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
    • Product Guides
  • 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
    • Product Guides
  • 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

content


A bright new future awaits first responders

A bright new future awaits first responders

Morgan Wright, Cisco System's global industry solutions manager for public safety, is leveraging previous experience as a state trooper and police detective
  • Written by Urgent Communications Administrator
  • 1st March 2007

Morgan Wright, Cisco System’s global industry solutions manager for public safety, is leveraging previous experience as a state trooper and police detective to guide the vendor giant into the public-safety communications sector, which is in the midst of arguably the most tumultuous time in its history. Recently, MRT senior writer Donny Jackson caught up with Wright — who is scheduled to deliver the keynote address at IWCE 2007 in Las Vegas this month — to discuss the current and future state of first responder data communications.

In your two-and-half years with Cisco, what is the most significant change in the data arena?

The thing we’re starting to see change is that people are realizing that it’s just as important to have a discussion about how to share information — and how to access other forms of media and content — as it is to talk about voice and radio interoperability, which is still an important discussion.

How has public safety altered its attitude toward data and IP?

There’s obviously a lot more [mobile data terminals] going out there. … What’s driving this is the availability of bandwidth and access, whether it’s an outdoor wireless mesh, EV-DO or whatever. No longer are people buying a laptop just to do text-based entry over CDPD. Now they’re able to get mug photos and even use biometric analytics.

What changes do you foresee in the way public safety operates?

I’m really trying to get people to quit thinking inside the box and start asking, “How can you use stuff like YouTube, Google and Wikipedia to create the capabilities public safety needs?” We’re realizing that it’s about access to data. Video can be data, from the standpoint that it can provide essential information, like access to video surveillance or access to training on demand.

Here’s where I see the future going in terms of sharing information: As a detective, I have a concept I want to search for — not just a name, but a concept like “blue Chevy van, flat tire.” I log in, I authenticate to the system. That authentication provides the level of security and the level of access I’m entitled to as that end user. I now do an inquiry that can hit multiple databases.

My inquiry not only spawns data, but it can also spawn analytics, so I can retrieve information out of video surveillance that can identify blue Chevy vans with a flat tire. That’s not that far off.

And with one inquiry, I also can access voice. With anything that’s been lawfully recorded, you can now — with text-to-speech capabilities — access those conversations that can be searched in text. It’s not about a records-management system anymore. It’s about where the information exists, in any form, in the enterprise.

Can these searching capabilities impact training for enterprises?

Absolutely. Nothing is better than seeing somebody in the field actually using [a solution] in a real situation. Now they can go out and do a fixed demonstration, [record it] and people can pull it up — on demand.

Look at what happened on YouTube and Wikipedia. We’re actually turning consumers into producers. We can now access the collective intelligence of everybody out there. Can you imagine when you have some firefighter who, for example, understands how to do one thing really well, and he decides to self-produce his own video? Now he has a way to share that with other folks, so they can see how it works from somebody who’s really an expert.

It’s not about waiting for somebody to come out and say, “Let’s see what we’re going to do a training video on.’ Rather than trying to go through some weeklong training course that might be six months down the road, I can now get on something like a Wikipedia … to tell me what I need to know.

Recently IBM and Intel made announcements that will enable processing chips to continue to get smaller and faster, in accordance with Moore’s Law. What’s the significance of that?

With the smaller chips — more power, less heat and less battery consumption — I could see — in five years — a ruggedized device that functions as a PDA, a push-to-talk radio, a phone and a mobile data device. So if first responders get out of the car, they could still access pictures because the bandwidth will be there. It will have long battery life, it will have a screen like the Toughbooks.

The other issue is the battery. How much battery life are we going to have in the next five years? How long can these guys go between charges? Because, when stuff hits the fan, that’s a problem. I hate to say it, but public safety going green [e.g., solar power] makes a lot of sense … from a functionality standpoint. Powering these devices is one of the key issues. How do you maintain power, how do you maintain connectivity? These things have to run on energy.

If you’re forward deployed or you’re outside your car, and it’s a long event like a Hurricane Katrina … you almost have to get to the point where your first responders can operate for two or three days with whatever they have in their vehicle — from a power standpoint and from a capability standpoint.

With so much happening so fast technologically, is it almost overwhelming to decide what to do when building a new network?

There is a lot of paralysis by analysis. Public safety has to become better consumers and make better choices. They have to start using the power of the dollar and start putting RFPs out there that say, “This is our requirement. We want this and that in here,” and force things like GJXDM and software-defined radios. Once public safety says, “If it’s not in here, we’re not buying it,” industry will start building it.

If you buy into an upgrade path, [buyer’s remorse] is not a problem. For example, when you buy a new cell phone, you don’t have to upgrade the network — the service provider has taken care of that. All you have to do is replace the device you want. But when you do traditional push-to-talk radio, you have to replace stuff — towers and equipment. You can’t just buy another radio because the back end is still the same.

I believe we should go to almost a service-provider model, where what you’re paying for on the front end is the access, and you buy your own device, but the upgrades on the back end are continuous on your network. … All you’re doing is buying a subscription.

That model sounds like the public/private partnerships being considered by the FCC and Congress. If political hurdles can be overcome, can such partnerships work?

On public/private relationships, your main barriers always are legal issues — privacy and security issues, specifically. Privacy is determining what information you can collect, and security is keeping the pre-defined information safe.

I think the biggest thing privacy advocates are worried about is the blurring of the lines between what is public information and what is public-safety information — what are they allowed to collect and what are they not allowed to collect.

But when you start talking about the prevalence of video, what about public-safety departments accessing the video from private systems, like a convenience store? Here’s a great public/private relationship. [As a store owner,] I don’t want public safety to know what I’m doing, but when I dial 911 or I hit the panic button, I want the camera opened up, so the police department can view what’s going on in my store.

As I told the FBI, there was a time when industry was not providing the technology they needed to do their jobs. Now, it’s the other way around — the situation is that the technology has advanced so much that you don’t have the proper governance to use it properly.

Tags: content

Most Recent


  • A bright new future awaits first responders
    Newscan: Securing the Internet of Things is quite a challenge
    Also: EWA requests dismissal of 900 MHz applications; TIA names tech and policy priorities for 2014; IJIS Institute names Shumate Award winner; App makes bus waits more tolerable; a Blackberry comeback may be in the offing.
  • A bright new future awaits first responders
    Newscan: FCC certifies Carlson Wireless's white-space radio
    Also: Congress looks to revamp telecom law; Obama to place some restraints on surveillance; IEEE to study spectrum-occupancy sensing for white-spaces broadband; Major Swedish transport operator opts for Sepura TETRA radios; RFMD to partner on $70 million next-generation power grid project; NENA opens registratiuon for "911 Goes to Washington."
  • A bright new future awaits first responders
    Newscan: A look at the critical job of 911 dispatchers
    Also: NYC launches website for tracking 911 response times; Oregon implements 911 on pre-paid cell phones; LightSquared wants to keep spectrum assets; Harris receives multiple government orders; FCC extends rebanding financial reconciliation deadline; Zetron gear at core of communications system upgrade; Ritron debuts wireless access control system; EWA seeks policy review of VHF vehicular repeater system deployments.
  • A bright new future awaits first responders
    Newscan: Average peak data rates of 144 MB/s average realized in tests with CAT 4 LTE device
    Also: Verizon, T-Mobile to swap unused spectrum to improve coverage; Internet giants oppose surveillance--but only when the government does it; FCC Chairman says incentive auction will be delayed until middle of 2015; FCC chair announces staff appointments; Alcatel-Lucent names Tim Krause as chief marketing officer; New Jersey county deploys TriTech CAD system; Toronto airport deploys 26-position Zetron console system;

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

  • RugGear: Contributing to the future of mission-critical broadband communication review and market vision
  • Photo gallery: 2014 Communications Marketing Conference (CMC) in Tucson
  • A bright new future awaits first responders
    Top 5 Stories - Week of Sept. 22
  • A bright new future awaits first responders
    RCA plans to expand this year's Technical Symposium

Commentary


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

26th January 2023

3GPP moves Release 18 freeze date to March 2024

18th January 2023

Do smart cities make safer cities?

  • 1
6th January 2023
view all

Events


UC Ezines


IWCE 2019 Wrap Up

13th May 2019
view all

Twitter


UrgentComm

Public-safety coalition renews efforts to secure federal NG911 funding dlvr.it/ShwGfn

4th February 2023
UrgentComm

Newscan: Cyberattacks on DoE national labs draw lawmaker scrutiny dlvr.it/Shvpw3

3rd February 2023
UrgentComm

The shine begins to wear off 5G private wireless dlvr.it/Shth0P

3rd February 2023
UrgentComm

Phishers trick Microsoft into granting them ‘verified’ Cloud Partner status dlvr.it/Shqngn

2nd February 2023
UrgentComm

Shapeshifting robot can morph from a liquid to a solid dlvr.it/Shqk9K

2nd February 2023
UrgentComm

Automakers against stampede to BEV dominance dlvr.it/ShpX08

2nd February 2023
UrgentComm

FCC nominee Gigi Sohn headed for third Senate hearing dlvr.it/ShpDcZ

1st February 2023
UrgentComm

Sign up to learn how to successfully manage your Motorola ASTRO® 25 System: spr.ly/60143j8fp https://t.co/XcxiUwzN27

1st February 2023

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.