Lightning strikes in a dry forest and starts a wildfire. It’s a hot, windy day, and the embers quickly spread. Smoke rises, and it’s detected, sometimes by satellites, lookouts or people who call 911. Reports bombard an interagency dispatch center: There’s a new start, and it needs firefighting resources, fast.
Kristen Rowlands said she was scared when she accepted a position as a Luzerne County 911 dispatcher in 2016.
ST. LOUIS, Mo. (KMOV) – St. Louis city is not shying away from the fact that they need more dispatchers to pick up the phone when there is an emergency.
“This problem didn’t happen overnight. It took a little while for us to get here and it’s going to take us a little while to dig ourselves out of it,” said Public Safety Director, Charles Coyle.
By James Careless
As the name suggests, the Public Safety Broadband Technology Association’s Vision FirstNet Users Summit (PSBTA, Vision 2023) is all about FirstNet. This is why heavyweights such as Chief Richard Carrizzo, FirstNet Authority Board Chair and Chief of the Southern Platte Fire Protection District in Kansas City, Missouri made a point of attending this year’s conference. It was held at the South Point Spa and Casino in Las Vegas, September 25 to 28, 2023.
“It is important for the Authority to be here, as our job and mission is to build the only public safety broadband network in the United States,” Chief Carrizzo said. “We constantly do engagements with all the public safety disciplines to learn more and to find out what type of network they want and need. Then we take that information and use our investment dollars to improve the network, to continue to build out the network, and to be here at this event. It is important to hear from the users and determine their needs.”
The Same, Yet Different
This is the second Vision summit that Chief Carrizzo has attended, the first being the inaugural event he attended last year.
Asked to compare the two Visions, he said that they are “very similar and very different. And what I mean by that is that the association learned a lot last year from the users that were here and the type of users that were here — and I think they had a vision of what they wanted out of the conference and built upon it. And I would say they were very successful. You can tell that the users that are here this year compared to last year are just more engaged. I see a lot more networking this go-around than in the past. Even at lunch today, it appeared my whole table was sitting there exchanging business cards and talking about what other entities were doing. It was just wonderful to see as a user, and as the chair.”
Based on his informal observations, Chief Carrizzo says that attendance to Vision 2023, when compared to Vision 2022, has more than doubled. “It’s probably pretty safe to say the morning sessions are completely full,” he said. “For the first session, they had to bring out more chairs because there wasn’t enough sitting space for all the participants. Things like that are just wonderful to see as the association continues to grow for the users. I mean, that’s what we have to remember is that they’re doing this for the users: It’s not a selfish reason. It’s for the users, for them to be better, to share and network, and to build upon the system.”
Two Different Perspectives, One Person
As mentioned at the outset of this article, Chief Richard Carrizzo is attending Visions 2023 both as FirstNet Chair and Kansas City fire chief. This is why this one person has two perspectives on the conference.
Speaking as FirstNet Chair, being here at Vision 2023 is all about spending its share of the fees collected from AT&T in ways that truly address the needs of FirstNet users. “We use that money for our investments,” said Chief Carrizzo. “Our belief is that, in order to make the appropriate investments, we need to hear from the public safety community through numerous engagements. And this is just one of those engagements that we’re using to learn.”
Speaking as a person who is a fire chief, he is here to learn more about what’s happening with FirstNet for his department. That’s why Chief Carrizzo came to Vision 2023 with his deputy chief of technology. “I brought him here based on what I saw last year,” the Chief said. “I know he’s going to take back a lot of things. I’ve been watching him on the sidelines and just networking nonstop, and I know he’s learning things and teaching people things at the same time based on his skills.”
All of these reasons explain why Chief Richard Carrizzo will be back for a third time next year, attending Vision 2024. As for why other first responders should come to this PSBTA event? “I stated this morning in my ‘Welcome to Day Two’ talk was that what I see coming out of this conference is a lot of leaders, whether they’re leaders in their own organization or whether they’re leaders in the usage of the broadband network,” he said. “But what we’re missing is more leaders — and so how do we get those other leaders? So I put it out to everybody that’s here is that you need to reach out to your associations and groups that you belong to, whether they’re state associations or whatever, and publicize this event because this is all about having the leaders of FirstNet users here. The more leaders that we can have here and the more that they can learn from it, the better.”
By James Careless
Being able to get signals in and out of buildings is a top priority for first responders. This is why the Public Safety Broadband Technology Association’s Vision FirstNet Users Summit (PSBTA, Vision 2023) focused on this issue during its Las Vegas conference. The event was held at the South Point Spa and Casino September 25 to 28, 2023.
John Foley is Managing Director of the Safer Buildings Coalition (SBC), a not-for-profit organization who advocates for the elimination of in-building wireless dead zones. He was one of four speakers during the Vision 2023 session, ‘FirstNet & In-Building Communications’, which was held September 27th.
According to Foley, the dangers associated with inadequate in-building communications are literally life-threatening for first responders and the general public. “When you’re disconnected, you’re not safe,” he said. “For years we’ve advocated that you should be able to make a 911 call and be quickly located. Mass notification messages [also] need to get to people wherever they are so that they can be aware and respond to them appropriately. And most importantly, first responder communications must work inside buildings.”
Given how important in-building communications are for public safety, one might have thought that the problem would be eased in more modern structures. But the opposite is true: “This problem is actually getting worse as new buildings are being erected with new construction materials,” said Foley. “Things like high energy efficiency glass — they call it Low-E glass — actually blocks radio waves. So, it’s impossible to get signals in and out of the building through this glass. As a matter of fact, it is easier to get a radio signal through 12 inches of reinforced concrete than it is to get it through a pane of Low-E glass.”
Running Towards the Problem
John Foley was happy to talk about this issue at Vision 2023 because AT&T, FirstNet, and the SBC are working together to promote in-building installation standards that meet/exceed existing code/industry best practices, and to emphasize the importance of innovative solutions to the problem such as Z-Axis location technology — which adds vertical location data to cellphone calls.
This same company representative had also been attending the Mobile World Congress, which took place in Las Vegas at the same time. “All he heard there was how the wireless carriers were going to pull back on investing in in-building infrastructure,” said Foley. “And then he comes down here to Vision 2023 and hears that not only are AT&T and FirstNet investing in building coverage and having a deliberate strategy to build in-building coverage, but that the FirstNet Authority is devoting reinvestment dollars into products like AT&T’s Cell Booster Pro. So, where half the industry is moving away from investing in in-building coverage, AT&T and FirstNet are running towards it.”
A Solvable Problem
The life-and-death problems associated with inadequate in-building communications are serious indeed, but there is some cause for hope. Besides the efforts of FirstNet and AT&T to address this issue through technology, government is trying to help out as well.
For instance, “fire and building codes require that building owners test for this and correct it where there’s a problem,” Foley said. “As a matter of fact, right here in Clark County, Nevada, every high-rise casino property resort property here has been required to put these systems in.” This change was pushed by the local fire department following the 2017 mass shooting staged from inside the Mandalay Bay hotel, he explained.
Good for the Community, Good for Business
As far as John Foley is concerned, providing adequate in-building coverage is not just a social good but an economically viable enterprise as well — and apparently, he is not alone in this belief.
“I think PSBTA and Safer Buildings share a common principle,” said Foley. “We want to protect life and property, but we also understand that there has to be a commercially feasible model that has to be there. We want to help solve the public safety problem and the gaps in public safety communications. But it should be done in a way to make a living as well. And so, finding that balance of helping industry do well while doing good is a very fulfilling thing for all of us.”
John Foley added that this problem needs to start being addressed immediately, because the number of U.S. buildings with inadequate coverage today stands at about a million. “If we were able to do 10,000 buildings a year, it would still take us a hundred years to get all those buildings corrected,” he said. “So, we have to establish some priorities.” To this end, Foley would like to see K-12 schools get fast-tracked for these improvements, along with “high value targets” such as large venues and shopping malls.”
TYNGSBORO — A standing-room-only gathering of town residents, police officers, firefighters and dispatchers crowded the Select Board meeting on Sept. 18 to urge caution over a proposal that would have Tyngsboro join Dracut and Tewksbury in a regional emergency dispatch center.
