Florida PSAPs turn to Airbus DS Communications for 911 upgrade, interoperability features

A Florida county has upgraded its public-safety answering point (PSAP) equipment to an Airbus DS Communications VESTA solution that will let its two 911 centers interoperate seamlessly and accept text-to-911 messages in the near term, as well as supporting next-generation 911 (NG911) communications in the long-term future.

Before the $793,000 upgrade, Marion County, Fla., had two PSAPs that operated separately—the 10-position center run by the Ocala police department and a 28-position PSAP led by the Marion County sheriff’s office that provide call-taking and dispatch support for three local law-enforcement agencies and three fire departments. With the upgrade to the VESTA solution in all locations, the two PSAP—and a backup location—act as one system, allowing for geodiverse redundancy and seamless technical operation, regardless of the location.

“We had two systems here before—identical systems—but they were not backing each other up,” Karl Oltz, director of Marion County’s public-safety communications department, said during an interview with IWCE’s Urgent Communications. “Now, we have one big system that’s separated, and one backs up the other. For us, it’s a huge benefit, when it comes to redundancy—if anything should happen to one, the other one is already there.”

“The Ocala police department backup is actually in our center, in a corner of the room. Eventually, we’ll have our backup at their site, but we’re not there yet.”

Susan Nelson, a regional account manager for Airbus DS Communications, explained how the VESTA system works.

“They have a geodiverse system with an A side and a B side, and those two mirror each other,” Nelson said during an interview with IWCE’s Urgent Communications. “So, if one side goes down or they have to evacuate for any reason, the other side automatically picks up without missing a beat—they don’t drop a call or anything.”

In addition to these operational benefits, the VESTA system also will support new technical functionality, Nelson said.

“They will be able to take native text messages into the VESTA system, when they get ready to turn it up,” she said. “They have things they have to do first, … but once all of that ground work is laid, the VESTA system will allow them to take native text messages into our integrated text-message platform.”