Did Katrina help us get ready for Sandy?
By Dorothy Jimenez, Director of Operations—Communications, BriCom Solutions.
On October 30, 2012, Hurricane Sandy struck the Northeast Region of the United States as a post-tropical cyclone with hurricane-force winds. It was a hybrid “superstorm” unlike any ever seen before and brought with it a grim sense of déjà vu.
Seven years earlier, Hurricane Katrina wiped out the infrastructure of multiple cities, causing mass chaos, many deaths and an estimated US$108 billion worth of property damage—the costliest of all US Atlantic... Continue Reading
A look back on 25 years of commissioning MPT Trunked networks around the world.
By Jason Cox, Senior System Manager, Tait Communications.
My first real commissioning trip was to China in the early 90s. We were providing MPT 1327 networks to the Gong An (Chinese Civil Police). The first Tait MPT networks used an EPROM (Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory) to store all of the programmable parameters and firmware.
These EPROMs needed special programmers to program them, and they needed to be reprogrammed every time you made a change. Luckily, EPROMs were erasable. Unluckily,... Continue Reading
In this two-part series, John Emerson, Chief Information Officer at Tait Communications, looks at what a CIO needs to know when considering a radio communication system.
Last week, in Part 1, we covered some of the important pieces of the radio communications puzzle that CIOs need to address, including, open standards, coverage and reliability. This week we look at the other aspects of radio systems that need to be considered.
Security
With increasingly sophisticated and aggressive cyber-attacks, security has become a must-have. Not... Continue Reading
By Darek Wieczorek, Principal Consultant, Tait Communications.
The second P25 Best Practices Roundtable took place at the New Zealand Embassy, in Washington DC, on May 23rd. We had an equally diverse group of participants as in the first P25 best practices roundtable. The one thing they all had in common was a truly impressive level of expertise in Public Safety communications.
Based on the experience gained in the first roundtable, I was able to zero-in on some specific topics. Because system procurement took the lion’s share of the first session, this time we... Continue Reading
In this two-part series, John Emerson, Chief Information Officer at Tait Communications, looks at what a CIO needs to know when considering a radio communication system.
The ubiquitous cellphone works well for most of us, most of the time. Occasionally we get a dropped call or two when coverage plummets, or the odd network outage means we can’t download emails or browse the internet. It’s frustrating, but rarely life-threatening.
Put yourself in the shoes of a police officer or utility worker in a hazardous situation or remote area and reliable... Continue Reading
Installing a critical communications system requires many different experts. In this new video, we’d like to introduce you to some of them here at Tait Communications.
The first person you’ll meet is Craig Johnson, an account manager. When you partner with Tait to meet your communication needs, you’ll work directly with someone like Craig. He’s your direct point of contact at every step of the journey — from RFP through to project completion, and well beyond.
He’ll always be just a phone-call away, and he’ll personally make sure you get the best possible solution to... Continue Reading
Tait P25 Solutions
A critical communications system requires many parts: dispatch, portable radios, core network, security management, and more. When looking to purchase a new system, the questions can be daunting: Who can I trust? Who will give me the best value? How many companies will I need to work with to meet our needs?
At Tait Communications, we believe in simplifying the process. And to show you how, we’ve launched a brand-new interactive online diagram of a complete end-to-end Tait P25 solution.
View the interactive P25 solutions diagram for yourself, and see what the future of unified critical communications could look like for your organization.
by Martin Deakin, Editor, Connection Magazine.
James Bond, Hurricane Sandy and Steve Jobs all feature in the latest edition of our online magazine, Connection.
Connection is a collection of educational and thought-leading articles focusing on critical communications, wireless and radio technology. It’s a free, biannual magazine that reaches over 90,000 global industry professionals written by industry experts.
And this edition is also available on iOS, Android, and Kindle Fire devices, too.
We’ve listened to the great feedback from our readers and... Continue Reading
The Education Nation team has traveled thousands of miles this year and we’ve met hundreds of people from public safety and utility organizations across the country. Our mission was simple — to provide free education to officials faced with the task of procuring, upgrading or maintaining radio communications systems. It’s a tough job to summarize the deep discussions, highlights and learnings from the tour, but here goes… Continue Reading
By Darek Wieczorek, Principal Consultant
I had the pleasure of hosting a P25 best-practices roundtable discussion in New Orleans on March 27. We had 11 guests representing a wide range of current and future P25 system users.
At one end of the spectrum was the State of Michigan, with its 240-site P25 network and sophisticated support organization. At the other end was the rural Tennessee County of Macon, pondering on replacing its existing analog conventional network with the digital technology. Two experienced consultants provided their unique views. This mix yielded a great... Continue Reading
