The 2024 British APCO annual conference and exhibition, held in Coventry, United Kingdom, March 6-7, was attended by a large and enthusiastic group of attendees and exhibitors. The event is the best place to learn and network with U.K. and European public safety officials.
The BAPCO 2024 Venue – Coventry Building Society Arena.
Tait Communications was proud to exhibit again in 2024. While this was my first time attending the event, Tait is a long-time supporter of British APCO. The Tait booth was a hub of activity. The main attraction was a presentation on how Tait’s emergency radio communications products integrate with partner Unblur, which provides IRIS Core software to support situational awareness for emergency services.
The solution is essential for fire services, which often share decisions and information via fireground radio communications at a fire scene. When this occurs, there is no record of the firefighting radio communications or the ability to reply or review the interactions. In addition, many radio features such as GPS, message capture and person down alerts are not used.
Richard Russell, Tait’s Senior Business Development Manager (left) & Steven McLinden, Unblur’s Account Executive (right).
By using a newly developed Location Gateway Application, the Unblur IRIS Incident Command Software interfaces via Tait’s TMX450 vehicle hub, which integrates Digital Mobile Radio (DMR) and broadband connectivity, and Tait’s portable radios. The solution can capture the firefighter portable radio individual identity and GPS location, record voice packets on the selected channel, and support emergency button features. This solves several problems for firefighters and incident commanders by improving situational awareness, collecting incident data, and supporting post-incident reviews and investigations. Richard Russell, Tait Senior Business Development Manager, and Steve McLinden, account executive for Unblur, detailed the solution during the conference programme as well.
Tait Communications had numerous emergency radio communications products available on the stand for attendees to try out and learn more about. We appreciated all the industry professionals who stopped by the Tait stand to check out our latest radios and wearables. Tait believes that emergency professionals should have a choice around their communications systems, and we provide flexible products and solutions to allow you to easily establish the best technology solution to address your requirements.
Beyond the exciting product developments, an informative conference provided technology updates throughout the two days. The highest attended session, as expected, provided updates on the U.K. Emergency Services Network (ESN). Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme Director John Black said he expects the Lot 2 user services vendor will be selected in the coming months with a contract signing planned for August. Black declined to estimate when the ESN would be completed and tested to a point when it can replace the Airwave network that provides mission-critical voice communications to many U.K. public-safety personnel today.
Without a set timeline on the transition to the ESN, it is even more important for emergency services organizations in the U.K. and other countries to continue to upgrade and evolve their radio communications networks to ensure safety for the public and emergency officials. To that end, a presentation from Dylan Earle, Business Solutions Manager at Tait Communications, detailed how the New Zealand Police are moving forward with a nationwide public safety communications network, which includes LMR technology, priority cellular services, and secure messaging services.
Dylan Earle, Tait’s Business Solutions Manager.
Dylan spent nearly 24 years with the New Zealand Police, and for the past 5 years he has led the New Zealand Police team on the Next Generation Critical Communications (NGCC), the governance body responsible for developing the New Zealand Public Safety Network (PSN). He was also Senior Responsible Owner for the legacy emergency radio communications network in New Zealand. In addition to providing an update on the new nationwide public safety network, Dylan’s presentation discussed the importance of quality of experience (QoE) within the mission-critical communications industry. He emphasized how critical it is for suppliers like Tait to listen to customer needs and to integrate features into products and services to address quality of experience requirements, something Tait strives to achieve.
Tait Communications was thrilled to exhibit at BAPCO 2024 in Coventry, U.K. As one of the leading events in the public safety communications industry, it presented an excellent opportunity for Tait to highlight our latest first responder technologies and solutions. Participating in BAPCO not only enabled us to connect with existing clients but also to engage with potential customers and industry leaders. The event was a testament to our commitment to continuously evolve and help fulfill the mission of public safety communications officials.
We look forward to seeing you again at BAPCO 2025, as well as other exciting events including IWCE 2024 in a few weeks, UTC 2024 in May, APCO 2024 in August and many more. We look forward to engaging with you soon!
Blog authored by: Sandra Wendelken – Market Insights Manager | Tait Communications
Read the previous Tait Talks – The Unfaltering Requirement for Mission-Critical Voice
