Jive SBS Syndication Feed

Building Safer Cities Takes a Strong Foundation

noreply@jivesoftware.com — Fri, 24 May 2013 20:46:10 GMT

The concept of safety is a powerful thing.

Motorola Solutions Receives 2013 Business to Community Impact Award

noreply@jivesoftware.com — Fri, 24 May 2013 15:35:22 GMT

Every year, HandsOn Suburban Chicago recognizes

Building Safer Cities Takes a Strong Foundation

noreply@jivesoftware.com — Fri, 24 May 2013 04:03:26 GMT

The concept of safety is a powerful thing. The public expects to feel safe in their homes and out in the communities where they live. If there's an emergency, we expect our call for help will always be answered and that police officers, firefighters or emergency medical technicians (EMTs) will arrive armed with the information we provided, even if it was a text with a photo or video attached. We all want to live, work and raise our families in safer cities. And we are not the only ones with expectations.

Front line officers expect secure access to the latest communications technology – technology we take for granted in our everyday lives – to help them work smarter and handle more tasks while they are on patrol or at the scene of a crime. To keep up with these challenges and the rapidly evolving operating environment, agencies need to build a strong mission critical foundation. One that helps them extract intelligence from existing and new sources of data, improve the way they work and make faster, smarter and safer decisions.

If they don't? Studies show that a city's economy can suffer significantly. And that's something everyone can see. To keep officers informed and ready for what's next takes visibility to what's happening in the field at all times. It requires an architecture that makes it easy for public safety agencies to unify data sources, dynamically prioritize information and integrate broadband and radio networks. An operating environment that will help them deliver greater levels of service, safety and community prosperity.

Having that architecture means front line officers will be armed with smart devices that bring real-time, often citizen -generated, information to their fingertips and better situational awareness so they can make fast, life-saving decisions. Firefighters' progress can be monitored as they move through a burning building and their status continually verified with locationing and biometrics applications. And the public can instantly access services and systems to report and resolve community issues or say thanks for a job well done.

Sometimes it's what we can't see that makes a visible difference.

Learn how you can harness the information that surrounds us to build a safer city in the Mission Critical Operating Environment whitepaper or visit the website.

Alan Lopez is Director of Government Solutions Marketing for Motorola Solutions.

Learn more about the Mission Critical Operating Environment here.

Five Reasons Why Public Safety is Talking about the Connected Vehicle

noreply@jivesoftware.com — Fri, 24 May 2013 03:43:56 GMT

Today, many public sector organisations are facing significant pressures to meet service delivery commitments due to reduced budgets. Public safety agencies in particular need to overcome the daunting challenge of protecting people and property within an environment of harsh financial constraints.

In a bid to deliver value for money, many agencies are adopting new work practices, and it is here that we are seeing technology having a transformative effect. At CCW 2013, we are bringing to life our vision of what the Connected Vehicle of the future might look like. It is not technology for the sake of it. Rather, it is about exploring how technology applied in the right way can deliver significant benefits to vehicle fleet managers as well as frontline officers.

Based on years of extensive research and joint learning activities with customers, we have been able to identify a number of areas in which new technologies will deliver significant benefits to fleet managers and also frontline personnel. Here are the key reasons the Connected Vehicle will benefit public safety.

Benefits for Vehicle Fleet Managers

Standardised Installation Practices will Improve Transferability of Equipment: government agencies are finding it more cost effective to lease their vehicles for relatively short periods. This makes it necessary for equipment such as radios and mobile workstations to be transferred across to other vehicles. By adopting a standardized installation approach, with standards compliant equipment, agencies can realize significant costs savings.
Remote Diagnostics Drive Efficient Vehicle Maintenance: by providing a platform that can interface with Driver and Vehicle Management Systems and provide key diagnostic information over-the-air to fleet managers, agencies can generate greater cost savings from better vehicle maintenance.
Improved Asset Management: by providing a platform that can interface with Driver and Vehicle Management Systems using CAN (Controller Area Network) protocols and provide key diagnostic information over-the-air to fleet managers generating greater cost savings from better vehicle maintenance.

Benefits for Frontline Officers

In addition to ensuring that vehicles operate safely and more efficiently, the Connected Vehicle will also help officers become more efficient and effective.

Safer Working Environment: by working closely with our partners, we have enabled access to radio functions and MMI via the vehicle controls. Our TETRA radio's control head is` virtualised onto the vehicle console display to make interactions more intuitive – the key functions such as radio volume and talkgroup changes can be accessed via using the vehicle's integrated controls.
Advanced Applications for Increase Effectiveness
With advanced broadband connectivity, officers can benefit from myriad applications such as:

Real Time Video Intelligence – provides first responders and dispatchers with vital situation awareness. Surveillance video can be shared with personnel at the scene, at dispatch and wherever that intelligence is needed.

Automatic License Plate Recognition – through manual methods, we estimate the quantity of plates an officer could check in an 8 hour shift to be about 50-100. With ALPR, the quantity of plates can go up to about 8000 – keeping officers one step ahead of offenders.

Real-time Team Collaboration – officers can use a shared white boarding technology to mark photos and maps in real-time, facilitating the sharing of vital local intelligence and improving collaboration during incident response.

Resilient Communications – Our TETRA Telephone Style Control Head provides a secondary control point for the radio, providing fallback communications for the frontline officer, in the event of a failure to the vehicle CAN bus.

360 Video Surveillance – Multiple cameras installed inside the car allow video from the scene to be captured for evidence or shared in real-time with personnel, for situational awareness.

It does not have to stop here. We are also showing how adopting a flexible architecture that supports a vehicle LAN and CAN could be used to progressively add new functionality. Further use cases under consideration include:

Access control through RFID – it will be possible to restrict vehicle access to certain officers - for example, officers that had successfully completed specific training – using RFID technology. An RFID reader integrated in the car would recognize RFID tags on approved drivers and this would then provide the necessary trigger for the car to be activated.

Faster inventory checks – RFID technology will also enable much faster inventory checks. By installing RFID tags on required equipment, the vehicle system could run an automatic inventory check the moment the officer steps into her vehicle. Status messages could then be relayed over the TETRA network, confirming the inventory status of all patrol cars to the relevant fleet managers.

There are clearly a lot more examples as to how agencies can operate more efficiently by leveraging current technologies. It's no wonder that many agencies are talking about the Connected Vehicle!

Tunde Williams is Sr. Manager, Global TETRA Solutions, Motorola Solutions, Inc.

Digital Photography: Needed in Frontline Policing

noreply@jivesoftware.com — Fri, 24 May 2013 03:32:59 GMT

The ability to take, send and receive images from your phone has long been a standard feature of consumer mobile devices. In fact, consumer mobile operators have now gone beyond images to live and on-demand video streams over superfast 4G networks. In emergency telecommunications, however, this capability is yet to see widespread adoption. As the ability to provide mobile imagery to officers in the field becomes available to more public safety organisations, their use of multimedia will increase rapidly.

To prepare for this shift, you need to understand the legal and cultural standing of digital imagery in your region and country, how digital imagery is currently being used and debates around its adoption.

Before proceeding with implementation for your organisation, you should have a good understanding of what your police force needs to consider when using digital image systems in frontline operations and how these systems can be deployed effectively to ensure proper processes are followed from image or video capture, through file security and extraction to authentication and, in some cases, evidentiary admission.

The advantages of digital imagery in frontline policing are clear to the point where adoption of devices outside of normal field equipment is widespread. However, there are clear issues at both the theoretical and practical levels.

In order to effectively deploy imaging systems in frontline police operations, you should follow these five key steps:

Understand the legal landscape. Clear, consistent and rigid processes need to be in place to ensure compliance with privacy and data protection laws.
Integrate imaging into existing workflows. Technology has a clear role to play in minimising the administrative overhead resulting from managing images for intelligence and evidential purposes.
Simplify the audit trail process. Evidence integrity is paramount to ensure admissibility in court. Forces can leverage technology to ensure a robust chain of custody for digital evidence.
Reduce the amount of equipment officers need to carry. By integrating the image capture system with equipment that officers always carry, such as a two-way radio, it is more likely that officers will have a camera with them to capture operationally vital evidence.
Minimize training requirements. To encourage adoption, it is vital that frontline officers use imaging systems that are familiar and easy to use.

Tunde Williams is Sr. Manager, Global TETRA Solutions, Motorola Solutions, Inc.

Hail to the Chief: Siarnicki Honored for Dedication to the Fire Service

noreply@jivesoftware.com — Thu, 23 May 2013 16:18:30 GMT

Ron Siarnicki receives the Mason Lankford Fire

The Importance of System Support and Technology Lifecycle Management

noreply@jivesoftware.com — Thu, 23 May 2013 04:10:03 GMT

Investing in a TETRA radio system can present a myriad of questions regarding the ongoing support of your technology: How can you maximize your system availability? How will you ensure that your system stays secure from malicious attacks and viruses? To whom will you turn if you require technical guidance? How can you stay on top of system releases and refreshes? It can be overwhelming.

Fortunately, you do not have to figure out the answers to these questions by yourself. A trusted services expert can help you navigate the support requirements for complex TETRA radio systems.

Engaging a reliable partner in the support of your TETRA system provides you with the peace of mind that system availability is maximized through technical support for issue resolution, equipment downtime is minimized by utilizing your services expert for fast repair turnaround times or advanced exchange of hardware components and the security backbone of your TETRA system remains intact through consistent security updates.

Obtaining a support program for your TETRA system can also help alleviate the burden of unexpected maintenance costs. A trusted services partner can provide you with a support program that allows you to budget in advance for your system support, and remove the notion of having to scramble to spontaneously pay for hardware repairs or technical issue resolution.

As you look toward the future regarding the progression of your TETRA system, a services expert can help you identify an upgrade path that helps ensure your TETRA system stays refreshed to continue meeting the communication needs of your organization.

You have a lot to manage when it comes to your TETRA system; remember that you do not have to shoulder the responsibility on your own. Engage a trusted services expert to partner with you in the repair, technical support, security and lifecycle mapping of your TETRA system and get back to focusing on the mission of your organization.

Learn more about support services for the Motorola Dimetra Small Systems.

Gary Aitkenhead is Vice President, EIA Global Service Delivery & Global Support Line of Business, Motorola Solutions, Inc.

Making the Most of Your TETRA Mobile Radio Investment

noreply@jivesoftware.com — Thu, 23 May 2013 04:00:03 GMT

Vehicles are an important part of the modern public safety or transportation infrastructure in your cities and towns. Many of these cars, command vehicles, fire engines, ambulances, trucks, buses and trains rely on a TETRA radio network to deliver mission critical voice and data communications to and from the first responders or workers who operate them. This makes mobile radios a vital part of the overall TETRA solution - powerful, able to operate for extended periods and frequently linked to other devices inside the vehicle.

New capabilities brought by advancements in digital radio technology and increased data capabilities of the TETRA Enhanced Data Service (TEDS) mean today’s mobiles can deliver the mission critical communications you need to make your response or operations teams safer in their jobs, to equip them with access to better intelligence and to help them do their jobs more efficiently. This allows them to spend more time serving their communities while having the confidence that their mission critical communications systems always keep them connected and informed.

When evaluating how best to address your TETRA vehicle communication needs, it is important to consider mobile radio solutions based on three key criteria.

Installation flexibility. No vehicle is the same and no one radio should be expected to fit all of the unique needs your diverse fleet presents. Make sure that the solutions you evaluate offer a broad range of radio and control head options, accessories and installation kits, so you have a wide field of deployment options. If radio control is required from more than one location – a fire engine control pump or two ends of a commuter train – make sure to look at solutions that allow you to deploy more than one control head inside a vehicle.
Radio quality. Mobile TETRA radios often serve as gateway repeaters to provide connectivity for first responders at an incident scene or workers on a train who are using TETRA handsets to communicate with the network and each other. Vehicles used in these situations require radios that guarantee high-performance audio, RF receive and transmit power, and TEDS data network connectivity.
Data connectivity. Distribution and retrieval of vital information from frontline personnel in real-time requires a mission critical data network that guarantees information assurance and security. TEDS data services can deliver on this promise. To take advantage, your vehicles require mobile radios capable of connecting to this TETRA data network. If your first responders or drivers need to receive or share information in real-time or use their radios to connect portable computers or other data centric devices to the TEDS network, their vehicles should be equipped with mobile radios that are TEDS capable.

Take a tour of our new TEDS-ready MTM5000 Series TETRA Mobile Radios and see why having the right radio in the right vehicle can make a difference for your users and your bottom line.

Richard Martin is Senior Marketing Manager for Global TETRA solutions, Motorola Solutions, Inc.

Four Steps to Increase the Efficiency of Your Field Service Operations

noreply@jivesoftware.com — Wed, 22 May 2013 04:10:03 GMT

Consider the impact on your business if:

A facilities issue results in the need to shut down a building – and the impact of paying tens or even hundreds of employees to remain at home for the day.
A key piece of manufacturing equipment breaks, bringing the entire production line to a halt – an event that can cost millions of Euros an hour.
A dispute over a completed repair job order results in high legal expenses.

The way assets are managed clearly has a direct impact on an organisation's profitability as well as the safety of employees. Field service operations play a critical role:

Maximising asset performance. The field service operations has a key role in ensuring that asset uptime, availability and efficiency.
Ensuring safety and security compliance. Field staff needs to ensure that critical safety equipment such as fire extinguishers, eyewash stations and building access check points undergo scheduled maintenance and meet safety standards.

However, for many of these workers, a two-way radio is their primary means of communicating with supervisors. For many organisations, key workforce management processes, such as the issuing of work orders, are paper-based with a high administrative overhead. This leads to:

Poor productivity – field staff spend as much as half their time on admin tasks – time that could be spent "on task,"
Data inaccuracies – information often has to be entered twice – first on paper and then transcribed into a computer system. This in turn creates opportunities for data errors.

The good news is that many of the key capabilities required for efficient field service operations are provided in today's TETRA systems. Here are 4 steps you can take today to boost your field service operations:

Implement Real-time Work Orders. By integrating a workforce management application with your TETRA system, field workers will no longer need to travel to a centralized dispatch area to collect work orders or manage paperwork. A messaging application on their TETRA radios allows field workers to accept, reject and even close work orders – through the press of a button!
Reduce Invoice Disputes. By providing your field staff with new TETRA radios equipped with evidential image capture technology, you will be able to more readily document proof of completed work. Evidential image capture technology enables staff to leave an audit trail based on rich metadata that includes:
1. GPS location of where work was performed
2. Date and timestamp
3. ID of the person that carried out the work
Streamline Asset Inspections and Maintenance. Workers who are taking inventory can take a photo of an asset using their TETRA radio, providing information about the asset's condition and location. A backend application will then automatically append the photograph to the relevant asset record based on provided meta-data.
Implement Real-time Asset Monitoring. Alarms generated from critical infrastructure, such as a manufacturing production line, can be used to trigger emergency work orders to the nearest (based on TETRA radio GPS location) and most appropriate personnel to contain the situation. As a result, safety risks such as emissions and leaks can be reduced.

As you can see, there are myriad opportunities to leverage a TETRA system to drive workforce efficiency. To achieve these benefits, a number of technology enablers will however be required:

TETRA radio with built-in camera for evidential image capture
Work Order TETRA radio client application
TETRA radio Image management application

To learn more about these capabilities, visit www.motorolasolutions.com/mtp6000

Tunde Williams is Senior Manager, Global TETRA Solutions, Motorola Solutions, Inc.

Be Ready for the Future

noreply@jivesoftware.com — Wed, 22 May 2013 04:00:05 GMT

In our daily lives we are becoming hooked on broadband. We expect it on our phones and we get annoyed if our tablet or PC can't get onto WiFi. For mission critical users who rely on TETRA for voice and low speed data, the hunger for a complementary secure and resilient broadband service is building. Video and other data-intensive services increasingly vital for their safety and effectiveness, without the security and resilience concerns associated with public bearers.

Issues with funding and frequencies need to be resolved before Public Safety and Mission Critical broadband service becomes widely available. Nevertheless, the momentum is building towards overcoming these obstacles.

TETRA continues to roll out and expand. Its place as the premier robust and secure communications system is unchallenged. The use of TETRA with an equally secure and resilient broadband LTE service makes for a very cost-effective and credible, standards-based solution toward the end of the decade.

To support this, Motorola is introducing the MTS4L TETRA/LTE Base Station. This standard-sized cabinet contains a 4-carrier TETRA Base Station, with provision for an LTE eNodeB in the same unit. TETRA operators can deploy this solution in TETRA-only networks, secure in the knowledge that when LTE is required they have the freedom to deploy broadband service where and when it is needed, and at a frequency of their choosing.

And, most importantly, the installation and commissioning of LTE service can be done with the absolute minimum of disruption to TETRA service. The installation of the eNodeB takes less than 60 minutes, while the TETRA system is in operation. The only effect is a brief interruption of the TETRA trunking feature for a few minutes as the eNodeB is linked to the single switch being shared by the TETRA and LTE base stations. Sharing the same footprint and services, such as power and masts, also makes the upgrade very cost-effective.

Protect your system investment today with a flexible, fast and future-ready platform that prepares you for the roll out of LTE services when the spectrum becomes available.

Richard Martin is Senior Marketing Manager for Global TETRA solutions, Motorola Solutions, Inc.

The Ultimate Guest Experience

noreply@jivesoftware.com — Fri, 17 May 2013 21:47:55 GMT

If you’ve ever stayed in an extravagant resort or hotel, what is it that you remember the most about it? Was it the ultra-soft bed, the fine cuisine in the restaurant, the size of the room? Odds are what you remember the most from a great hotel stay is the service. This is what inspires loyalty in customers, and it’s what hotels know can distinguish them from their competition.

By leveraging the latest technology, hotels can offer memorable, personalized service. Knowing when a guest has arrived, their name and loyalty status, and being able to greet them personally is a service enabled by the power of an IP network. Many services and applications, like CATV, video surveillance, wired and wireless high-speed internet access, and onsite communications are all possible through a converged IP infrastructure of Ethernet and WLAN. Hotels can create a truly personalized experience for their guests, which will keep them coming back.

A robust IP network also enables hotels new opportunities for income. In-room entertainment with IPTV like on-demand video and high-definition television can rival and even surpass the services guests have at home. Location-based services and tiered levels of broadband access allow hotels to engage their guests throughout their stay. Having a strong, reliable wireless network makes any property a more desirable location for business conferences, events, and meetings, as organizations can connect with their attendees in new and exciting ways through mobile and social apps.

All of these new services and capabilities through the latest wireless LAN technology mean the hospitality industry is currently in a very interesting period. Being able to engage and connect with guests on a personal level is certainly an exciting opportunity for hotels, and it makes for a more memorable experience as guests seek the ‘ultimate’ experience.

Tom Moore leads Motorola Solutions’ go-to-market strategy and direction for the hospitality and healthcare industries.

For more information about enhancing guest experiences and creating new revenue streams, please read Mobilize Your Hotel, or learn more about Motorola’s suite of hospitality solutions.

Secure Your Organization by Securing Yourself on Social Networks

noreply@jivesoftware.com — Thu, 16 May 2013 23:15:26 GMT

There was a time in the not-so-distant past when

Secure Your Organization by Securing Yourself on Social Networks

noreply@jivesoftware.com — Thu, 16 May 2013 23:13:53 GMT

There was a time in the not-so-distant past when personal and work lives were two separate things. A person worked at the office, went home, and usually had little to do with his or her employer until the next day. Since the advent of the home computer, the mobile phone, then telecommuting and social media, these lines have blurred. For better or for worse, our personal lives creep into our work, and we’re often working during our “off” hours. What many people don’t consider is the unprecedented security risk this poses to our employers. Our personal choices can impact the security of our organizations, and making the right choices can help deter attempts at theft and damage.

This is part one of a multi-part blog series.

SOCIAL NETWORKING

There’s no question - social media has changed the world. There are nearly a billion active users of Facebook, and half a billion active Twitter users. Collectively, social networking websites store a massive amount of data about people. Much of this information is publicly visible. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, and other popular social networking websites provide privacy features that can restrict access to individuals’ information. Unfortunately, not everyone configures these features. The information we post publicly can pose a risk to our organizations and to ourselves, and nothing can be reliably erased once it’s posted to the internet.

First, let’s look at how social networking data can be used to make scams more believable. Many people are familiar with the concept of ”phishing” - scams sent via email. Imagine a phishing email specifically targeted to an individual or group. The term for this is ”spear phishing”. If Jane Hacker wants to trick you into clicking on an email attachment that contains a virus, or simply revealing your password, she will have significantly more success if she first researches your social networking profiles and identifies your interests, history, and connections. She can then tailor her emails to pique your interest, or to imitate a business or a colleague. A Trend Micro study showed that in 91% of targeted attacks, spear phishing was used to break into organizations’ networks. Be aware of the personal data you broadcast, and how it could be used to fool you.

Next, let’s consider the ‘security questions’ that are required for many accounts – for example, ‘birth date’, ‘mother’s maiden name’, or ‘favorite band’. Users must answer a combination of personal questions to access these accounts. Unfortunately, this security mechanism was developed before social networking was popular. If Jane Hacker is trying to access your account, she might find your birthday on your Amazon.com profile, your mother’s maiden name via your Facebook page, and (because Jane Hacker is rather clever), she might also note that you are following your favorite band on Twitter. Two-factor authentication is now offered by many providers as an alternate means to verify users’ identity. It is a smarter choice. Instead of relying on questions to which somebody else may find the answer, an external device such as your phone or a token is used to verify your identity.

Perhaps you avoid social sites like Facebook or Twitter altogether. What about LinkedIn? Online résumé websites are great tools for us to market our professional skills and network. However, they can also impact security. Let’s imagine that the maleficent Jane Hacker is planning to launch an attack against your organization’s network. She’ll need to evaluate what software, security, and systems are in use by your organization before she can begin. However, Jane Hacker is a bit lazy. She does a quick search on LinkedIn for technical, procurement, or management staff from your organization. Several of their résumés contain detailed descriptions of systems in use, as well as your organization’s processes and procedures. Now, Jane Hacker has less work to do.

Social networking has become an integral part of our society, but there are some important security considerations to keep in mind when we use it. First of all, limiting access to our social networking posts and profiles is key. If we post publicly, we need to be mindful about what we post. We should choose our account security questions carefully, and when possible, use two-factor authentication instead of relying on security questions. Finally, we should police the technical or operational details which we include in our online résumés. Keeping these things in mind can help better defend our organizations and ourselves.

Lesley Carhart is a Senior Information Security Specialist in the Motorola Solutions Security Operations Center. She has 13 years of experience in information technology, including computer networking and tactical communications. For the past five years, she has focused on security, specializing in digital forensics.

Learn more about Security Services here, or read this white paper about Understanding Cybersecurity.

Read another blog by Lesley Carhart: Log Monitoring and Cyberthreat Detection.

UTC Conference Panels to Address Narrowbanding Compliance Issues

noreply@jivesoftware.com — Tue, 14 May 2013 21:14:49 GMT

As evidenced by the number of VHF and UHF public

National Police Week Honors Law Enforcement and Great Sacrifice

noreply@jivesoftware.com — Mon, 13 May 2013 18:48:10 GMT

The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial is