Comms Connect Sydney 2015 - full program available

Comms Connect Sydney is almost here - don’t miss it!

Now in its ninth year, Comms Connect has become Australasia’s leading conference and exhibition for combined communications users and industry. This year sees the return of Comms Connect Sydney, following on from the highly successful first event held in 2014. A new, centrally located venue will make it easier for everyone to attend and capitalise on the networking and learning opportunities.

Hundreds of like-minded professionals from government, the resources sector, first responders (police, fire, paramedic/ambulance), transportation, utilities, enterprise and other sectors who use critical communications will gather to ensure that they have access to the very latest information and technology solutions.

Speaker sessions

Comms Connect always attracts a top-of-the-line list of speakers from a variety of backgrounds: industry, government and academia. This year’s line-up will be no exception, with experts from home and abroad coming together to share their knowledge and insights. Among the many experts lined up to speak are:

• Dr Brian Burns, Prehospital & Retrieval Specialist, Sydney Helicopter Emergency Medical Specialists, Ambulance Service of NSW
• Garry Kerr, Executive Manager, Emergency Response Systems, Public Safety Business Agency - Queensland
• Shaun Smith, Managing Director, New South Wales Telecommunications Authority
• Phil Kidner, CEO, Tetra and Critical Communications Association
• Mark Loney, Executive Manager, Spectrum Operations & Services Branch, ACMA
• Gerard Cusick, Managing Director, Mingara Australasia
• The full program is available on the Comms Connect website (comms-connect.com.au)

Exhibitors

Both the exhibition space and number of exhibitors are almost twice what they were at last year’s Comms Connect Sydney, demonstrating that the industry has embraced the concept of holding this event as an adjunct to the larger Melbourne event.

Among the 60-plus exhibitors expected are: 4RF, Anritsu, ARCIA, Australasian Tetra Forum, Codan, Critical Comms, CRS Accessories, Delta Gamma, Emona Instruments, Gencom, GME, GMG Solutions, Hytera, Icom, ICS Industries, Kenwood, Keysight Technologies, Mastercom, NEC Australia, Omnitronics, Orion Network, Panorama Antennas, Polar Electronics, RF Technology, Sepura, Spectrum Engineering, Survey Technologies Inc, Tait, Vertel, Vicom and Zetron.

If your company hasn’t already booked its exhibition space, it might not be too late - contact the Comms Connect team on 02 9487 2700 for details.

Workshops

Comms Connect workshops are always popular, and this year’s line-up at Sydney will be no exception.

Workshop 1: Advanced radio over IP, presented by Paul Whitfield (Team Leader, Software Engineering, Omnitronics) and Peng Zhang (Lead Sales Engineer, Zetron Australasia). This workshop will provide an overview of the technology, the key standards and some of the technical issues, covering: the difference between RoIP and VoIP; implementing one-to-one and many-to-many connections; identifying network issues affecting RoIP/VoIP quality, maintenance and redundancy; building block design elements; and calculating network bandwidth requirements.

Workshop 2: Practical guide to working with fibre optics, presented by Brett Moore-Carter (Systems Support Engineer, Vicom Australia). This workshop will provide an overview for technical staff into what is involved in working with fibre optics. There are some critical work methods that are essential as technicians begin to become involved in this new segment of converged communications, and this session will cover many of the underlying basics involved.

Workshop 3: TETRA: Addressing ICT migration and integration with evolving critical wireless technologies, presented by the Australasian TETRA Forum and the international TETRA and Critical Communication Association. This workshop will help attendees understand TETRA and provide a comparison with other open standards-based technologies (DMR, DPMR, P25) for mission-critical operations.

Workshop 4: Next-generation public safety capabilities will see leaders in public safety communications leading a discussion on issues facing the sector. Presenters will include Chris Beatson, Director, NSW Police Force Policelink Command, and Lance Valcour, Chair, Law Enforcement Information Management Section, International Association of Chiefs of Police.

Industry case studies

A variety of industry case studies will be presented by members of the teams themselves, including:

• Nissan Motorsport race communications
• Eurobodalla Shire Council UHF SCADA telemetry upgrade project
• TETRA for New Jersey Transit’s communications
• Integrated Wi-Fi, CCTV and WAN platform for councils
• Software controlled radio with CSIRO technology
• Vertel’s national DMR Tier 3 network
• Telemetry design in the Pilbara

Comms Connect Sydney is a golden opportunity for you to hear from the experts, discuss your requirements with leading vendors and suppliers, and share the challenges you face with industry colleagues and professionals who use communications technology in their working environments. See you there!

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More events around the nation

Following the first joint ARCIA and Comms Connect event in Perth in March, WF Media has announced that it plans to work on a number of additional projects with ARCIA in order to deliver further one-day ‘mini’ Comms Connect conferences in the 2015-16 financial year. These will start with Brisbane in late July 2015, moving to Adelaide in September and then back to Perth in March 2016.

“These will be stripped back, single-day conferences with no exhibition, aimed at those who aren’t able to come to Sydney or Melbourne and who would like to have access to the educational side of what we do,” said Paul Davis, WFM’s Events Director. “There’s a whole raft of content developed for each show and by sharing this already generated material further afield, everybody wins.

“The feedback from Perth was fantastic - almost 80 delegates attended and the ARCIA dinner in the evening had record numbers, so it makes sense to visit other state capitals where there’s demand for subject matter on critical communications and other wireless technologies,” added Davis.

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What: Comms Connect Sydney 2015

When: 3-5 June 2015

Where: Sydney Showground, Olympic Park

Web: comms-connect.com.au