information ‘
There are obvious advantages in commercial platforms but these must meet security and usability criteria
Changing fast If emergency service roles are changing fast, so too are the technical possibilities available to systems and applications designers – with much of the innovation coming directly from the consumer sector. In stark contrast to most of the last 100 years, where
research and development was generally led by the defence sector, the past couple of decades have seen a shift through firstly commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) provisioning – adapting commercial products for military use – to the direct use of these products in mission-critical areas. Te TETRA community has to adapt and exploit this innovation for its own ends, ensuring in the process that mission-critical discipline is appropriately enforced. Cassidian’s Greneche also emphasizes the importance
Coping with a flood of information: the hand-e-pix photo
management system developed by
Timico. It enables images captured by smartphones or
PDAs to be stamped with their time, date and GPS location and to be easily
annotated by users
of seeing TETRA as being one tool among many that the emergency services can deploy to better do their job: “While new capabilities are already enhancing TETRA still further – TEDS, WiMAX and LTE – and the emergency services will also increasingly need to interwork with public networks, it’s vitally important that we as an industry move quickly to develop and integrate these new user cases. “Staff might already be deployed on the streets with a
GSM phone, a TETRA handset and a PDA and so we have to think ahead on how we might best combine these functionalities – and design them so that they can be easily used in high-stress situations. We’re already, for example, building proof-of-vision devices with customer feedback using tablet devices that employ wide displays and touch- screens. “While there are obvious advantages in using existing
commercial platforms – such as Android and Windows – it’s also essential that these fulfil the necessary security and usability criteria for the emergency environment.”
Complexity and usability Meanwhile, away from the streets and the emergency service front line, similar issues of complexity and usability are also affecting the ways in which command and control systems are being designed and deployed. Here the issues are probably even more complex and
’
challenging. Different emergency services will have built up considerable legacy baggage over the years in terms of operational cultures, organization and systems. Increasingly, in these cost-conscious days, the local and national governments in charge will be looking for consolidation and rationalization wherever possible – while balancing the demands from ever more insecure constituents. For Euros Evans, chief technical officer of the UK TETRA
service provider Airwave, supporting the interworking of the different services while simultaneously exploiting the benefits of new technologies and applications is one of the biggest challenges. “Users don’t want technology for technology’s sake”, he says. “If you take a typical traffic accident that might involve the fire brigade, the police, paramedics and ambulance service, how can information best be shared around those different functions, from the first risk assessment through to the final conclusion of the incident – especially when there might be other factors to take into account such as loads of hazardous chemicals or risks to public infrastructure? “Tere’s a growing awareness of how technology can
deliver a faster and especially more efficient response in terms of the ‘context’ of any incident – particularly when it comes to delivering that information to the decision makers involved. “When an emergency call comes, for example, Caller Line
ID can automatically display that caller’s location on an on- screen map and then populate the screen with information relevant to that particular incident – dangerous dogs, holders of firearms, patient profiles, CCTV feeds and so on. “As far as the operator is concerned, they’ve
just answered the call, but potentially vital seconds or even minutes have been saved in getting a clear picture of the whole situation.” Evans concludes: “Other sources of
information are also being merged into the mix now as well – such as the video already mentioned – though it’s important that issues of information overload are taken into account. “Incoming SMS messages are also
starting to be integrated as well, while it’s also possible to easily convert text instructions into speech to send to
responders who many have their eyes and hands busy on other tasks.”
Flexibility, interoperability Legacy issues are also highlighted by Cassidian Communications’ general manager, David
Warren: “Tere are huge differences between different 22 TE TRA TODAY Issue 4 2011
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