Friday fragments - critical comms news from around the web

A weekly round-up of critical communications and public safety radio news for Friday, 7 February 2014.

NSW Government announces Globe. The New South Wales Government has teamed up with Google to provide an online tool called NSW Globe, which will combine satellite and aerial imagery with GPS and GIS data to display land, road, railway and property information. This will be of significant benefit to users such as emergency services providers and utilities.

Intelligent network nodes. BATS Wireless has confirmed an order for 150 BATS (Broadband Antenna Tracking Systems) intelligent network nodes for an undisclosed defence customer. The new order will bring to 850 the number of BATS systems in use in defence and public safety operations around the world.

Emergency radios for schools. More schools in the USA are being equipped with one-button emergency radio systems that connect directly to local emergency communications centres, removing the need to place a 911 phone call. One of the latest to join the trend is Hilliard District in Ohio. Local police chief, Doug Francis, told 10tv.com that “It gets us there faster … It gives us the opportunity to immediately know what’s going on in that school.”

Re-use your radios. Meanwhile, another Ohio school has issued handheld radios to teaching staff. The units operate on a superseded frequency vacated by the local police and enable teachers to speak directly to officers. As the radios were already owned by the local government, all it took was US$400 to reprogram them.

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