by AllThingsECC.com | Jun 12, 2019 | Articles, Comm Center News
By Lesia Dickson, Northcentral Area Director
The First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet Authority) continued its collaboration with the Region VII states — Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri — when we convened for a recent FirstNet User Forum in Altoona, Iowa. The forum was hosted by the Iowa Statewide Interoperable Communications System (ISICSB) and brought together more than 115 stakeholders from public safety agencies to learn about the latest FirstNet developments and regional initiatives underway. We also shared updates about the FirstNet Authority Roadmap (Roadmap) and captured input from participants.
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by AllThingsECC.com | Jun 12, 2019 | Comm Center News
Florida County Selects Datamark for GIS Prep for NG 9-1-1 Transition
“As a small rural county, we don’t have the time or staff for labor-intensive processes like driving the entire county to tag addresses that were missing for whatever reason in our dataset,” said Clint Erickson, Washington County Board of County Commissioners, E9-1-1 mapping and addressing and E9-1-1 coordinator. “We needed a public-safety and GIS expert to come in and quickly help us meet the fairly strict GIS data standards for NG 9-1-1. From applying for a state grant to training the staff, Datamark provided Washington County with alternative and cost-effective methods to collect and validate missing address data and get it into a software solution that benefits the entire county.”
With a total population of 24,880, Washington County faces limited manpower and financial resources. In the early stages of the relationship, Datamark assisted Washington County in its state of Florida grant application process, helping the county successfully secure funding for the GIS and NG 9-1-1 project. The project is being implemented and includes three elements phased over six months.
Datamark’s staff will also provide on-site and/or virtual training for Washington County, allowing users to acquire critical knowledge to support. The county will also have access to ongoing technical support.
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by AllThingsECC.com | Jun 12, 2019 | Comm Center News
NENA Announces New Enhanced PSAP Registry with Mapping
The NENA EPRC, made possible through a sponsorship from Uber, will replace and improve on NENA’s PSAP Registry, which is a basic database of the contact information for every 9-1-1 center in the nation.
“NENA is excited to expand and improve upon its current PSAP registry, and we’re pleased to partner with GeoComm and Uber in this effort,” said Brian Fontes, CEO of NENA. “This improved database will help dispatchers serve the public better by providing fast, convenient, reliable access to important 9-1-1 information.”
More than 20 years ago, NENA built the original PSAP Registry to ensure that PSAPs and commercial call centers can deliver requests for service to the proper 9-1-1 center in cases when a 9-1-1 call does not arrive at the appropriate PSAP, such as when an out-of-state family member dials 9-1-1 on behalf of a relative. In cases like these, the PSAP registry provides the priority answer ten-digit phone number of the agency that needs to be notified. However, the legacy PSAP registry uses a text search based on various data items, such as community name, and does not support modern mapping or context awareness.
In addition to fulfilling its purpose of providing a single authoritative registry of PSAP contact information, the new EPRC is also an interactive mapping and search tool with expanded data such as backup phone numbers, PSAP capability information, PSAP service areas and more. Using a mapping interface, users can search for PSAP information using a landmark, community name or address, or simply by clicking on the map viewer. Additionally, the platform provides a robust application programming interface (API) to make EPRC data available to approved third-party public-safety applications.
Like the legacy PSAP registry, the EPRC is free to access for verified government public-safety personnel. Other parties, such as public-safety application providers, can access the EPRC with special approval for valid public-safety purposes.
“At Uber, we believe technology can make travel safer than ever before,” said Mike Sullivan, Uber head of global law enforcement operations. “That is why we have been working with 9-1-1 centers across the country to make Uber trip data available to dispatchers electronically and support the modernization of the PSAP directory. We are proud to partner with NENA on this effort because we know in an emergency, when every second counts, accurate location information is crucial.”
The EPRC will be available to PSAPs nationwide in summer 2019.
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by AllThingsECC.com | Jun 12, 2019 | Comm Center News
3 Companies Integrate 9-1-1 Technologies for Better MLTS Location Data
Avaya IX Workplace unified communications solutions for the enterprise can now deliver emergency data to public-safety agencies through an integration with 911 Secure SENTRY and RapidSOS.
In a multiline telephone system (MLTS) environment, SENTRY already provides location for IP devices as well as on-site notification for Kari’s Law compliance. Using multimedia content available when a 9-1-1 call event occurs, in-office security has the situational awareness they need to manage the incident. Now that identical information can be directly sent to 9-1-1 and first responders as well. This enables dispatchers and first responders in the field to more accurately locate a caller’s precise location and gain access to critical situational awareness when calls are made from an Avaya communications system.
The integration with RapidSOS provides precise, real-time location, floor plans and other critical information that could save lives.
“In situations where every second counts, seamless communications and sharing of high-fidelity data can make the difference between life and death,” said Mark Fletcher, Avaya chief architect of worldwide public safety solutions. “Everyone across the continuum of public safety needs real-time access to information and to each other to make certain each individual in distress receives optimal care. As the company that provides innovative ways for people to work and communicate from anywhere on any device, we are excited to partner with an innovator in emergency technology like RapidSOS to deliver a solution with advanced emergency calling capabilities to help ensure user safety wherever and however they are connected.”
Avaya IX Workplace with 911 Secure SENTRY uses new emergency data capabilities made available by the RapidSOS Clearinghouse, in use by more than 3,000 public-safety agencies nationwide. This new solution is the first to connect user-specific location information from a commercial network with 9-1-1 through the RapidSOS platform.
The RapidSOS Clearinghouse is a secure source of emergency data for public-safety agencies, which can retrieve data in an emergency through RapidSOS Portal or integrations with existing 9-1-1 center software systems. This allows them to add sophisticated information in real-time that the existing 9-1-1 infrastructure is not capable of providing.
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by AllThingsECC.com | Jun 12, 2019 | Comm Center News
Polaris Wireless Partners with Mark43 for 3D Location Integrated into CAD
This level of granularity in location tracking delivers enhanced situational awareness and improved operational efficiency, which in turn helps save lives and additional costs. Mark43 CAD powers field response with a mobile unit view optimized for laptop or tablet use in vehicle. Mark43 works with police and fire departments to make sure web-connected units stay mobile in the cloud.
“Our 3D location is enabling new use cases in public-safety applications with our partnership and integration into Mark43 CAD systems,” said Amir Sattar, senior vice president of operations for Polaris Wireless. “Dispatching police and firefighters to the precise location, including the correct floor number, represents a major advancement for public safety and a significant benefit for the communities they serve.”
By operating independently, or over the top, of wireless carrier networks, the platform enables applications to locate any device on any network, an important consideration when police and fire departments operate devices across several networks, a Polaris statement said.
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by AllThingsECC.com | Jun 11, 2019 | Comm Center News
GeoComm Selected for North Carolina NG 9-1-1 GIS Data Project
As part of the project, GeoComm will complete a statewide GIS educational campaign aimed at helping the local agencies understand the goals of the statewide NG 9-1-1 project, the processes that will be completed throughout the project, and the overall importance of the GIS data assessment phase.
In addition, GeoComm will complete a GIS data assessment of each individual county’s GIS data to determine its readiness for an NG 9-1-1 system. All participating North Carolina counties will be onboarded to GeoComm GIS Data Hub NG 9-1-1 GIS data validation and aggregation of the data into a statewide dataset. Quality control check processing will also be completed providing data quality reports to each of the participating counties.
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