Public Safety Network
“When I started as a rstresponder,
all we had access to were
some low-band VHF radios, with a
battery life that was unimpressive to
say the least,” Kennedy said. “Mobile
radios were mounted in vehicles,
coverage was poor and so on... believe
it or not there are areas today where
people are still leveraging similar
technology to that as their primary
communications tool.”
He continued: “e men and
women who are now graduating out
of police or re academies simply
will not accept not being given the
best tools to do the job. Not only are
they super-talented as well as supereducated,
they have grown up with
this technology – leveraging smart
applications in public safety in ways
that many can’t even imagine.”
Another area of technology where
Kennedy believes public safety
organisations have been considerably
behind the curve is in their ability to
leverage the cloud. Once public safety
has access to encrypted, reliable public
safety broadband networks, leveraging
the cloud for emergency solutions will
become much easier.
“We’re in a situation now where
if a PTT team-communication tool
isn’t given to rst-responders, they
will think nothing of leveraging other,
commercially available, over-the-top
applications while in the eld. at
could include the likes of Google
Hangouts, WhatsApp and so on. So,
when people say they’re still concerned
about the cloud, I don’t think they
are – they use it today in any number
of forms. e next step is to embrace
dedicated public safety networks
using public safety encrypted secured
communications platforms that meet
the operational needs of their agency.
“Looking at it from a broader
organisational perspective, they have
started to embrace cloud technology
but they’re still not doing it fast
enough. at’s why we have to work
with innovative technology companies
who also want to embrace the needs of
public safety.”
He continued: “e fundamental
functions will proceed in essentially
the same way they do now, but with
the key dierence that eld personnel
will have the ability to leverage a
mobile communications terminal
which can travel with the medical
technician both in and out of the
vehicle, as well as in many cases an
in-router within the ambulance. e
mobile communications terminal is
a fully connected LTE, multi-SIM
solution with its own processing power,
encryption and VPN security, which
can even connect to satellite backhaul
if necessary when within the vicinity of
the ambulance.”
“e paramedic will connect the
patient monitor to the person needing
treatment, and with one push of a
button will enable two-way data and
voice transmission with the receiving
hospital, with an operations le being
automatically created and capturing
all of the data and communications
from the eld. is capability enables
the paramedic to send all patient
information, images, audio dictation,
as well as vitals/ECG data directly from
the patient monitor in real time.
“If there’s a signicant change
in the condition of the patient,
the communications terminal and
associated software can trigger a new
alert to the receiving hospital, as such
a change in condition may alter the
required hospital response.
“In terms of dispatch, that’s also
going to become much more datadriven.
I’ve got a smartwatch on right
now, and so far in the US at least
four of the major CAD computer
aided dispatch companies are
integrating their products with that
kind of technology. As a public safety
professional, I can receive dispatch
information on my watch wherever I
am. at’s an extraordinary thing to be
able to do.”
Another area of concern for
Kennedy is that public safety doesn’t
end up lagging behind on 5G (as well
as 6G and 7G further down the line).
Do we really want to live in a world,
after all, where criminals are able to
leverage massively high-powered AI,
while public safety ocials are still
guring out a coherent use-case?
Joined-up solutions
Another speaker at Critical
Communications Europe was Karp,
who discussed a range of broadband
and IoT solutions that are being
leveraged by rst-responders. His main
focus was what he referred to as the
‘connected ambulance’, one iteration of
which is currently being developed by
the P3 Group in Germany.
He said: “What we’re essentially
talking about is leveraging broadband
technologies which already exist. Radio
is core to that clearly, but what’s really
going to enable this is broadband.
I think we’re on the cusp of a real
breakthrough when it comes to how we
use this technology.”
For those who have never come
across the connected ambulance,
it involves, among other things,
the leveraging of broadband
communications solutions to enable
the real-time ow of life-critical
information between paramedics in
the eld and their destination at the
hospital. is, it is anticipated, will
not only provide vastly improved
situational awareness but also put the
patient in a far better position.
“It’s about using the technology in a
way which creates a unied platform,
deployed end-to-end as a service,”
said Karp. “We’re talking about data,
patient records, video footage and
photos, duplex voice and health
monitoring information – the whole
spectrum. It really is going to change
the face of healthcare.”
What’s really going to
enable this is broadband.
I think we’re on the cusp of a
real breakthrough in the sector
when it comes to how we
use this technology
June 2019 @CritCommsToday 19
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