Chicomm Blog

Calvert County in southern Maryland has a dubious distinction: Its five-site, five-channel analog 800 megahertz (MHz) public safety system is the oldest of its kind in the entire state.

Constructed in the mid-1990s, the system no longer meets the needs of the public safety agencies that serve the county’s growing population of more than 90,000 people.

Officials knew they needed a state-of-the-art solution that would provide unparalleled reliability, interoperability and efficiency – both now and into the future.

In Chicago, logistics professional training is set to get a big boost with construction of a high-tech transportation, logistics and distribution (TDL) center at Olive-Harvey College. Work on the $45 million facility recently restarted after stalling last year amid Illinois state budget woes.

Industry Partnership to Fill Surge of TDL Jobs

The center is designed to help prepare students for 110,000 TDL jobs that are expected to come to the region in the next 10 years. The project was 60 percent done when work halted, and officials are hoping to finish construction in time for the Fall 2017 semester.

The facility is the first of its kind in Illinois and is a significant step forward for Olive-Harvey’s TDL programs, which focus on air, rail and road transportation. With a commitment to hands-on training, the program’s curriculum is being developed with industry partners and will serve an estimated 3,000 students.

We all know Next Generation 9-1-1 (NG911) is the future of public safety communications, and a diverse coalition of national 9-1-1 stakeholders is pushing to make that future a reality sooner rather than later.

The newly formed NG911 NOW Coalition has announced a national push to ensure that “by the end of the year 2020, all 9-1-1 systems and call centers in all 56 states and territories will have sufficiently funded, standards-based, end-to-end IP-based 9-1-1 capabilities, and have retired legacy 911 systems, without any degradation in service.”

There’s exciting technology news from Down Under: A newly announced pilot program in Australia by Motorola Solutions and Ericsson is looking to bring next-generation push-to-talk communications to mobile radios, starting with the quickly evolving public safety market. The project builds on the major role Motorola mobile radios and Ericsson communications technology have played in the communications marketplace.

The trial technology is a key to forging a way for traditional radio voice communications to integrate and expand via mobile broadband.

Ericsson and Motorola are working alongside Telstra, the leading telecom and information services company in Australia with nearly 17 million mobile subscribers. The trio is also collaborating on creating global standards for a solution that would meet the unique needs and requirements of public safety users.

Kristina Anderson, co-founder of the mobile school safety app LiveSafe, has said that if her company had existed in 2007, it probably would have changed the course of her life. coll

Anderson was a 19-year-old sophomore when a gunman opened fire at Virginia Tech. She had no idea that shots had been fired at another building on campus, and she was struck three times while entering a French class. She has since become a vocal advocate for campus safety and violence prevention, and her innovative company “was born from a spirit of triumph over tragedy and the desire to make the world a safer place.”

LiveSafe and other apps like it are providing a boost to school safety efforts nationwide by leveraging the power of everyday mobile devices. Students, parents, staff and campus safety officials can communicate instantly and anonymously with the touch of a button or transmission of a text.

Here are 4 of the mobile apps that are changing the school safety landscape:

In the world of public safety answering points (PSAPs), 911 communications professionals are considered the “first first responders.” They’re the first point of contact for 911 callers, they provide police, fire and other authorities with the information they need to help – and they do so while operating complex 911 telecommunications systems. So the qualifications for working in 911 communications cross over a number of different skill areas.

Having well-trained 911 staff with the right qualifications can literally mean the difference between life and death, and organizations around the country are working with the federal government to develop national training standards for dispatchers and supervisors.

While the specific requirements currently differ across states, municipalities and job functions, there are some universal job duties for working in 911 communications that all applicants should be able to perform.

Here, we’ll take a look at 3 of the top qualifications for working in 911 communications:

During an emergency, seconds can feel like hours, especially when it comes to locating workers to make sure they’re safe or dispatching help when they need it. Eliminating any blind spots in your ability to track employees cuts both your response time and precious time spent looking for workers who don’t need assistance but can’t immediately be found during an accident or emergency.

The new Real-Time Location System (RTLS) Indoor & Outdoor Positioning System from Teldio for Motorola MOTOTRBO radios blends Bluetooth technology and GPS to give up-to-the-minute information on workers’ locations via a web browser that can be accessed on a computer or mobile phone.

"I do not think that the wireless waves I have discovered will have any practical application." —German physicist Heinrich Rudolf Hertz, the first person to broadcast and receive radio waves.

It’s fair to say that Heinrich Rudolf Hertz didn’t quite know what he had on his hands when he discovered the radio wave in 1886, but in his defense, the rest of the world didn’t either. While Hertz’s experiments paved the way for technology including the radio, television and mobile phones, it would be years before scientists fully understood the implications of what he’d uncovered.

Let’s take a quick look at how wireless communications have evolved from Hertz’s “impractical” radio waves to some of the indispensable technology we use today.

When it comes to school safety grants, funders are looking for well-defined plans with best-practice-based solutions. While each school and district is unique, there are some universal tools and technologies that can benefit most situations and set your grant application apart.

Asking for the right technology demonstrates both that you’ve done your homework and that you’re committed to finding innovative ways to use your funding efficiently.

Here are 5 proven technologies sure to bolster your school safety grant application:

Digital communication decisions often seem complicated. Technology is always changing, from hardware improvements to software updates to larger system overhauls. These changes often lead to misconceptions about digital communications technology - which can get in the way of your business or agency making the right decision about acquiring new technology or updating what you’ve got.

Being aware of these misconceptions can simplify your digital communications decisions and help you break down barriers to getting the technology your business or agency needs.

Here are 5 common misconceptions about digital communications technology: