Astrium Services’ GEO-Information team – the developers of the SAFEcommand public safety suite – has secured a series of new orders for its innovative Mobile Data Communications Gateway (MDCG) solution from fire & rescue services across the UK.
The SAFEcommand suite of solutions is designed specifically for public safety and emergency organisations to increase operational effectiveness and service delivery for blue light and homeland security services. The SAFEcommand MDCG solution acts as a mechanism for routing messages between a Command and Control system and mobile resources such as fire appliances, and has been designed to serve as an ‘intelligent gateway’. The solution maintains its own data set and is capable of acting upon the content of messages, rather than simply acting as a basic routing mechanism.
In recent months the SAFEcommand team has secured contracts for MDCG solutions from a number of UK Fire and Rescue Services, including Cambridgeshire FRS, Hampshire FRS, Gloucestershire FRS, and Devon & Somerset FRS.
Andy Kerr, Senior Commercial Manager at Astrium said: “The ability to communicate relevant and accurate data at emergency situations is key to responding in an appropriate and timely manner, with the appropriate resources in order to promote a safe system of work in protecting both the public and blue-light service personnel. The SAFEcommand Gateway solution is proving popular as a reliable, resilient and next generation approach for emergency communication – between a Command and Control system and mobile resources – as it provides support for real-time data communications and automatic vehicle location.
According to Paul Ingoldsby from Hampshire FRS, a new SAFEcommand MDCG customer: “the Gateway solution is clearly making an impact across our sector as it provides a reliable mechanism for bi-directional data communications, and that’s really important to support the ad hoc clusters of mobile resources that are created by specific incidents. The Mobile Data Communications Gateway supports intelligent communications at the emergency scene, and that can make a real and positive difference in our line of work!”
SAFEcommand’s Mobile Data Communications Gateway enables emergency services operations to:
• Route messages between Command & Control centres and mobile resources
• Support the routing of messages between mobile resources associated with the same incident
• Maintain relationships between Bearer Communications Identities/Call-signs – including provision for "guest" mobile resources and related protocols
• Provide message logging, location logging and mobile resource status updates
• Support message monitoring, auto-retry and exception handling – for example negative acknowledgements
• Message queue management – including prioritisation
• Perform sub-division and re-assembly of messages, protocol conversion and message compression where required
• Provide a user interface for Gateway administrators
• Extract and store message logs into a relational database
The MDCG is linked to the SAFEcommand Vehicle-Mounted Data System via the Mobile Data Communications Interface that is deployed on the Mobile Data Terminal.
About Astrium’s Public Safety solution suite – SAFEcommand Astrium Services’ geo information portfolio of Public Safety solutions addresses all ‘blue light’ aspects – from the location of staff and vehicles, through to operational planning and response, mobile data and satellite communications. Solutions help Fire, Police, Ambulance and Health and other Emergency Response Services to deliver on their critical Duty of Care objectives, and feature unrivalled access to the latest geospatial data – from in-depth 2D datasets detailing key incident intelligence, to the industry’s highest resolution 3D UK cityscapes. The proven VMDS Vehicle Mounted Data System, for example, is the fire service’s most widely-used solution with over 1,300 vehicles already deployed, while the VTracker visual resource tracking system allows mobile resources to be tracked in real-time on aerial photography or maps via a range of communications services including Tetra.
Astrium’s combination of dedicated applications, comprehensive GIS data, resilient mobile communications and a nationwide Managed Services capability represents an ideal partner for major Public Safety projects. The next SAFEcommand user group event is planned for 13th-14th November 2012.
About Astrium
Through its GEO-Information services, Astrium is recognised as one of the leaders in the geo-spatial information market, not least thanks to the now fully integrated skills and resources of the former Spot Image and Infoterra. The company provides decision-makers with complete solutions enabling them to increase security, boost agricultural performance, maximise oil & gas or mining operations, improve their management of natural resources, and protect the environment. It has exclusive access to data from the Pléaides, SPOT, TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X satellites, coupled with a complete range of space-based data sources and airborne acquisition capability allowing it to offer an unrivalled scope of Earth observation products and services. This extensive portfolio covers the entire geo-information supply chain, from the generation of images to the provision of high added-value information to end-users.
By leveraging the synergies and expertise available across the whole of Astrium Services, its GEO-Information teams develop innovative, yet competitive, bespoke solutions based on the combination and integration of Earth observation, navigation and high-end telecommunications.
