Think Public Safety

Whatever the technology it’s still all about the user - insight from Critical Communications World 2016 Author: Peta Spinks

Created Jun 07 2016, 5:00 AM by Paul Jeffs

What were people saying at the event last week?
From Body-worn video to the Industrial Internet of Things this year’s CCW featured exciting innovations for critical communication users in both the public safety and commercial worlds. One of the biggest themes was Body Worn Video, and on our stand we were showing for the first time our Si500 body worn camera working with TETRA. Katja Millard, head of our Growth and Device Innovation team spoke in detail about the the development of the Si Series body-worn video camera and radio speaker microphone and the innovative cloud-based content management solution that sits behind it.

There was an increase in discussion around converged TETRA/LTE devices and tactical LTE systems such as the brief-case sized, ultraportable LTE system being demonstrated on our booth.

Commercial markets are an increasing focus at CCW with solutions for transportation and utilities featuring prominently in both the exhibition and conference. On the Motorola Solutions booth the business critical zone was packed and as Sean Fitzgerald, Solutions Marketing Manager, a first time visitor to the event explains “I always saw this as a public safety show but we have seen a lot of traffic and interest in our Capacity Max DMR Tier III compliant system and customers have commented that now the additional functionality it offers - above the basic specification - really helps with day to day operations."

“IIoT is demonstrated on our ACE 1000 where you can experience remote activation and control of equipment and of course we launched our new small TETRA radio the ST7000 which generated a lot of excitement. People like the small and light form factor and love the the simple and intuitve touch user interface . It‘s ideal for discreet use in multiple verticals such as Airports, Hotels and Casinos as well as hospitals, where its size and style and its ability to clean the surface easily make it ideal for use in hygienic environments."

And the ST7000 is not just for commercial markets, I spoke to a UK public safety customer who commented that “the new ST7000 is an exciting development for potential discreet use."

Moving into the public safety area the same customer said he was impressed with the developments in converging technology to improve control room experiences for control room operators. He added that “Previously we have seen separate bits of technology developed in different areas, but Motorola showed the potential for merging that technology together in real life scenarios.”

And looking into the future, we showed a virtual reality concept for incident control which caught visitors‘ imagination. They were easily able to see that once the right analytics solutions are in place to gather and manage data the user interface could take place in a virtual environment.

Mattias Kolb, Stuttgart Airport commented, “the virtual reality control centre is interesting for the future. Not only for public safety, but also for facility management and processing."

User interface and operability were key to the event and Eduardo Conrado, Executive Vice President, Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer, Motorola Solutions, presented a key note address considering how police offers would work in the future and what steps public safety can take today to put them on the right path to the next generation of devices and solutions a police officer will use, saying “Motorola Solutions is looking at adjacent markets for inspiration, whether that is consumer or enterprise."

"Incremental innovation is something we do today at Motorola Solutions, making solutions, smaller and faster. But the future is built on break-through technology and we are looking at the trends in technology, such as connected everything, real-time information, new modalities, new ways of integration and engaging though context awareness and cognitive computing."

Whatever the technology is, the aim is to improve the everyday life of the user, whether public safety or business critical. We live in exciting times.

Catch up - what happened at Critical Communications World 2016.