s.press 2010/1 En

www.swissphone.com

Issue 1 | 2010

The Swissphone Magazine for Public Safety & Industry

RES.Q: Effective team capacity ata glance Page 4

WEF: Efficient medical scheduling with SWISSPhOnE TRIO Page 12

Vienna neustadt: The most up to date command and control centre in Austria Page 16

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InSIDE

Editorial 03

PRODUCTS

RES.Q enables operators to see team capacity at a glance 04

Multi-master network in Kreis Lippe:Digital alerting systemfor demanding terrain 06

Great Britain: In a public emergency RES.Q has privileged access to themobile network 08

new fDM.X wireless data module enables multiple wireless devices 10

SOLUTIOnS

Swissphone system for medical scheduling proves itself at WEF 12

Saarland: Command and control system forthe highest safety requirements 14

Swissphone installs the most up to datecommand and control centre in Austria 16

fire brigades in Lower Austria now equippedwith new digital alerting system 18

EVEnTSSwissphone on the road 20

COnTEnTS

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EDITORIALDear clients and business partners,

When a pager beeps, the recipient knows it’s serious. He immediately knows what he has to do and sets off to give assistance without the need for lengthy questions. This is why paging has proven itself as the most reliable alerting technology for more than forty years.

Swissphone has perfected this alert technology and improved its reliability by adding a response feature into the alerting process. This response feature gives rapid confirmation to command and control centres that the alarm has been successfully received.

The centre quickly knows how many respondents will assist an incident and if the alert was not sufficiently successful, can rapidly deploy additional operational teams.

The following pages provide information about initial practical experience with the new systems. My employees and I would be delighted to support your special requirements for modern alarm and communications systems.

Yours sincerely,

Helmut Köchler

Helmut Köchler, Chairman of the Swissphone Board of Directors


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PRODUCTS

Author: Andreas Rottensteiner . Marketing Planning, Swissphone Telecom AG, Samstagern

In order to conduct a successful operation, each fire brigade has to organise its crew and equipment optimally. The demands associated with this are increasingly wide-ranging: more and more, crews work away or are held up, and operators are not immediately aware that team capacity is insufficient. Equipment becoming progressively diverse, and has to be called on in a focused way.

The industry is required to provide safety authorities and organisations with the relevant equipment to make operational organisation easy and efficient. There is also a requirement to minimise the increasing amount of administration and take general demographic trends into account. The new RES.Q alerting system from Swissphone takes up these developments and delivers efficient alert management via a combination alert/response system.

RES.Q enables operators to see

team capacity at a glance

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A dependable paging system

When the alarm is raised, a situation-related message (alert) is sent to the appropriate location (organisation), which then calls for the necessary operational teams and resources. The alert is then issued via paging, which is dependable, rapid and secure. Paging networks are separate from other mobile communication networks, so there are no problems with network overload.When the alert has been raised, the command and control centre hands operational organisation over to the fire brigade or the police, for example. On-site command will know which operational teams are required from the type of alert message (kitchen fire, chemical accident etc). Up to this

particular point, command still won’t know how many operational teams will actually arrive at the site of the incident. This means that more oper-ational teams are summoned than are actually necessary. But not any more: RES.Q makes it possible to send both technical and tactical responses.

Response feature improves efficiency

The technical response feature means that command will receive a call acknowledgement as soon as the operational team receives the alert. And, thanks to the GSM/GPRS module incorporated in RES.Q, the person receiving an alert can now also issue a tactical response to say whether he is able to attend an operation or not: “Yes, I can attend the operation”.

ThE bEnEfITS Of ThE RES.Q SOLUTIOnAT A gLAnCE

Operational control

The response feature means that operational control can remain informed of the effective number of operational teams responding at all times. The constant target/performance comparison function enables operators to rapidly issue subsequent targeted alert calls for more teams. Linked to the RES.Q software monitoring and control centre solution, an optimised, resource-saving alert feature is available, as operational teams will no longer all have to be called out as a precaution.

Monitoring indicator

On the monitoring indicator, team leaders can view current team capacity at a glance, and gain an immediate overview of how many teams will be arriving at the incident location. This enables them to decide on possible subsequent alerts at an early stage.

Capacity message

The monitoring indicator gives an overview of teams in transit that have confirmed their operational attendance with a tactical response: once as an exact numerical value and, for a quick overview, a bar showing total team numbers. Technical responses are viewable in another bar. In other

words, the monitoring indicator shows how many operational teams have received the alert. Incoming responses are then displayed in different colours according to status (“Yes, I can attend”, “Unable to attend”), and the number of participants is constantly updated. Special groups, such as those carrying breathing apparatus for example, can be shown separately.

Capacity response in transit

The capacity response can be issued as a short message over the GSM or paging network. Whether they are in transit to the equipment store or approaching the site of operations, operational control remains constantly updated on team capacity via RES.Q.

Technical response

Automatic confirmation to the effect that the receiver has had the alert provides a basis for improved resources planning for operational teams: operational control has the option to issue test calls to check which devices are ready to receive and which are not.

Tactical response

With a manual response, the person receiving an alert can indicate whether or not he/she can take part in operations. Appropriate texts can be tailored to the needs of a particular organisation: “I’m coming”, “I’m not coming”, “I’m coming right now”.

RES.Q enables operators to see

team capacity at a glance

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PRODUCTS

The administrative area of Lippe has taken the decision to transfer fire brigade and rescue service alerts completely over to POCSAG technology on the 2-meter band. An important factor in the decision to use Swissphone tech-nology was the speed and security of alert transmission. This is even guaranteed where the terrain is demanding – as in Kreis Lippe. The Lippe mountain region has marked variations, ranging from peaks and ridges to flat hollows and hills.

Alerts issued in seconds…

Alerts are sent via wired communication, and transferred to radio relay feeders via four multimaster stations (digital alert transponders), and transmitted from there in chronologicalsynchrony. The multi-master network delivers sufficient field strength to ensure rapid and secure alerting in the area to be covered. The

multi-master site locations are in Lemgo, on the Hohe Asch, in Köterberg and Tönsberg-Oelingenhausen. The radio network consists of forty base stations (4 master and 36 slave stations), which are distributed across these four areas so that they deliver balanced field strength overall. The choice of location for thebase stations is determined from a computerradio field simulation, which is then verified in the area in question.

…and even in geographical basins

“The measured wireless coverage delivered bythe digital alert network means that we are nowfinally well covered for the areas of Kalletal and Extertal, which were a problem until now“, re-ports Friedhelm Plöger of the Regiebetrieb Bevölkerungsschutz (Government Civil Defence Force) for Kreis Lippe. His colleague Meinolf Haase also adds: “The consistent encryption of alerts also enables us to meet data protection regulations”.

Author: Alexander Rauch · Key Account Manager, Swissphone Telecommunications GmbH, Gundelfingen

Multi-master network in Kreis Lippe: Digital alerting system for demanding terrain

gERMAnY

Dortmund

Düsseldorf

Cologne

Wiesbaden Mayence

frankfurt

Jena

Zwickau

Leipzig

Dresden

Cottbus

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Command and Control System Slave

Slave

Alarm Receiver

LANDigital Alarm

Device

Command and control centre Alarm Device Distribution netword

cable-based

Radio Relay System

Radio Relay System

Master

Master

MasterMaster

Mobile Dispatch Centre

best Supplied Region

06 | 07


Doubly secure

The Swissphone system is doubly secure: during normal procedure, the alert from the command and control system goes to two digital alert transmitters. In turn, these send the message on to two wired master alert transponders and three further multi-master stations, which are reachedvia radio relay feeders. If either of the two digital alert transmitters fails, the other one automa-tically takes over and sends the alert on to the four master stations. If both digital transmitters fail,the appropriate operators can send the alert via an emergency input position to the four master alert transponders. From there, the alarm message will reach the 36 slave stations and therefore the alert reception devices.

Crisis mode for extreme emergencies

If either of the wired master alert transponders fails, the alert transmitter will automatically connect up with the other master. And if both wired alert transponders or either of the transponders locked on to radio relay fail, the system independently switches to another operating mode, known as crisis mode. The surrounding master and slave stations register that a master station has failed and take the message from another master or slave station. Crisis mode gets around the problem by using a remaining master station, ensuring net-workwide transmission in spite of the loss of all the

other master feeders – albeit at a slightly reduced transmission speed. A patrol car has also been additionally fitted with a digital alert transmitter. If the control centre wereto fail, the alert could be issued via the patrol car.

References of digital system projects

Administrative area of Bautzen, Saxony City of Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia City of Dessau, Saxony-Anhalt City of Göttingen, Lower Saxony City of Halle, Saalekreis, administrative

area of Merseburg-Querfurt, Saxony-Anhalt Harzkreis, Saxony-Anhalt Region of Lausitz, Saxony Administrative area of Lippe,

North Rhine-Westphalia Administrative area of Mansfeld-Südharz,

Sachsen-Anhalt Administrative area of Olpe,

North Rhine-Westphalia Administrative area of Pinneberg for the region

of Steinburg/Dithmarschen/Pinneberg Administrative area of Schaumburg, Lower Saxony Administrative area of Siegen-Wittgenstein,

North Rhine-Westphalia Administrative area of Vogtland, Saxony City of Wilhelmshafen, Lower Saxony

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PRODUCTSPRODUCTS

Author: Clair Cawley · Director of Marketing, PageOne Communications Ltd., Middlesex, United Kingdom

In a public emergency RES.Q has privileged access to the

mobile network

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Paging still plays a huge part in the day-to-day operations of many public and private sector organisations within the United Kingdom. The technology provides an excellent way of communicating up-to-date information to staff in critical situations, and paging still stands alone as the one-failsafe form of mobile communication. PageOne’s messaging systems are often linked directly to the command and control systems and PageOne quickly recogn-ised that if the RES.Q solutions were to gain traction within the United Kingdom market, they must have the option of both an intuitive user interface and integration to existing Command and control systems. The PageOne development team committed con-siderable resource into designing a user interface that was both functional and intuitive to use without the need to invest in expensive computer infra-structure. For larger organisations that want to use RES.Q as part of their overall communications strategy, PageOne has also upgraded its XML/SOAP computer interface protocol with these latest features. This further enhancement enables organi-sations to integrate RES.Q into their own business, emergency, or command and control processes.

Auto acknowledgment and response of gSM

Introducing the response element to traditional broadcast messaging provides an organisation’s control centre with the ability to determine the location of the device and therefore, its staff. The service also offers acknowledged communication which alerts the control centre if and when a user has received a message, confirms if a message has been read, and even allows users to provide an automatically generated response. PageOne has also ensured that the unique broadcast capability of paging; being able to update unlimited numbersof pagers at once, has been extended to RES.Q; making RES.Q the most powerful messaging service available today.

Privileged access to the mobile network

PageOne, working in conjunction with the Cabinet Office, announced in October 2009, its exclusive RES.Q pagers will be MTPA scheme (Mobile Tele- communication Privileged Access Scheme) enabled for all category 1 and 2 responders, providing extra resilience for communications in times of public emergency. The MTPA scheme is invoked by Gold Command (usually the most senior police officer in the area affected) in the event of a public emergency or disaster, where voice overload has occurred in the local GSM cell sites thereby hampering “on the ground” communications between responders.

The MTPA scheme is only implemented very rarely but can be vital in saving lives during the first minutes and hours or a major incident, as was the case during 7/7. As RES.Q relies upon the GSM network to send back vital information on the status and location of responders to the control room, and would risk being cut off if the MTPA scheme was invoked, the Cabinet Office chose for the first time to include RES.Q within the scheme, thereby recog-nising that it play a vital part in the communications strategies of blue light organisations.

As an MTPAS service provider under the scheme, PageOne will install a privileged access SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) card in the RES.Q pager device for any category 1 or 2 organisations. In the event that the GSM network experiences traffic overload it will then be possible for the local cell site, geographical area or the whole of the UK to be switched to allow privileged access to the mobile network, thereby maintaining this vital communica-tions link. These privileged access SIMs will be automatically included in PageOne RES.Q pagers for all users within the responder community, but are not available to members of the public.

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PRODUCTS

Author: Alexander Herrmann · Product Manager, Swissphone Telecommunications GmbH, Gundelfingen

New fDM.X radio data module enables mul t ip le wi re less dev ices

Economic vehicle operation is not only an im- perative for despatch and transport businesses – it is also rapidly becoming the case for large numbers of safety authorities and organisations.

However, operational vehicles for fire brigades, rescue services and police forces must also offer guaranteed availability, rapid transit to the site of operations and increasingly high levels of protection against interception for information transfer.

Efficient fleet management

Swissphone wireless data modules offer route, location, status and patient information com-munications from a compact unit. Like sending and receiving telegrams, wireless data modulesare a communications interface between a centre and individual fleet vehicles. Operational dataand coordinates can be radioed to the vehicle.The navigation system connected to wireless

The product family around vehicle communication solutions has been developed further: the wireless data module is now available in a new version that has been comprehensively extended. One of the major new functions of the FDM.X is the easy multiple wireless device enabling.

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10 | 11

data module displays the operational details and automatically works out the route. Together witha mobile unit for patient data capture and billing, this can make the work of rescue services consi-derably easier and more efficient.

As before, the FDM.X has its own powerful Linux-based board computer. With the new wireless data module, there is the option to incorporate wireless technology for digital alerting to POCSAG standard, a FFSK modem for the analogue safety service wireless network on the 4-meter band, and a connection to open GSM/GPRS networks or Tetra digital emergency channels. As these radio paths can be used individually or all at the same time,the type of data transfer to and from the vehicle can be selected for availability, speed, security or bandwidth requirement as required.

Easy wireless enabling

A major new feature is easy multiple wireless device enabling. The transition phase from the analogueto the digital emergency channel will take several years in Germany. During this period, one admini-strative area might already have access to Tetra, but the neighbouring administrative area may not.

Irrespective of this, the new FMD.X enables rescue teams to stay in radio contact with both control centres. Two analogue radio devices and two digital Tetra radio devices can be operated for voice communications via a single handset. If the optional GSM module is incorporated, the handset can even be used as a phone. By connecting additional speakers and with the option of mixing radio circuit volumes, no radio voice signal is lost during the call.

fDM.X with WindowsXP® embedded

The FDM.X is optionally available with an integrated PC board. The energy-efficient 1.6 GHz-Intel® Atom Processor and stable WindowsXP® embedded operating system are the perfect combination for delivering other new application options and easy operation. Operational data can be managed and wireless devices linked to the FDM.X can be operated quickly and easily via the touch-screen. The built-in navigation map&guide® software ensures the secure and rapid transfer of rescue resources to the site or operations.An optional mini PCI express card is available, and enables WLAN data connection. This can facilitate communication with patient data capture devices or the transfer of billing data when the vehicle returns to standby, for example.

Easy fDM integration

Just like the FDM, the FDM.X can be integrated very easily and economically. The FDM.X only needs to be connected to the navigation device or touch-screen with a system cable. All signal cables for VGA, audio, USB and power supply are incorporated in one cable.

Modular extendibility with hardware and software modules makes the FDM.X a future-proof pro-fessional solution for wireless migration, navigation and radio data transfer.


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SOLUTIOnS

Author: Gabriela Knobel · Head of Corporate Communications, Swissphone Telecom AG, Samstagern

Endurance test at minus 15 degrees:

doctor scheduling system proves its worth at World Economic forum

“Blue Centre Bianca” is how Bianca Gemperle will be identifying herself on calls a few more times yet on this snowy afternoon in Davos at the end of January. All is remarkably quiet as she schedules emergency doctor and medical service operations at the World Economic Forum (WEF).

Blue Center is the name of the operational control and command centre set up for the WEF emer-gency doctor and medical service in a training room at the hospital in Davos. “We currently have 15 doctors, 25 paramedics and other medical and army personnel on call”, explains Dr. Karl Peter Bolliger, who has been a WEF emergency doctor for 15 years and runs his own practice in Altendorf in the can- ton of Schwyz. “All our emergency doctors and paramedics have at least ten years’ professional experience”, he adds. Four regular and three army ambulances are also standing by.

Only five minutes to get to the incident

A WEF operation just like any other, you might say: “But this year, we can tell at a glance where doctors, medical personnel and operational vehicles are actually located”, says Karl Peter Bolliger. This is possibly down to the new Swiss-phone scheduling system, which is being tested at this year’s WEF. “This gains us valuable time”, continues our emergency doctor. This is because, when there is a lot of snow and traffic is busy, it can take up to twenty minutes to get from where the WEF is being held at the Kongresshaus in Davos village to the hospital in Davos Square – even with the blue light flashing. “This means that we have to decentralise our operational resources so that we can arrive at incident sites in the shortest possible time. The scheduling system shows us at a glance which vehicle is closest

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to the incident, so we can dispatch it there immediately. We can be there within five minutes maximum.”

The green balloon means “ready to go”

“We’re on our way back to the hospital from the medical assistance centre” an ambulance driver reports in. Bianca Gemperle confirms the message and watches the vehicle moving towards the hospital on the big screen. In fact, she has three big screens helping her conduct operations. On the left-hand screen, the Swissphone scheduling system shows her vehicles on a geographical map of Davos. The green balloons denote vehicles that are ready to go. A red balloon denotes that an ambulance is already on an operation. The central screen shows what they call the message log, and gives an overview of all operational messages transmitted. The right-hand screen shows the capacity of every hospital in Switzerland to take in new patients.

Colds, bruises and skiing accidents

There are three army work stations at the Blue Centre: in the case of a major disaster, the army would provide operational support. The Blue Centre manager is Dr. Peter Rupp, and the winter weather has come just at the right time for this head physician at the emergency centre at the Hirslanden Clinic in Bern and head physician designate at the emergency centre at Lindenhof hospital in Bern. “If it goes on snowing like today, there will be fewer skiers on the pistes, which means fewer accidents”, says our head of medical services. While the WEF is under- way, they will not just be treating unlucky skiers – due to the cold weather, they will also be treating operational crews who have gone down with colds, coughs and sore throats by the second day. And of course the operational team will also be taking care of the WEF attendees. “We will be treating bruises and sprains from falls, which are often caused by unsuitable footwear”, says Peter Rupp. The medical service had six incidents on the first day of the WEF and they have had two so far by noon today, the second day.

Endurance test at minus 15 degrees

“The message receivers that our medical personnel carry with them might well end up in the snow, so they need to be able to withstand current tempera-tures of minus 15 degrees”, says Peter Rupp from experience, and points out that the Swissphone devices meet this requirement. “Swissphone devices

are amazingly user-friendly – self-explanatory, you might say.”, WEF doctor Karl Peter Bolliger then also adds. Operations manager Peter Rupp also says that the status messages are extremely useful. The medical service has selected pre-programmed messages saying “With patient”, “Ready” and “On route to hospital”. As soon as an emergency doctor arrives at an incident, he sends the “With patient” message back to the centre as confirmation. His balloon will then show red on the map, meaning that he is not currently available for any other ope-rations. “So we know exactly who is doing what and where, which enables us to schedule operations rapidly” – is how the Blue Centre manager high-lights the biggest benefit of the new alarm system from Swissphone.

Major benefits of the new scheduling system

The new Swissphone scheduling system consists of an alarm terminal and operational control software. The new SWISSPHONE TRIO terminal also uses reliable POCSAG technology for its alarm system, but combines this with GSM and GPS technology. A person receiving an alarm can issue a response via the integrated GSM module to confirm whether he can attend an incident or not. Operational crews can also summon extra help simply by pressing the SOS button. And the GPS module enables the operator in the command and control centre to obtain the location of the alarm terminal and display it on a geographical map on a screen.

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SOLUTIOnS

Author: Angelika Maier · Marketing, Swissphone Systems GmbH, Stuttgart

Command and control system for the highest safety requirements

The FLZ in Saarbrücken takes all 110 emergency calls for the whole of Saarland, and 112 mobile emergency calls are also taken there. The FLZ receives around 183,000 calls a year, resulting in approximately 120,000 operations. All the burglar alarm signals for the administrative area are directed here, too.

Faxes and formal (e-mail) communications notifying of emergencies at the Cattenom nuclear power station just over the border in France and messa-ges from the Federal Civil Defence Office in Germany are also received here, and the appropri-ate measures coordinated.

Efficient dispatch management with secur.CAD

Operators can issue alerts, initiate and complete response measures in a structured way – directly from the screen. They can also coordinate teams and follow their progress. For example, the built-in geographical information system (GIS) uses digital maps to show operators the site of operations and surroundings, important buildings and objects and the current position of selected operational vehicles. The options on the secur.CAD modern command and control system enable the flexible and efficient deployment of police teams in Saarland.

It has now been nine months since the police command and situation control centre (FLZ) in Saarland was fitted with the latest command and control technology. In all, 97 positions run from this control centre, which is responsible for the whole administrative area.

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The various operational resources are equipped with a GPS. This means that their current location can be shown in GIS, and the patrol car that is closest to the site of operations can be sent there. When the operation is complete, it is archived as evidence in the system, so that procedures can be traced back against time and individual stages of the operation at any point in the future.

Unique rights and roles concept

As an command and control centre, the FLZ works for the State Office of Criminal Investigation (LKA) and the State Police Department (LPD) on the one hand, and acts as a situation room for the Ministry for Internal and European Affairs on the other. So that the various police authorities, with their numer-ous agencies and hierarchies, can use the same system, a complex matrix for structuring rights and roles was required. Depending on the role in which the user logs on, e.g. LKA, LPD or VPI (traffic police), he has access to the view designed for that role. He cannot view data from other areas of jurisdiction or state regions, as it belongs to another police organisation unit. The rights and role concept had to take account not only of hierarchical structures, but regional jurisdictions, too – known as the third dimension.

Special police module

secur.CAD was configured for the requirements of the Saarland police force, and has special add-on modules and functions. For example: APBs – a way of launching an immediate search initiated after a serious crime. The system also offers a module for the organi-sation and administration of abnormal load escorts. This makes it easier for the FLZ to coordinate scheduled abnormal loads that need to have a police escort. Towing procedures can be organised using thetow list function. secur.CAD supports the selection of the tow service by offering the appropriate suggestion. The built-in job counter lists the towing procedures and sorts them according to the company awarded the job.

Pilot project

Given the many special aspects involved, it is fairto describe the system solution for the Saarland Police FLZ as a pilot project: seen from that point of view, the salient features are the unique rights and roles concept, integration of the system into the IT structure of the entire Saarland policeforce and the 100 % VOIP-based communications.Swissphone will carry out the project as the main contractor. Sub-contractors are Thales (communi-cations system), Euromicron (media technologyand networks) and Objekt + Design (control centre furnishings).

Organisation of the Saarland police force

STATE OffICE Of CRIMInAL InVESTIgATIOn

Command and control centre of the Saarland police

MInISTRY fOR SPORTS AnD ThE InTERIOR

Operational HQ

LKA 2Information and Communication

LKA 3Operational and Investigation Support

LKA 4Investigation

LKA 5State Security

LKA 1Central Affairs

Traffic Police Inspection

Criminal Investigation

ConstabularyMerzig-Wadern

ConstabularySt. Wendel

ConstabularyNeunkirchen

ConstabularySaarpfalz-Kreis

ConstabularySaarlouis

ConstabularySB-Stadt

ConstabularySB-Land

Service Department

Riot Police Section

STATE POLICE hQ

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SOLUTIOnS

Author: Richard Krapfenbauer · Managing Director, Swissphone Austria GmbH, Vienna

Swissphone installs the most up to date

command and controlcentre in Austria

After a year of planning and construction, the Vienna Neustadt Voluntary Fire Service has now been able to get its new command and control centre up and running. Josef Bugnar, commander of the Vienna Neustadt Voluntary Fire Service was happy to report: “We now have the most up to date regional command and control centre in Austria”.He identified the reduction in operational process time between taking the emergency call and issuing the alert to the fire brigade as one of the most important benefits of the new centre. This is delivered by the latest technology, which is planned and constructed by Swissphone Austria GmbH:

the facility now enables the reception of incoming calls, the issue of alerts to operational teams and vehicles and the processing of analogue and TETRA radio traffic via touch-screens. “Issuingthe alert to a fire brigade unit is only a small part of the work that has to be done by operators on duty in the control centre”, explains Josef Bugnar, who continues: “Depending on the incident, further teams, mainly neighbouring fire brigades,

Swissphone Austria GmbH has implemented the project planning and construction of the most up to date command and control centre in Austria for the Vienna Neustadt Voluntary Fire Service. Operational teams now work with touch-screens.

He identified the reduction in operational process time between taking the emergency call and issuing the alert to the fire brigade as one of the most important benefits of the new centre. This is delivered by the latest technology, which is planned and constructed by Swissphone Austria GmbH:

who continues: “Depending on the incident, further teams, mainly neighbouring fire brigades,

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but also specialist teams, additional fire engines and equipment need to be requested and provided. This can now be done easily and efficiently via touch-screens.” Previously, each voice channel had its own receiver, and operators had to go right across the room to be able to use the correct devices for major incidents.

Touch-screens lighten the load

In the new command and control centre, there are now three regular, independent workstations with touch-screens. Two of them have been set up at the new height-adjustable control centre desk for routine operations. The third station is separate, and is for use by the authorities for operational control purposes in disaster operations.

Another touch-screen is used for managing the major technical facilities of the fire station: door intercoms, gates, barrier systems and the light signal system at the nearby crossroads. Any facility failures in the fire station are also displayed on the screen, for example a lift, heating pump or ventilation system failure. Last but not least, around 180 city and area fire alerting systems operate via the new command and control centre. “I am delighted that we are now able to offer people an optimum level of security and speed with our new alerting system”, said the commander of the Vienna Neustadt Voluntary Fire Service.

The weather puts Swissphone to the test

In addition to project managing and planningthe new command and control centre, Swissphone was also given the task of delivering a smooth transition from the old facility to the new one. And, right in the middle of the transfer phase from 22th to 25th June 2009, there was flooding in the Vienna Neustadt area and neighbouring

Burgenland, which resulted in 94 operations. “The command and control centre was working at full capacity”, confirms Richard Krapfenbauer, Swissphone Austria GmbH CEO in Vienna, who goes on, “But, even in such exacerbated condi-tions, and working with the operators on duty, we were able to ensure a smooth transition process without any interruption”.

Emergency failure level

A fourth workstation has been set up under one of the big monitors for displaying location maps – as a so-called failure level. If the new system should fail, this fourth workstation comes into oper-ation: telephone calls are made in the conventional way, only radio devices are used and there is no touch-screen. “This workstation is in fact analogue – in case the digital facilities fail”, says Josef Bugnar. The fire station centre also receives power from two different sources, and also has an emergency power supply, which will deliver backup power within seconds of a power outage.

The Vienna neustadt Voluntary fire Service

Eight full-time and 157 voluntary employees in the Vienna Neustadt Fire Service ensure smooth operations. Operations for Vienna Neustadt number 1,700 a year. The Vienna Neustadt Voluntary Fire Service operates the alerting system for its own operational teams, plus 75 other fire brigades and specialist teams in the area and a number of communitiesin Burgenland.

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SOLUTIOnSSOLUTIOnS

Author: Richard Krapfenbauer · Managing Director, Swissphone Austria GmbH, Vienna

new digital systemsfor fire brigades in Lower Austria

Fire brigades in Lower Austria are now issuing digital alerts. The alerting network was set up and operated by 144-Notruf-Niederösterreich for the Red Cross of Austria between 2005 and 2009. Radio engineers from the Lower Austria Fire Depart-ment, Lower Austria and the 144-Notruf-NÖ rescue command and control centre have jointly adapted the digital network with Swissphone to ensure that the requirements of fire brigades can now also be met in the best way. The new owner of the alerting network is the “Fire Brigade and Civil Defense” department of the Federal State Government of Lower Austria. The alerting technology, which was developed specially for fire brigades, has been installed in the state warning centre in Tulln.

A high level of security

“The satellite network offers a high level of reliability”, says Richard Krapfenbauer, Managing director of the Swissphone Austria GmbH. This is because the paging network also provides a rapid and secure alerting system when open communication networks are overloaded or if there is ever a power outage. “Disasters and accidents over the last few years have shown that an alerting system for operational and assistance teams that operates on a secure channel – and independently of the open and commercial infrastructure – is essential”, emphasises Dr.Stephan Pernkopf, district fire service administrator.

The alerting system network in Lower Austria has been adapted so that fire brigades in Lower Austria can now also issue alarms via this satellite network. Benefits are high levels of reliability and rapid issue of alarms.

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Shorter alerting times

The Swissphone high performance digital networkis secure, but it is also faster than analogue alerting systems. The paging network delivers simultaneous alert transmission state-wide to a large number of receivers, making it extremely rapid. “The new network means that more operational teams are contactable in a shortertime. Plus, our fire brigades can set up their own alerting groups for special teams and services in their system, which makes sending alerts easier and more efficient”, points out state fire brigade commander Josef Buchta.

All under one roof

In addition to fire brigades and 144-Notruf-NÖ, alerts in Lower Austria are sent to operational teams of the Red Cross, the AB, the Knights of St John stationed in Lower Austria, the eastern regional paramedic helicopter of the Austrian Automobile, Motorbike and Touring Club air rescue service, the Lower Austria Dog Rescue Service and the Lower Austria Life Guard Service, F irst Responders and major disaster managers.

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2010 calendar

Date Event Place background information

4th – 6th May 6th International Exhibition and Conferece Leipzig (D) www.gpec.de for Police and Special Equipment

5th – 7th May RETTmobil Fulda (Germany) www.rettmobil.org

7th – 12th June Interschutz Leipzig (Germany) www.interschutz.de

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