Raytheon emphasizes hands-on philosophy at IWCE

LAS VEGAS — Systems integrator Raytheon this week is displaying new interoperable server technology this week at IWCE, just one week after the company opened its Public Safety Regional Technology Center (RTC) in Downey, Calif., near Los Angeles.

Raytheon has a host of public-safety solutions on display at the show, including a new interoperability server feature that lets P25 users communicate via voice and data with LTE users via a Bluetooth link to a system handset, which removes the need for a cable interface to a donor device in many cases.

Raytheon’s goal is to let public-safety users and decision-makers see much of the company’s portfolio at the show, “so they can get their hands around it, touch it and see it,” said TJ Kennedy, director of public-safety and security systems for Raytheon’s network-centric systems unit. “We always think it’s better for public-safety officials to see stuff up close and personal and see it actually working.”

This philosophy is a key reason Raytheon last week opened a new 27,000-square-foot technology center, which will let public-safety users see a variety of solutions configurations in action, Kennedy said.

“We want to public-safety end users and customers to be able to come in and see how things work together, see what’s new in the marketplace, touch it, ask for different ways to integrate it into their exact needs,” he said. “We want to be able to have our former public-safety personnel who work for Raytheon and understand our technology to be able to have kind of a playground where [public-safety agency officials] can come and see the latest and greatest technology, be trained on the technology and see what would be best for their agency.”