations
    • Back
    • Regulations
    • Narrowbanding
    • T-Band
    • Rebanding
    • TV White Spaces
    • None
    • Funding
    • Policy
    • Regional Coordination
    • Standards
  • Organizations
    • Back
    • Organizations
    • AASHTO
    • APCO
    • DHS
    • DMR Association
    • ETA
    • EWA
    • FCC
    • IWCE
    • NASEMSO
    • NATE
    • NXDN Forum
    • NENA
    • NIST/PSCR
    • NPSTC
    • NTIA/FirstNet
    • P25 TIG
    • TETRA + CCA
    • UTC
Urgent Communications
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Home
  • News
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Video
    • Podcasts
    • Omdia Crit Comms Circle Podcast
    • Galleries
    • IWCE’s Video Showcase
    • IWCE 2023 Pre-event Guide
    • IWCE 2022 Winter Showcase
  • Commentary
    • Back
    • All Things IWCE
    • Urgent Matters
    • View From The Top
    • Legal Matters
  • Resources
    • Back
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • Reprints & Reuse
    • UC eZines
    • Sponsored content
  • IWCE
    • Back
    • Conference
    • Why Attend
    • Exhibitor Listing
    • Floor Plan
    • Exhibiting Information
    • Join the Event Mailing List
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Cookie Policy
    • Terms of Service
    • Privacy Statement
  • Related Sites
    • Back
    • American City & County
    • IWCE
    • Light Reading
    • IOT World Today
    • TU-Auto
  • newsletter
  • In the field
    • Back
    • Internet of Things
    • Broadband Push-to-X
    • Project 25
    • Public-Safety Broadband/FirstNet
    • Virtual/Augmented Reality
    • Land Mobile Radio
    • Long Term Evolution (LTE)
    • Applications
    • Drones/Robots
    • IoT/Smart X
    • Software
    • Subscriber Devices
    • Video
  • Call Center/Command
    • Back
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • NG911
    • Alerting Systems
    • Analytics
    • Dispatch/Call-taking
    • Incident Command/Situational Awareness
    • Tracking, Monitoring & Control
  • Network Tech
    • Back
    • Cybersecurity
    • Interoperability
    • LMR 100
    • LMR 200
    • Backhaul
    • Deployables
    • Power
    • Tower & Site
    • Wireless Networks
    • Coverage/Interference
    • Security
    • System Design
    • System Installation
    • System Operation
    • Test & Measurement
  • Operations
    • Back
    • Critical Infrastructure
    • Enterprise
    • Federal Government/Military
    • Public Safety
    • State & Local Government
    • Training
  • Regulations
    • Back
    • Narrowbanding
    • T-Band
    • Rebanding
    • TV White Spaces
    • None
    • Funding
    • Policy
    • Regional Coordination
    • Standards
  • Organizations
    • Back
    • AASHTO
    • APCO
    • DHS
    • DMR Association
    • ETA
    • EWA
    • FCC
    • IWCE
    • NASEMSO
    • NATE
    • NXDN Forum
    • NENA
    • NIST/PSCR
    • NPSTC
    • NTIA/FirstNet
    • P25 TIG
    • TETRA + CCA
    • UTC
acc.com

Call Center/Command


M/A-COM helps New Orleans prepare for hurricane season

M/A-COM helps New Orleans prepare for hurricane season

M/A-COM said this week it has provided the city of New Orleans with its NetworkFirst IP-based radio communications system to help the city prepare for this year’s hurricane season--which officially began last week--at no cost to taxpayers
  • Written by Urgent Communications Administrator
  • 9th June 2006

M/A-COM said this week it has provided the city of New Orleans with its NetworkFirst IP-based radio communications system to help the city prepare for this year’s hurricane season—which officially began last week—at no cost to taxpayers. The system will be used to provide interoperable communications between the city’s police, fire and emergency medical departments, the Louisiana State Police, and public-safety agencies in surrounding parishes.

The system is an upgrade over the city’s legacy EDACS system, which was first deployed in 1995, according to John Facella, M/A-COM’s public-safety marketing director. Facella said the new deployment is costing the vendor “several hundred thousand dollars” in equipment and related services.

“We’re anxious to show the world that we continue to support our customer in New Orleans,” Facella said. “There has been a focus of press on New Orleans, and it never hurts to let people know that we’re still there and active as the city’s vendor, and that we’re still thinking about the city as we were during Katrina, when we sent a lot of people down there to help out in the relief effort.”

The system will be in place through the 2007 hurricane season, Facella said.

“The city is, to some degree, still trying to dig its way out of Katrina,” he said. “The city administration has been very busy on many issues … and we recognized, as the city’s vendor, that they were consumed with all of the stuff they had to do. So we decided to remove one issue from their plate, which is how we were going to improve interoperability going forward.”

In addition to the obvious public-relations benefit of providing the system free of charge, M/A-COM hopes that the city will be impressed enough to purchase the system in the future, Facella said. “At the end of [the second storm season], there is always the hope that the city will be happy enough with it that they may decide to purchase it,” he said. “But that’s not a requirement, and we’ve been very clear to the city that, after two storm seasons, if they don’t like NetworkFirst, we will happily—with a smile on our face—disconnect and move on.”

Facella believes the city will like Network First, given that it offers several distinct advantages over New Orleans’ legacy system. “The interoperability that they have with the EDACs system is quite good, but it is more than 10 years old, and the state of the art has advanced such that we can do it now using IP,” Facella said.

One advantage the NetworkFirst system gives users is the ability to create priorities within interoperability connections. “We could, for example, give a specific interoperability talk group a higher priority on system resources than other ones, and—in some cases—we can give specific users a higher level of priority,” Facella said.

Like EDACS, NetworkFirst also offers users the ability to invoke interoperability talk groups from the field, simply by turning the channel-selector switch on the radio.

“This is very important, because quite often the dispatcher and the other centralized resources are very busy … and the officer on the scene has to make a quick decision,” Facella said. “In traditional incident-command management, usually the first officer on the scene—regardless of the agency or jurisdiction—becomes the de facto incident commander until relieved by someone of higher rank or experience. … The command can be passed from person to person, but the first one will want to invoke the interoperability talk group to get all of the other agencies activated.”

Tags: Call Center/Command content Operations Public Safety Tower & Site Wireless Networks

Most Recent


  • Lynk inks New Zealand deals seeking cash to grow satellite fleet
    In the first few days of June, Lynk Global made two announcements relating to New Zealand – the first being a successful trial of satellite-enabled texting with local telco 2Degrees and the other a partnership with another operator, Spark. While the company’s technology holds the promise to improve connectivity in areas with zero coverage, more […]
  • Barracuda warns all of its ESG appliances need urgent rip & replace
    Despite pushing out patches addressing vulnerabilities in its Email Security Gateway (ESG) appliances in May, today Barracuda issued an urgent warning that all affected devices need to be taken offline and replaced immediately. The ESG remote command injection vulnerability, tracked under CVE-2023-2868, was already under active exploit since October 2022, Barracuda said in its initial May […]
  • NTT Docomo sees smart surfaces as key to 6G
    Could smart surface tech be one of the keys to 6G radio? The 6G network will have to do a lot of heavy lifting in very high frequency bands, requiring dense clusters of very low cost transmitters and receivers. NTT Docomo is advancing the idea of metasurface reflectors that dynamically redirect signals to mobile devices […]
  • Where local governments must allocate federal funds to support the future of cybersecurity
    This past February, the Department of Homeland Security’s State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Program began to distribute funds to states with approved cybersecurity plans. For budget and resource strapped state, local and territorial governments (STLGs), these grants enable crucial cybersecurity investments to protect our nation from unprecedented cybersecurity risks and help bridge the gap between current funding […]

Leave a comment Cancel reply

To leave a comment login with your Urgent Comms account:

Log in with your Urgent Comms account

Or alternatively provide your name, email address below:

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Content

  • Private wireless networks in the US start going public
  • Microsoft patches 6 zero-day vulnerabilities under active attack
  • IoT connectivity spending climbs as COVID-19 cases decline
  • The battle over connected cars drags on

Commentary


Updated: How ‘sidelink’ peer-to-peer communications can enhance public-safety operations

  • 1
27th February 2023

NG911 needed to secure our communities and nation

24th February 2023

How 5G is making cities safer, smarter, and more efficient

26th January 2023
view all

Events


UC Ezines


IWCE 2019 Wrap Up

13th May 2019
view all

Twitter


Newsletter

Sign up for UrgentComm’s newsletters to receive regular news and information updates about Communications and Technology.

Expert Commentary

Learn from experts about the latest technology in automation, machine-learning, big data and cybersecurity.

Business Media

Find the latest videos and media from the market leaders.

Media Kit and Advertising

Want to reach our digital and print audiences? Learn more here.

DISCOVER MORE FROM INFORMA TECH

  • American City & County
  • IWCE
  • Light Reading
  • IOT World Today
  • Mission Critical Technologies
  • TU-Auto

WORKING WITH US

  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Events
  • Careers

FOLLOW Urgent Comms ON SOCIAL

  • Privacy
  • CCPA: “Do Not Sell My Data”
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms
Copyright © 2023 Informa PLC. Informa PLC is registered in England and Wales with company number 8860726 whose registered and Head office is 5 Howick Place, London, SW1P 1WG.