Whether you want to add an existing application or build your own customised data capabilities, Motorola’s Application Developer Programme makes it easy to expand the functionality of your MOTOTRBO radios to increase personnel safety and bolster efficiency according to your unique requirements. It also allows you to do this seamlessly across networks and devices.

The Application Developer toolkit enables you to write your application once and deploy it across MOTOTRBO and broadband networks, effortlessly.

What benefits could apps have for humanitarian operations?

The capabilities which applications bring to MOTOTRBO users are endless. Here are just some examples of how they could benefit humanitarian operations.

1. Situational Awareness:
   
   Safety: For personnel guarding conflict-stricken or sensitive areas, the centralised lone worker application provides reassurance and enhanced protection by requiring radio users to check in at pre-determined intervals. If an individual fails to respond to a request, an emergency alarm can be raised and sent to response teams, automatically.
   
   Humanitarians in unrest zones or hazardous areas could also benefit from the Man Down sensor, which is able to recognise changes in state and motion. So, if an individual is in trouble or falls unconscious, an emergency call is automatically released to summon help.
   
   Tracking: Check on the progress of food distribution convoys and monitor personnel entering potentially dangerous locations with real-time GPS and indoor tracking that pinpoints their position on mapping platforms such as Google Earth.
   
   These apps can also help you to identify the person or vehicle closest to a site if a breakdown occurs and summon medical assistance when needed, speeding up response times.
    
2. Control Room:
   
   The complexity of humanitarian operations requires the co-ordination of numerous activities across multiple sites. Control room applications make it easier to control and manage resources and assign tasks to the most relevant people, while at the same time improving safety and response times.
   
   Emergency calls can be broadcast to multiple groups simultaneously and direct communication can be achieved between dispatchers and remote radios for private one-to-one calls.
    
3. Telemetry:
   
   Monitor or control access to refugee camps and safeguard high-security perimeters remotely, via your two-way radio. Telemetry allows you to check on the status of machinery, power supplies, sensors and alarms, making it easier and quicker to respond to alerts.
   
   This type of application could also be useful in controlling refrigerated medical supplies or food storage, raising an alarm in the event of fluctuations in temperature. Alerts can be sent via email as well as text and audio, directly to your two-way radio.

Getting started

Our on-line Application Catalogue allows you to search by region, technology, language and industry for the application you need. There are applications developed by Motorola Solutions, our channel partners as well as third parties. All applications have proven customer deployments or have been tested in a Motorola Solutions lab.

If you have an existing application which you’d like to deploy across your MOTOTRBO network, our Application Developer Kit will guide you through the process.

We can also offer advice and help you to find the solution that best fits your needs.

Get in touch with me if you need assistance or have any questions.

Travis Heneveld

Director United Nations and International Accounts

In our experience, one of the most effective ways for technology innovators to achieve impact is to collaborate with affected communities. After all, who is better placed to understand the daily challenges and how lack of access to basic public services such as healthcare, education and security impedes a population’s stability and development?

By understanding individual and group needs at grass-roots level, nurturing ideas and working with affected communities to identify technological solutions, technology vendors can contribute to entrepreneurial ecosystems that give citizens the access and opportunities they need to enable progress. 

This process requires engagement in a number of different networks, from advising regulatory bodies and supporting educational institutions to participating in forums and hosting workshops. Together, these networks underpin the drive towards growth and stability.

Developing Communities
While Motorola Solutions’ pioneering heritage and experience in public safety has enabled us to develop a wide range of mission-critical communication solutions that span infrastructure, devices, software and services, the true potential of all this technology risks remaining untapped without shared knowledge and local resources.

Initiatives such as Mobiles for Human Development - in which Motorola Solutions and the UNDP partnered to explore the use of mobile technologies to foster human development - can help to bring basic services and information to all citizens. The collaborative effort of social innovators, national and local governments, academic and civil society organisations and small enterprises revealed the gap between human and technological development and suggested ways in which mobile technology could tackle the diverse challenges faced by developing countries. 

This research led to the creation of the International Network of Social Innovators for Human Development, which has held gatherings in Kenya, Tunisia, Rwanda, Berlin, Senegal and Ethiopia and is continuing to expand to other countries and regions.

Another example of how networking with local communities can have a significant impact is the MotoSecure Hackathon Day. Hosted in partnership with Impact Hub Bamako in Mali, it provided the opportunity for us to work with young entrepreneurs and application developers, to encourage innovation and explore new economic opportunities to drive digital growth, promote stability and support development. 

During the event, Safi Camara, a member of Women Tech Makers Mali, proposed a solution to improve the country’s healthcare system through the development of a mobile application that would enable doctors and hospitals to manage medical records and patients more easily and efficiently. Another participant, Amadou Yarangore, chose to tackle the rise of insecurity in society by using Motorola Solutions’ application programme interfaces (APIs) to create a direct and secure information linkage between citizens and security agents.

We have also been engaged in Rule of Law infrastructure development projects, including a 2014 project with the Somalia Police Force to provide safe communication solutions to local police. 

Defining Industry Standards
The establishment of regulatory standards is equally important in building entrepreneurial ecosystems.  Standards make innovation happen more quickly and act as a catalyst for growth. 

In creating and promoting regulatory standards such as TETRA and Digital Mobile Radio and by helping to define 4G technology and more specifically the deployment of Long Term Evolution (LTE), Motorola Solutions has supported interoperability at application, device and network level, promoting open standards that give humanitarian organisations and local governments the freedom to choose which vendor to purchase from while also offering them the reassurance of compliance.

In addition, participation in forums such as the Emergency Telecommunications Cluster (ETC) has promoted the use of shared communication services in humanitarian emergencies. In 2014, The ETC adopted MOTOTRBO DMR as the official digital VHF/UHF radio standard for ETC and humanitarian operations. This technology has given humanitarian organisations and local police forces access to timely and effective communication that can improve response and co-ordination, provide greater operational security for staff and assets and enhance decision-making.

Investing in Capacity Building
Education programmes that advance science, technology, engineering and maths are vital to prepare future generations of innovators. Motorola Solutions’ charitable and philanthropic arm, the Motorola Solutions Foundation (MSF), makes strategic grants to engage students in hands-on technology and engineering activities such as coding, programming and robotics. 

Professional development and training opportunities are also offered to first responders. For example, the MSF is working with the American Red Cross and International Red Cross to improve technologies in Africa that help disaster prevention and relief. Partnerships with fire sensor manufacturers have resulted in low-cost smart fire alarms being installed in thousands of homes across settlements in Nairobi, Kenya and Cape Town, South Africa.

In Washington DC, the MSF has helped to fund training for police officers to handle situations on conflict and violence reduction. Since the training has been implemented in Vermont, New Jersey and Florida, all three areas have seen a reduction in the number of police situations ending in violence, complaints against police and number of police injuries.
 
Sustainable Development Goals
Each of the networks discussed above demonstrate how building entrepreneurial ecosystems can creatively overcome hindrances to development by enhancing basic services such as education, healthcare and security to foster growth.

By aligning technology, knowledge and resources, we can create sustainable goals for social and economic development.
 

Connectivity is just as important in disaster response as it is in helping to re-build affected communities after the event. Having little or no infrastructure with which to establish a broadband network used to be a major challenge for humanitarians. But thanks to technological innovation, this is no longer the case.

In this issue of Think Aid Connect we examine some examples of how Motorola’s ecosystem of mobile LTE broadband solutions can transform humanitarian connectivity and enable agencies to service connected beneficiaries more efficiently.

IMPROVED SITUATIONAL AWARENESS

When an earthquake strikes or war breaks out, humanitarians need to establish the scale and nature of the damage as quickly as possible. Using a drone or tethered balloon, they can rapidly establish a semi-permanent or mobile broadband network that has the range and quality of coverage to stream high-definition video in real time.

Once the affected community has access to a public LTE network, it enables data to be crowd-sourced to determine their needs and information to be relayed to them in fast-changing situations – without impacting on the capacity or availability of the private humanitarian LTE network. Thus, having their own private network can enable humanitarians to gain and share vital intelligence that can have a significant impact on their response.

GREATER PERSONNEL SAFETY

Operating in extremely hazardous situations requires supervisors to be able to locate aid workers and track their status. With Motorola’s Integrated Command and Control application, the movement of personnel can be pinpointed on a map, allowing the nearest person to be dispatched if help is required and providing reassurance in stressful circumstances. It can also help to monitor the progress of food and medical supply convoys.

To get the job done to the best of their ability, each humanitarian worker has to have the tools most suited to their requirements. WAVE Work Group Communications allows them to communicate across two-way radio and broadband networks, regardless of which device they choose to use. So whether they’re in a disaster zone or working at a refugee camp, humanitarians can stay connected and keep up to date at all times.

ALWAYS-ON ACCESS TO AID PROGRAMME APPLICATIONS

The beauty of having your own private LTE network is the ability to distribute capacity as and when it is needed and also to add capacity if required.

Throughout all stages of a humanitarian operation, aid workers need to access, process and share information.  So, the network has to be flexible, reliable and secure.

Motorola’s LTE portable infrastructure offers a broad choice of mobile and fixed connectivity:

- lightweight, portable LTE which can be carried in a backpack

- tactical LTE in a ruggedised case

- in-vehicle options for greater mobility

- aerial platforms for semi-permanent or fixed installations

All these options provide uninterrupted connectivity that is independent of any existing infrastructure. There is the option to connect to the LTE via microwave, satellite or fibre backhaul, to accommodate varied environments, climates and terrains.

KEEPING HUMANITARIANS SAFE

The harsh reality of much humanitarian work is that aid workers are frequently at risk. Without security, they cannot offer the support needed.

Extending our vast experience in public safety, Motorola Solutions has worked closely with emergency responders to help to equip them with devices that can enhance protection. One example of this is body-worn cameras. By combining a video camera, radio speaker and microphone, as well as cloud-based data storage, information about a situation can be captured and stored quickly and easily. So if an incident occurs, the LTE network can be used to relay real-time video, still images and emergency alerts and enable a more intelligent and rapid response. All of this can be achieved without detracting from responding to the crisis at hand.

As has been evidenced with public safety agencies, humanitarians also stand to benefit from improved accountability when wearing a camera. Deployments have shown that when a hostile situation is being recorded, responders tend to behave better and so do the people with whom they are interacting. In fact, citizen complaints regarding interaction with law enforcement officers tend to be reduced by as much as 50 per cent, suggesting that body-worn cameras can help to defuse confrontations.

A DEDICATED, RELIABLE NETWORK THAT YOU CAN TAKE ANYWHERE

From the few examples I’ve discussed, it is evident that connectivity can empower people in myriad ways. It has the potential to truly transform humanitarian services and the affected communities they support.  

Portable Public Safety LTE is the next step in the digital transformation that embraces past challenges and opens a whole new world of possibilities.

For more information:

- Watch this video to see how you can benefit from Motorola Solutions’ portable PS LTE

- Visit our website to learn more about our ecosystem of secure portable LTE infrastructure

- Download the portable LTE Solution Brief

During a meeting of the Security Council which was held on 10 March 2017, the United Nations humanitarian chief warned that twenty million people across Yemen, South Sudan, Somalia and north-eastern Nigeria are at risk of starvation.

With changing weather patterns offering little hope of relief from this drought-stricken region, the situation is expected to worsen. In many areas, hostilities have damaged or destroyed infrastructure and ongoing conflict has displaced around 3.4 million people.

Aid agencies face tremendous challenges in distributing food and medicine across inhospitable terrain and the delivery of supplies has been further hindered by attacks on aid workers.

In disaster response situations such as these, two-way radio can prove to be an indispensable tool, providing instant voice and data communications that is not reliant on existing infrastructure and is also economical:

- Within half an hour, a mobile voice and data communications network can be established, covering approximately 50 kilometres. All that is required is a vehicle with a battery or solar panel, connected to a four-metre antenna.

- The communication network operates independently of any existing infrastructure and provides reliable, robust and secure communication - quickly and easily.

- With no call charges, two-radio offers a highly cost-effective means of keeping remote work teams in contact at the push of a button.

- Multiple communication channels allow different work groups to communicate without interruption or delay, improving co-ordination and collaboration which is imperative in time-critical situations.

And with digital radio, communication is not limited to voice. Numerous applications have been developed to offer aid organisations the choice of feature-rich data services that enhance their capabilities in demanding situations.

With integrated GPS, two-way radios can track vehicles and personnel, helping to improve the safety of workers operating in high-risk areas. The ability to pinpoint aid along the delivery route enables logistics personnel to estimate how long supplies will take to reach a distribution point so that the team on site can be prepared and ready on arrival.

Fleet management solutions can present important data regarding the status of a vehicle in the field, helping to provide advance alerts in the event of a mechanical failure or fault, while despatch consoles make it easier to co-ordinate multiple vehicles and manage users spread over a large area.

In clinics, task management applications can help work flow and improve productivity by flagging up actions and alerting supervisors once a task has been completed.

All these activities can be supported with push-to-talk communication across different networks and devices, making it easier and safer for humanitarians to tackle some of the enormous tasks they face.

For further information about two-way radio communication, contact Travis Heneveld or visit our website.

On 3 and 4 March I joined the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) at their Global Partnerships for Humanitarian Impact and Innovation event, which gathered over 200 leaders from the business, humanitarian, technology, health and academic sectors to explore solutions for the provision of health care in fragile environments.The breakout session on violence against health care focused on how the corporate sector can work directly with the ICRC to develop innovative products and services that can assist and protect victims of conflict.To gain a deeper understanding of the nature and impact of violence affecting health care workers and patients, the ICRC undertook a global study between 2010 and 2013. The data they were able to gather has helped them identify patterns of attacks to improve the security of medical workers and citizens in armed conflict and other emergencies.Field studies such as these can be combined with real-time data from citizens via social media sites, call centres and text messages to provide valuable information which, through analytics and funnelling, can be turned into intelligence that can predict and help to prevent incidents of violence.And it’s not just health care that stands to benefit from such an approach: there is a fundamental shift from mission-critical communication towards mission-critical intelligence which is focused on creating solutions that can vastly enhance the efficacy of humanitarian aid operations and improve personnel safety. Towards more insightful informationOver the next ten years, the cognitive computing capacity of a standard laptop is expected to expand to that of a human brain. So, how can technology empower us by offering greater intelligence?The move beyond descriptive data towards contextual data requires a solutions architecture that’s based on user experience and high-velocity human factors. It requires a combination of software, applications and mobile devices that can capture, analyse and funnel data to deliver real-time insights to emergency workers. This is where the ideal communication experience can be realised.Many technologies that exist today are capable of capturing vast amounts of data. But to convert that data into useful information which is delivered at the right time and in the right way is what distinguishes mission-critical intelligence from mission-critical communications.This intelligence is based on a solutions architecture that can combine historical and real-time data with individual user experiences to deliver appropriate information through software applications in multiple ways – be it audibly, via a mobile device, in a vehicle or through a head-worn display, for example.By capturing data from multiple sources – including citizens, enterprises and smart devices – we can gather information that will enable responders to identify people, predict emotions or intent, anticipate crowd patterns and even simulate predictive reality for an incident. Technology gets even smarterIt’s not just the data itself that can become more intelligible: the technology and devices delivering this data are also evolving to improve performance and functionality. Smart products can provide information about how they are used, which features are the most popular, the communications environment in which they operate (network capacity and coverage) and battery condition for predictive maintenance.Through the gathering and analysis of this data, we can gain vital feedback to support future product enhancements and development so that technology serves users on their terms. Tougher security standardsThe more data we collect and store, the greater our responsibility to protect and manage it. This will require tighter cybersecurity standards and practices to prevent data from being compromised, while allowing users the ability to access it from a variety of networks and devices. It is a crucial focus point for Motorola Solutions as our move towards mission-critical intelligence gains momentum. Helping to make intelligence-led mission critical solutions a realityMotorola Solutions’ customers are already starting to realise the ability to anticipate events and work more efficiently. Our portfolio of Smart Public Safety Solutions now includes Public Engines, which provides citizen engagement and predictive policing software and Emergency CallWorks, which converges call-taking, incident dispatch and GIS Systems so that dispatchers can seamlessly send the right responder to the right location at the right time.We’ve also been working closely with Socrata, which powers Motorola Solutions’ CrimeReports – to promote greater engagement between citizens and law enforcement agencies. Enriched with enhanced mapping capabilities, charts, graphs and trend tools, CrimeReports allows citizens to find and explore crime data more easily and increases transparency, as well as providing law enforcement agencies with more eyes and ears to tackle crime.Another example of how technology can help to prevent disaster is the village of Shipton Bellinger in England, which has deployed a WAVE Work Group Communications system in response to the rising threat of flooding. The system links community resilience team members usingMOTOTRBO Digital Mobile Radios to other agencies that are using smartphones. The Push-to-Talk capacity of this robust, real-time communications solution ensures team members can keep in touch, even if they are outside the area during critical periods.The insights gained from all these initiatives can be leveraged for other customers such as humanitarian and aid organisations to enhance preparedness, situational awareness and response. They can also help to improve the utilisation and allocation of resources and promote greater collaboration between different agencies.So, there are several ways in which the humanitarian sector could benefit from technological innovation and we are working closely with organisations such as the ICRC to make this a reality.All of the solutions mentioned above will be on display at Critical Communications World, Amsterdam RAI from 31 May to 2 June. If you plan to visit CCW, let me know and we will arrange for a Motorola Solutions representative to meet you at our stand D9. Access to the exhibition is free of charge.Thank you,Travis HeneveldDirector: United Nations & International Accounts, Motorola Solutions