In-building coverage critical for public-safety personnel and the people they protect, panelists say 

Making the right decision will require collaboration and initiative. Combining forces for fiber systems may be the answer, Perdue said.

“Fiber into the building, can that fiber also serve my fire alarm system, my in-building communications system and my automation system on the building side?” Perdue said. “The answer is ‘Yes,’ if it’s done right … We need to be looking at how do we share when it’s reasonable and effective, and then go our separate ways when it’s not.”

Implementing a public-safety DAS system that follows code includes requirements like providing battery backup and hardening, Collado said.

“The cost to do that, from a manufacturing perspective, isn’t significant,” Collado said. “It’s in our DNA. It’s keeping people safe.”

As is the case with many public-safety communications issues, funding is a challenge. Possible approaches include providing building owners with financial incentives—lower insurance premiums or tax breaks—for deploying in-building solutions that serve for public safety and citizens and implementing a rating system that would rank safety levels of buildings based on public-safety communication coverage. Such incentives could generate momentum for enhancing in-building communications within new and old buildings, Perdue said.

“The fire-alarm system, the fire-sprinkler system—those systems have been around since the 1800s,” Perdue said. “When you’re building a building you don’t think, ‘Do I have to do this?’ They know it’s a requirement—part of the life-safety ecosystem of that building. In-building communications is that third piece to that life-safety ecosystem.”