Last chance to book for Perth Comms Connect

Following its highly successful debut last year, the one-day joint ARCIA–Comms Connect event will return to Perth on 8 March 2016, with attendees treated to special case study and technical presentations.

“Last year’s event was a huge success, with a wide spectrum of delegates attending,” said Paul Davis, WFM events director. “We had representatives from mining and utilities, public safety, transportation, security and many more mission-critical fields.”

This year’s program is set to be of equal appeal, with a packed schedule of presentations of direct relevance to Western Australian industry participants.

The day will kick off with a presentation by ARCIA’s president, Hamish Duff, who will give an overview of the current state of play in Australia’s LMR sector. He will be followed by Ashley Marshall, BAI Communications’ National Business Development Director, who will speak about the use of long-range digital radio in less densely populated and remote areas — perfectly suited to the local audience.

Serge Maillet, Service Delivery Manager–Minerals and Energy, Motorola Solutions Australia will then give a presentation on ensuring the maximum availability of the radio network to keep Vale’s mine site running 24/7.

Following the morning break, there will be three technical presentations:

• The future of critical voice and data: converged communications platforms (Jonathan Stubing, Principal ICT Consultant, Titan ICT Consultants).
• Mobile Broadband for Full Autonomous Mining Operations (Peter Humphreys, Executive Manager Intelligent Infrastructure Networks, Visionstream).
• Innovation in disruptive technologies — putting mission-critical safety information into the hands of decision-makers (Michael Hallowes, Director, Government, Enterprise & Emergency Management, Early Warning Network).

Following lunch, the program will split into two streams, one being a continuation of the presentations and the other being an industry workshop.

The workshop, Evolutionary paths from 2G PMR to critical LTE, will address various topics from the current status of digital mission-critical narrowband open PMR standards to the evolution of an open, global standard mission-critical LTE. Attendees will be invited to consider whether there is a future for narrowband digital PMR technologies or whether they will be replaced with LTE.

The workshop panel members will be:

• Anton Abrahams, Chairman, ATCCF
• Jim Reid, Managing Director, Radlink/Director, ATCCF
• Doug Bowden, Regional Director, Sepura/Director, ATCCF
• Mark Thompson, Director, Walker Newman
• Roger Kane, Managing Director, Vicom

While the workshop is progressing, the four after-lunch presentations will be:

• Good cop, better cop: Blue lights getting it right (Andrew Henderson, Inspector, Business Change Manager – CAD Replacement Project, WAPOL).
• Smart city solutions to enhance community services and public safety (Krisztian Som, Radio Solutions Business Manager, NEC Australia Pty Ltd).
• The impact of disruptive technologies on the radio industry (Lawrence McKenna, Telecommunications Section Manager, Wood & Grieve Engineers).
• Electrical equipment for hazardous Areas (EEHA) — just what is ‘intrinsically safe’? (Gary Devlin, Managing Director, DCA Extech).

“Anyone who saw Lawrence McKenna’s presentation at Comms Connect Melbourne last year will tell you that it is a not-to-be-missed occasion,” said Davis. “McKenna will present some alarming statistics that are of vital importance to the entire business- and mission-critical communications field.”

Following the close of the conference, the traditional WA ARCIA dinner will be held — full details are here.

Make sure you mark 8 March in your diary and get your registration in today — as the event is only just over one week away, with a public holiday in between. Full details of the conference, program and registration details are available on the Comms Connect Perth website.