Urgent Communications – Commentary

The early days of handheld public-safety portable radio devices did not bring specialized designs for a firefighter’s unique requirements. Police, fire, EMS, bus system managers, and others received the same device without regard for different work environments. From a purchasing standpoint, the strategy made sense: it was simple and enabled volume pricing advantages. But as […]

Renaissance philosopher Sir Francis Bacon once famously opined that “knowledge is power.” It’s difficult to argue against this simple notion. Nevertheless, it does generate an important question: how is knowledge gained? The equally simple answer is that knowledge largely derives from an adequate supply of relevant information that can be parsed and contextualized to inform […]

The explosive growth of the LTE ecosystem results from standardized open interfaces that enable the interconnection of innovative devices and networks. Much as LTE has grown thanks to a virtuous cycle spawned by standardized interfaces, so will future advances in public-safety command and control systems. At Fire Rescue International 2021 in Charlotte, innovators brought at […]

In-building coverage is a significant challenge for first-responder emergency communications, according to an International Fire Chiefs Association report based on a Safer Buildings Coalition survey conducted in 2018. According to the report, 98% of emergency responders said that they were having problems with their communication because of dead spots in a building, while 56% said […]