Every second matters in a emergency. The more information first responders have, and the quicker they can react, can make a big difference in saving lives and property.
Effective communications are at the core of fast, effective action in these situations. This is why Motorola Solutions offers best-in-class products/solutions for each person that is involved in Fire/EMS response to help them and their departments do their jobs better and more safely.
UNIFIED FIRE SUITE
Motorola Solutions’ unified fire suite brings together all of the elements required for effective Fire/EMS response. It covers everything from bunk room alerting with heart saver ramp up tones and automatic LED lights to text-to-speech CAD announcements and integration between Motorola APX P25 portable radios and smart devices. The unified fire suite also supports multi-agency responses for data and voice across jurisdictions plus the sharing of mapping and video resources — whether the video comes from fixed cameras or drones. The system also supports mutual aid for APX portable and mobile radios and wave push to talk devices.
CAPE DRONE SOFTWARE
Drone footage is quickly becoming an essential element of Fire/EMS response. Motorola Solutions’ scalable CAPE drone software allows agencies to stream live video, capture evidence, and operate drones remotely from a centralized location. As well, CAPE supports safely launching and flying a variety of drones at the incident scene using a built-in pre-flight checklist, predefined/ad hoc geofences to control areas of flight, and 3D obstacle and collision avoidance to keep drones safe while aloft. Implementing CAPE’s controls into a department’s Risk Mitigation and Emergency Procedure policy even speeds up FAA license approvals.
One of the big advantages of CAPE-managed drones is that they can be dispatched to new incident scenes as soon as the calls come in. This “Drone as First Responder” (DFR) approach allows departments to see exactly what is going on at the incident scene as soon as possible. Such situational awareness leads to better decisions and allocations of people and resources by command staff. It also allows command to spot any possible threats to first responders such as active shooters and volatile chemicals that are on fire and likely to explode. And since all the video captured by CAPE-enabled drones is stored in the cloud, reviews of responses afterwards can be factual and accurate. Best yet, this enhanced situational awareness is available without any firefighters being put in danger to acquire it.
SMART TRANSCRIPTION
Logging 911 calls accurately and consistently is an arduous task for human 911 personnel. Motorola Solutions has assisted with lifting some of the burden off them through its CommandCentral Smart Transcription service. This is a cloud-based service that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to capture the voice audio from a 911, non-emergency or administrative call and transcribe it into a searchable text file. This makes it fast and easy for PSAP (Public Safety Answering Point) staff to verify caller information in real-time and preserve call transcripts in long term storage for post-call analysis.
Smart Transcription integrates with Motorola Solutions’ VESTA 911 software, allowing voice transcription to be enabled quickly and easily. Its transcripts can be monitored by authorized personnel from any location, and searched using parameters such as date/time, agent and call type. The system can even translate Spanish-language voice calls into English-language text.
APX PERSONNEL ACCOUNTABILITY APP
Knowing where personnel are at any moment is critically important for first responder command staff — both to ensure optimal response on scene and keep firefighters safe at all times. Motorola Solutions’ APX Personnel Accountability App makes it possible for command to track the whereabouts of each team member in real-time.
Here’s how it works. A supervisor opens a Tactical Alert window on the device being used by incident command to initiate a “Personnel Accountability Report” (PAR) check. Each responder then acknowledges the incident commander’s request for a PAR check by pushing the PTT button on their Motorola Solutions APX radios. These PTT clicks are used to accurately inform incident commanders which firefighters have logged it and who hasn’t. Executing the PAR check this way also saves valuable radio time used for log-ins by voice, with their accompanying margin for being missed.
APX P25 RADIOS
Motorola Solutions has made public safety radios for over 90 years. Everything it has learned in that time has been distilled into the company’s family of APX P25 portable radios.
A case in point: APX P25 radios are purpose-built to deliver clear communications. Being able to hear and be heard is essential to keep firefighters as safe as possible on the job, and ensure that they receive the information and support they need from command.
At the same time, APX radios are rugged and durable. They are designed to endure the worst of what the job and the weather throw at them, and keep on transmitting/receiving nevertheless. Yet their controls are intuitive to learn and easy to use, which is vital for first responders who have to focus on saving lives, not fiddling with buttons and rotating knobs.
This being said, today’s APX radios offer a range of sophisticated functions, controls, and enhanced audio features that first responders have come to rely on. And they do so on a platform that protects the security of calls using either standard or custom encryption — your choice.
Motorola Solutions’ suite of communications products, services, and software for Fire/EMS assist fire and EMS crews with accessing critical information they need to make their operations effective, secure and safe.
For more information, visit Motorola Solutions.
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