Mission Critical Technologies Africa 2018 in Cape Town, 13-15 November 2018

I am excited to be exhibiting and speaking at this year’s Mission Critical Technologies Africa.

We will be showing how we can use our technology to solve communications challenges faced by police, fire and rescue, ambulance and other public safety agencies throughout Africa.

What are those challenges?

• Challenge 1 - Harnessing the complementary benefits of digital radio and mobile broadband technologies.  Many public safety service providers are planning for an extended period of co-existence for digital radio systems and mobile broadband networks.  This is understandable given that LTE mobile broadband networks promise access to cutting-edge, transformative applications that will enhance frontline personnel safety, improve situational awareness and boost productivity. TETRA land mobile radio systems, however, remain the best choice for supporting mission-critical voice services. How are you planning to maximise the benefits of TETRA coexistence with LTE?
• Challenge 2 - Managing diverse data from an increasing number of sources. With the increasing adoption of wearables, and the growing number of information sources, we are fast approaching a tipping point. This is where the risk of not knowing what we know increases. How do you isolate that critical piece of information that could have changed the outcome of an incident?
• Challenge 3 - Managing risk and keeping up with the pace of technology change. With the fast pace of technology advancement, do you have the skills and expertise required to maximise system performance and mitigate risk readily available in-house?
• Challenge 4 - Ensuring staff can communicate and collaborate in real-time. Creating reliable communications systems presents multiple challenges. How do you design networks to ensure that the technology used matches user requirements?

Visit us on stand A84 and learn from our experts about our range of solutions that can help you address these challenges:

The new ST7500 compact TETRA radio, Ultra Portable LTE Infrastructure, our LEX L11 Mission-Critical LTE Device, Si500 Body Worn Camera, Avigilon Appearance Search™ and Unusual Motion Detection, Control Room Systems coupled with our Command Centre Software,  Managed and Support Services to maximise your system’s availability and equipment uptime, high performance networks - MOTOTRBO™ Capacity Max and DIMETRA Express, WAVE broadband push-to-talk and a range of purpose-built TETRA, MOTOTRBO, ASTRO 25, and LTE devices. Wow!

Read our dedicated event guide to find out more.

I am also excited to be speaking in the conference on a very topical subject:

'National mission critical networks – leveraging digital technologies alongside broadband' in 'Connecting Africa' on Thursday 15 November 2018 from 12:50 to 13:10.

Visitor passes for Mission Critical Technologies Africa are free. You can register here.

Mission Critical Technologies Africa is also co-located with AfricaCom so you could easily combine visits to both. Visitor passes for both events are free.

You can also keep up-to-date with news and events on our Safer Cities, Secure Businesses Africa microsite at www.motorolasolutions.com/saferafrica

I look forward to seeing you in Cape Town.

Tunde Williams is Head of Marketing for Europe, Middle-East and Africa

Tunde is on LinkedIn

Follow @MotSolsEMEA on Twitter and look out for #MCTA2018

Occasionally I get to feature some videos and news that have hit the spot with the Public Safety community as well as exemplifying our company philosophy of continuous innovation and quality in design.

Design Award News - TETRA Pager - news is just in won that we have won a 2018 iF Design Award for the TETRA TPG2200 Pager:

The Pager has definitely been hitting the mark as we were also awarded a 2018 Red Dot Award for the Advisor TPG2200. The award jury were impressed with their view on the product ‘Functionality, operational security, ergonomic handling – the two-way pager proves to be optimally tailored to the requirements of emergency staff.'

The recent Critical Communications World showcased some new and updated products and we shot some really great product demos that quickly capture the idea of ‘purpose-built devices’. Here are three snippets that particularly impressed:

In just 53 seconds, Paul Wilson takes you through a hands-on demo of the key features and functionality of the new LEX L11 Handheld LTE device including the dedicated emergency button, large push-to-talk button and extended life batteries:

The second demo is also by Paul Wilson. Here he takes you through the latest version of the Si500 Body-Worn Video Camera, including how it can work with TETRA and ASTRO radios:

Finally, here is a comprehensive run-through of the Avigilon Video Surveillance and Analytics demo at CCW. Steve Batt takes us through a live demo of high-resolution video surveillance and shows us how comprehensive video analytics can be used to ensure users see the detail they need and how advanced analytics such as 'appearance search' can search video footage for suspects and more:

I hope you enjoy watching those snippets.

You can watch all this year’s CCW videos on our dedicated Critical Communications World 2018 playlist

Paul Jeffs - Editor - Think Public Safety

Public Safety Editorial Lead for Europe, Middle-East and Africa at Motorola Solutions.

Follow me on LinkedIn

Follow @MotSolsEMEA on Twitter and look out for #MSIquality

This year the Critical Communications World event celebrates its 20th year. The event is still relatively young compared to how long we, as a company, have been involved in critical communications. That’s 50 years in Germany, where the event was held this year.  And 40 years? I was reminded of this when I watched a video interview that Julian Foster did at the event in Berlin.

Julian managed to catch up with industry expert Jeppe Jepsen and discuss his personal experience and perspective of how the industry has changed over the past 40 years of his service - and the similarities that TETRA / LTE coexistence has with changes of the past.

There are definitely some key points that Jeppe makes in the interview that I found particularly interesting:

Jeppe was asked what the ‘last comparable big change’ that happened in the industry. Jeppe identifies this as the move to single ‘one network per country’ TETRA networks from multiple analogue systems. He believes this type of technology shift takes a long time and 'it's not just the technology, it's the organisations that need to adapt to new possibilities’…

Jeppe believes that our end customers should already be using broadband offerings from cellular operators, not for ‘life and death situations’, but they should start using it today, to take advantages of new tools it can enable and to make their organisations more effective. Jeppe points out an excellent example from the conference – Harris County using their messaging during flooding. Jeppe believes end users should be testing and implementing using today’s ‘best effort networks’ as long as you have ‘TETRA service as the backup’ and ultimately ‘there is absolutely no reason not to start with it now’…

You can check out the complete interview below:

Clearly as Jeppe says - 'there are two worlds that need to come together and understand each other' to deliver what our end users need.

90 years? Well that’s how long we’ve been innovating in critical communications – ever since we were founded in Chicago in 1928.

Even though CCW is over you can still catch up with all things ‘Critical Communications World’ on our dedicated microsite: www.motorolasolutions.com/ccw

Ricardo Gonzalez is MSSSI VP EMEA Strategy and Marketing at Motorola Solutions

Connect with Ricardo on LinkedIn

Follow #ThinkPublicSafety, @MotsolsEMEA on Twitter

Wow, what a show. In case you couldn’t make it or didn’t see everything, here’s my top pick of Public Safety focused videos from this week’s show.

Welcome to CCW2018 - Critical Communications is the lifeline for many of our customers. Tunde Williams gives us a short brief on new product launches and enhancements at the show - including the new LEX L11 handheld LTE device.and TETRA enhancements:

LEX L11 Handheld LTE – Paul Wilson introduces the new LEX L11 handheld LTE device and highlights its unique design for Public Safety users:

The CTO Interview – Julian Foster interviews CTO Paul Steinberg about his CCW conference session on  'How technology will support tomorrow's first responders':

Ultra Portable LTE Infrastructure - Martin Whitcroft gives a quick and comprehensive overview of the features and functionality of the new LXN 500:

Dimetra X Core - Steen Petersen explains why Dimetra X Core meets the needs of TETRA for years to come:

Si500 Bodyworn Video Demo - Paul Wilson takes us though a hands-on demo of the Si500 body-worn video camera including how it can work with TETRA and ASTRO radios:

Hands-on Fingerprinting with Pronto Biometrics - Chief Inspector Ian Williams takes us through a detailed, hands-on demonstration of the Pronto Biometrics application and more:

Hands-On Cybersecurity Demo - Paul Hill takes us through a hands-on cybersecurity demonstration:

Disaster Relief Scenario - Tunde Williams explains how new techniques including real-time video augmentation can be used to help incident commanders:

Critical Communications World 2018 Highlights - As the show draws to a close Tunde Williams shares his highlights:

If you are receiving this blog post by email, the links to individual videos may be missing. You can access them in our YouTube Playlist instead – Critical Communications World 2018

I hope you enjoyed this selection.

You can also catch up with everything CCW on our dedicated microsite at www.motorolasolutions.com/ccw 

Paul Jeffs is Public Safety Editorial Lead for Europe, Middle-East and Africa at Motorola Solutions.

Paul is on LinkedIn

Follow @MotSolsEMEA on Twitter and look out for #ThinkPublicSafety

Critical Communications World 2018, 15-17 May, Stand C10, Berlin Messe Expocenter City

Digital technologies are changing the world. In this new age, rapid advances in digital technology have had a profound impact on our lives, enabling a digital economy and fundamentally reshaping the public safety landscape.

We are pleased to be Platinum Sponsors of this year's Critical Communications World event and we will be taking an active part in the conference too.

Come and visit us on stand C10 where we will have experts ready to demonstrate how public safety organisations can help to build safer, thriving communities by addressing five key challenges of the digital age:

1. Harnessing the complementary benefits of TETRA and Broadband networks
   Forward-thinking public safety network providers are planning for an extended period of TETRA coexistence with Public Safety Broadband. The value of this strategy is clear. Public Safety Broadband promises access to cutting-edge, transformative applications that will enhance frontline personnel safety, improve situational awareness and boost productivity. TETRA remains the best technology for mission-critical voice services with over 70% of public safety survey respondents viewing digital land mobile radio systems as providing additive value, alongside Public Safety Broadband investments. We’ll be showing a wide range of multi-technology solutions that will work for you.
2. Managing diverse data from an ever-increasing number of sources
   The complexity of crime is increasing and the need for efficient information sharing within and between different agencies has never been greater. With the increasing adoption of body-worn video, and the growing number of information sources supporting public safety, we are fast approaching a tipping point. This is where we increase the risk of not knowing what we know - that critical piece of information that could have changed the outcome of an incident. We will be demonstrating solutions that ensure you do more than stay on top of the data.
3. Improving the security and resilience of your critical communications
   With cyber crime rising, the EU’s Network and Information Systems directive was adopted by the European Parliament in 2016 to bolster cybersecurity across sectors that rely heavily on information and communications technology. The directive will impact industries identified as Operators of Essential Services. EU member states have until November 2018 to identify the essential service operators to which the directive applies. Learn how our specialist services can help you achieve this challenge
4. Managing risk and keeping up with the pace of technology changeWith the fast pace of technology advancement, the skills and expertise required to maximise system performance and mitigate risk are not always readily available in-house. Further, many public safety organisations no longer see the maintenance and management of ICT as a core function. Meet with our experts and we can show you solutions from cloud-based software solutions through to services that help you resolve any operational challenges
5. Improving the safety and productivity of frontline teams with limited budget
   Purpose Built devices help frontline teams perform at their best in the moments that matter. From TETRA and DMR through to LTE, experience the most comprehensive critical communications device portfolio. At the show you can learn about how you can pair custom accessories with our new public safety devices and get hands-on with the devices you need.

I look forward to seeing you there.

You can keep up-to-date with all-things CCW – news, videos, speaker details, book stand tours, download our event guides and more, by visiting our dedicated CCW microsite – ccw.motorolasolutions.com

Tunde Williams is Head of Field and Solutions Marketing for Europe, Middle-East and Africa

Tunde is on LinkedIn

Follow @MotSolsEMEA on Twitter and look out for #CCW2018 and #CCWorld