What a buzz at B-APCO! Let me share a taster in videos and pictures...

David Parry welcomes you to BAPCO and gives an introduction to what’s new this year:

‘Social Media in Public Safety – How Far Have We Come?’ was a presentation given by Chief Inspector Kerry Blakeman and myself. To demonstrate how useful social media is we actually live-streamed the session using Twitter’s Periscope. You can catch up with that here:

It was all about Mobilising Intelligence..
..in a control room:

On the street:

And in a vehicle:

WAVE provides push-to-talk over LTE:

The Airwave Land Rover was there, ready to extend coverage wherever needed:

You can find out more and keep up-to-date about our participation at www.motorolasolutions.com/bapco

Julian Foster is Global Co-Lead for our Social Media Centre of Excellence.

Julian is on Linkedin

https://www.linkedin.com/in/julianfoster/

Note - have you received this blog post by email? You may not see the videos embedded in this blog – if so you can watch them at these URLs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iM19IW5UkUA&list=PL-qcM_OQqRggrANnvYISnDj8azdwEn3GH&index=1

and

https://www.periscope.tv/MotSolsEMEA/1OyKAoQPkkLJb?t=15

- - apologies for any inconvenience.

Follow #ThinkPublicSafety, @MotSolsEMEA, on Twitter.

#PoppySocialStory - Honouring Those Who Keep Us Safe.

Every day, Emergency Services personnel are using social media to inform the public and engage with the communities they serve. Social media has becoming a vital tool for communicating during times of crisis, but also for building transparent relationships with the public. Whether it be on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Google+, or SnapChat – public safety professionals are doing incredible work on social media to help keep us all safe.

To honour this, Motorola Solutions are donating £1 to The Royal British Legion* for each use of the hashtag #PoppySocialStory. Please share your examples of how social media is being used in public safety – it can be a Tweet, Facebook post, a photo, video, or even just a "shout out" for your favourite public safety social media account.

Please just remember to include #PoppySocialStory. This video by Sgt Harry Tangye explains more:

This initiative was launched yesterday at B-APCO 2017 during the presentation on ‘Social Media in Public Safety – How Far Have We Come?’ by Chief Inspector Kerry Blakeman, West Midlands Police and Julian Foster, Motorola Solutions Global Co-Lead for Social Media Centre of Excellence.

You can follow the #PoppySocialStory on the Twitter monitor at www.motorolasolutions.com/bapco

* The Maximum donation from Motorola Solutions to The Royal British Legion will be capped at £2,000

Follow #ThinkPublicSafety, @MotSolsEMEA, on Twitter.

ESN. Transition. Cloud computing.  

These three phrases are probably foremost in the thinking of everybody who has an interest in the current changes occurring within the UK public sector communications arena. Indeed not only with IT professionals, but they are probably exercising the thinking of many senior and operational officers too.

What is ESN exactly? How do we transition? Can we utilise more shared infrastructure? How secure is the Cloud? How can I minimise service disruption during any transition? These are just some of the many questions that are often asked and to which there are multiple answers, dependent on your point of view.

As a former Control Room manager myself, I can understand the necessity of completely understanding what a Cloud Control Room (CR) can add to my business as well as the obvious concerns; please note I used the word ‘add’ as there is an opportunity for the move away from on premise (On Prem) solutions to ‘Cloud based’ to provide additional business benefits to not only the end user and operators, but to each organisation as well.

For example, current On Prem deployment of equipment brings with it a physical limitation to certain aspects namely: capacity and flexibility. By running applications such as Command & Control systems and ICCS systems etc. for your daily business operations on virtual machines (VM), these provide the scope for instantaneous increases (and reductions) of capacity upon demand. This is especially important not only for spate conditions and for Business As Usual (BAU) operations, but especially when facing spontaneous incidents; whether they be of a disaster type situation such as fatal rail collisions, industrial incidents (such as Buncefield Oil Depot) or Public Order situations such as the riots of 2011 across the UK and of course, criminal acts of terrorism which require a multi-agency response of a significant nature for some considerable period of time.

The VM within the hosted environment will easily absorb not only the increased volume of traffic being generated but can instantly provide additional ‘seats’ for additional application users to be connected. Not only will the capacity provide the additional numbers requiring access to the systems, but it will absorb the volume of voice and data traffic being passed without affecting the speed of response to the transactions being performed. Older systems with a limited capacity do not have these benefits of scalability and flexibility.

VM applications also provide users with the opportunity to make savings on Disaster Recovery (DR) sites too. By connecting to the VM using a suitable secure IP connection, whether that is a Direct Network Service Provider (DNSP) link or an alternative with the suitable encryption, users effectively have an on-demand DR option from wherever they choose. In some cases, this removes the requirement to provision a separate CR which is just on a ‘cold stand by’ with the associated costs of provisioning and maintaining one being greatly reduced.

The security of the Cloud has oft been cited as a reason NOT to move into that environment, but the security of hosted locations are often more secure than On Prem solutions, either the physical security of the building or the IT firewalls and access points within existing systems. Hosted environments are within very secure buildings with levels of encryption and routers and firewalls to pass through being often out of the reach financially should an organisation wish to implement such screening locally. Couple this with the DNSP encryption which will be applied, then organisations will be moving to a more secure infrastructure than those currently employed.

Finally, where organisations are either seeking or considering areas of greater collaboration with partners, whether within their own vertical of Police, Fire and Ambulance or with multi-agency collaborations, the use of Cloud CR provides an easier method of utilising shared hosted environments. Not only will this provide a reduction in costs through economy of scale, but also providing an easier road map for application collaborations and improved data sharing going forward.

Mark Swift is a Product Manager for Motorola Solutions

Mark is on LinkedIn

Follow #ThinkPublicSafety, @MotSolsEMEA, on Twitter.

21-22 March, The International Centre, Telford, UK

British APCO continues to be the forum for public safety and civil contingencies communications engagement. Over the years the scope of the word communications has expanded to encompass both voice and data, with data becoming richer and increasingly important to your operations. As we look towards the rollout of Great Britain’s new Emergency Services Network (ESN) the role British APCO play in providing a place to exchange information, ideas and experiences is increasingly important. Motorola Solutions is at the heart of the upcoming changes with our responsibility for not only the Airwave network but also our responsibilities in the introduction of the ESN. Our support of British APCO is key to maintaining a close association with all users of mission-critical communications in this country, to do best by them now, during and beyond the introduction of ESN.

We are committed to the successful delivery of our contract for ESN User Services and the continued support for the Airwave network though the transition period. We recognise the high expectations and the reliance that more than 300,000 emergency and public service users will be placing on our services, solutions and people.

Managing the User Services of a nationwide mission-critical long term evolution (LTE) network is challenging. We have a proven track record of delivering, managing and operating large-scale, complex and dependable public safety networks across the globe. Today we are implementing the largest public safety LTE networks in the world. Building upon this unmatched experience will be the delivery of the ESN, for which we will also be providing the system integration and critical functionality for the new network based on 4G public safety LTE.

Alongside the introduction of the ESN, we are there to support users, whether they are on the street, in a vehicle or control room, with a complete response to their requirements - from devices to applications, vehicle installation to control room solutions and the services support required to ensure a secure and smooth evolution path to the new ESN. Putting our customers and their challenges as our first priority we will have a business unit dedicated to the management and operation of both the Airwave network and ESN. Our Service Desks are staffed 24/7 by highly-trained personnel who intimately understand the roles and needs of users and the services they require to focus on the core mission of Public Safety. They will assure our mission critical environment is protected at all times through best practice, industry-leading policies and processes.

We have been a relied-upon communications partner to the British emergency services community for more than 45 years and we intend to be there for every officer and crew member for many more to come.

During the event please come and see us at stand C5 and see how we will be supporting users today; mobilising intelligence on the street, in a vehicle or in a control room.

And of course, don't miss our speakers in the Conference and the Technology Showcase:

• Social Media in Public Safety – How Far Have We Come? - 10.15-11.00, Conference, Room B, Day One - Julian Foster, Motorola Solutions Global Co-Lead for Social Media Centre of Excellence and a senior Police Officer - Julian and his co-speaker will take a detailed look into the transformative role being played by social media in public safety today – examining the opportunities, success stories from around the world, key challenges and future potential.
• Digital Mobile Policing Today - 11.30-12.15 - Technology Showcase Theatre, Day One - David Robinson Business Development Manager, Motorola Solutions UK (timings to be confirmed) - David shares how Motorola Solutions’ Pronto application suite is currently supporting a third of the UK Police service to deliver effective mobile digital policing. It is proven to deliver significant operational and cashable benefits, and provides officers with an intuitive solution to enhance the end user experience.

We will also be taking part in several of the conference sessions about ESN including:

• ESMCP Programme Update - 09:15 - 10:00 – Conference, Day One - Steve Whatson, Deputy Director, ESCMP; Simon McCutcheon, Motorola Solutions; Simon Frumkin, EE

We look forward to seeing you there.

You can find out more and keep up-to-date about our participation through our dedicated B-APCO event microsite www.motorolasolutions.com/bapco and more about the Emergency Services Network (ESN) here

Phil Jefferson is MSSSI Vice President Sales & Service, UK & Ireland

Phil is on LinkedIn

Follow #ThinkPublicSafety, #BAPCO2017, @MotSolsEMEA, @BAPCOEvent on Twitter.

New - Public Safety Survey 2017 – Europe, Middle-East and Africa Edition

The Motorola Public Safety Survey, has become an invaluable reference on the trends and needs for communications technology for police, fire, rescue, emergency medical services and other public safety and government agencies.

In our 2015 Survey Europe and Africa special edition, we found that Public Safety communications were being transformed. The survey revealed how four key factors influence agencies of all sizes, and how change was driven by high speed data and a need for communications across multiple networks and devices including radios, smartphones and tablets. We found that being able to access data in real-time is vital. An overwhelming 77% of participants said having instant, reliable information at their fingertips is ‘critical’ or ‘very important’ while working in the field.

What has changed since the last survey?

Are cloud solutions now suitable for Public Safety agencies? Can body-worn cameras help keep officers safe and address questions around police conduct? Can social media help agencies communicate important information to the public more quickly? Or can agencies use social media to gain more information during an emergency?

We are repeating the survey in 2017 for all of Europe, Middle-East and Africa. We want your input as we investigate the top trends in Public Safety communications technology in 2017. Make your voice heard on a variety of topics including the use of video, smart devices, cloud, and social media in Public Safety, as well as the latest status and expectations of Public Safety LTE and the impact it will have on Public Safety technology.

What will we learn this year? Take the survey now and, in return for your participation, we will share the final report with you as soon as it is ready.

We look forward to hearing what you have to say. The survey is quick, easy, and should only take you a few minutes to complete.

You can find more detail about the survey at www.motorolasolutions.com/EMEAsurvey..

.. and you can also download the 2015 survey report – Transforming Public Safety Communications

David Parry is Director, EMEA Marketing

David is on LinkedIn

Follow @MotSolsEMEA on Twitter and look out for #EMEAPublicSafetySurvey

Lots of interest, lots of customers, lots of conversations at this week’s Critical Communications Europe event in Copenhagen. If you weren’t able to make it or didn’t get to see it all, here are some short must-see videos from the show floor. 

Tunde Williams welcomes us to the show. With over 1000 Public Safety and Commercial visitors expected how are we meeting their challenges? How are we future-proofing TETRA? Why is our new DIMETRA Express solution so important for expanding the use of TETRA? What is Mobile Intelligence? These are just a few of the items that Tunde covers:

Paul Wilson introduces the new DIMETRA Express - a fully integrated 'all-in-one-box' TETRA system that supports TETRA voice services, short data, and VOIP telephony. Paul explains how simple the system is to install - taking less than 15 minutes! Web based apps and management means that customers can use their own hardware and devices to install, operate and maintain the system themselves:

Lots of interest, lots of customers, lots of conversations - David Parry invites you to stay tuned and watch some highlights from the show:

We’ll add more videos as we get them and you can always catch up with our YouTube video playlist or on our Critical Communications Europe microsite www.motorolasolutions.com/cceurope

Paul Jeffs - Editor - Think Public Safety.

Paul Jeffs is Public Safety Editorial Lead for Europe and Africa at Motorola Solutions.

Paul is on LinkedIn

Follow #ThinkPublicSafety, #CCEUROPE and @MotSolsEMEA  on Twitter.