EFJohnson launches new P25 system

LMR vendor EFJohnson Technologies unveiled its new ATLAS P25 system during this week’s Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) conference in Philadelphia. The system is an IP-based solution that leverages a distributed architecture and supports simulcast capability for both conventional and trunking systems.

“Its capability to mix all the different types — trunked, conventional and simulcast — in one system that allows all those users to communicate [makes ATLAS unique],” EFJohnson President and CEO Andrew Adams said. “That’s a capability that … our competitors struggle with — when you have mixed systems, to seamlessly communicate across those.”

This flexibility is designed to let customers maintain hybrid networks when appropriate — for instance, installing trunking capability in high-traffic areas but using less-expensive conventional infrastructure in areas of the network that are not capacity-constrained, Adams said.

With its distributed architecture that places intelligence at the edge of the network, the ATLAS solution does not rely on a central controller, which improves system reliability, according to company officials. In addition, the architecture is designed to decrease the total cost of ownership, in part by eliminating one of the larger costs associated with traditional LMR systems, Adams said.

“We don’t have the cost of that central controller,” Adams said. “What that allows us to do is to provide a very scalable system — we can scale from a single site to a statewide very cost effectively.”