APCO is one of two (IWCE being the other) major trade shows that Catalyst attends, as it speaks to our roots supporting public safety officers and first responders. Especially for new product announcements that involve our Project 25 product suite and other capabilities that address the needs of first responders, APCO is the premier venue to demonstrate our mission critical communications technology.
This year, one focus will be our continuing developments in the area of location services. We are convinced that, in the near future, the location information of first responders will be a requirement for most public safety dispatch systems. In the past, the low data rates available on land mobile radio systems has limited data applications like location to be included with most dispatch systems. Location data has primarily been transmitted over cellular networks, not LMR. However, with the emergence of LTE and FirstNet(tm), which can handle much higher data rates and therefore many different applications, location services will become a much more prevalent requirement. We are taking the initiative, as technology leaders, in developing location services today, and have engineered a solution that minimizes the impact of passing location data over low speed LMR networks.
We will also continue to show how both LMR and LTE networks can coexist. This will be the second APCO show where we have demonstrated interoperability between a portable radio on a land mobile radio system, and a cell phone running a push to talk application on an LTE network. Our dispatch solutions can also dispatch to both the portable radio and the cell phone. This is a precursor application to FirstNet(tm), and as FirstNet(tm) will evolve through transition, interoperability between both radio and cellular devices will be critical. We will have more announcements about this capability as we get closer to APCO.
APCO is in one month, in Las Vegas, and for those who are planning to attend, please stop by and say hello. In addition to showcasing our technology, it’s also a terrific opportunity for us to catch up with our public safety friends. Thank you for everything you do to help keep us safe, and we are proud to develop solutions that help you do your job.
