Preview: Comms Connect Sydney 2015

Comms Connect Sydney is on again, bigger and better than ever!

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, bigger, centrally located venue will make it easier for everyone to attend and make the most of 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.

New venue

The first Comms Connect Sydney was held last year at the Australian Technology Park in Redfern. This cozy venue was a great location and helped generate a tremendous buzz amongst the exhibitors and visitors.

But in order to accommodate more exhibitors and provide greater space for mingling and networking, this year the event is shifting to a larger venue at the Sydney Showground in the Olympic Park precinct. This location, right in the geographic and demographic heart of Sydney, was chosen to provide easy access by road and rail for all attendees. And judging by the number of exhibitors already booked (see below), the shift of venue has been welcomed with wide-open arms. Expect an even bigger buzz!

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.

At the time of going to press, among the many experts lined up to speak were:

• Dr Brian Burns, Prehospital & Retrieval Specialist, Sydney Helicopter Emergency Medical Specialists, Ambulance Service of NSW
• Mike Lawrey, Executive Director, Defence, Telstra
• 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

Keep watching the Comms Connect website (comms-connect.com.au) for updates.

Exhibitors

At the time of going to press, it was expected that both the exhibition space and number of exhibitors would be 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. Confirmed workshops at the time of going to press were:

Workshop 1: Advanced radio over IP (RoIP), 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.

The implications of RoIP for dispatch consoles will be also be discussed, such as how dispatch console to radio connections can be implemented with RoIP and how RoIP can be used to provide fault-tolerant dispatch architectures. The workshop will also look at the radio-over-IP scenario with some thoughts regarding open standards and how this can work for application developers and the impacts on network architecture.

Finally, the workshop will look at the impact of new technologies such as IPv6, wireless broadband and the switch to digital radio on the RoIP landscape.

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 enlighten many to 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. It will cover: designing voice and data and SCADA applications to meet business critical operations; the migration from analog and trunked radio networks; hybrid solution options for voice, narrowband data and the progress of the standards such as broadband wireless technologies such as LTE; integrated console dispatch systems; and testing digital radio networks and subscriber terminals.

Details of a fourth workshop covering public safety issues were expected to be available on the Comms Connect website by the time you receive this magazine.

The conference program, exhibitor list and registration details are available right now on the Comms Connect website. The workshops in particular tend to fill up quickly, so make sure you get your registration in as soon as possible.

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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What: Comms Connect Sydney 2015

When: 3-5 June 2015

Where: Sydney Showground, Olympic Park

Web: comms-connect.com.au