Massive mission-critical video explored in TCCA white paper, webinar

Video is now considered to be one of the most promising and versatile technologies to improve safety, coordination, collaboration and quality decision-making for first responders, particularly during high-stakes, end-user operational scenarios.

Now a new white paper and webinar from The Critical Communications Association (TCCA) is exploring what public safety agencies and operators need to consider to successfully deploy video services supporting mission-critical operations, especially where the scale of its usage is considered ‘massive’ — ie, situations where the amount of video could potentially saturate network resources, if not appropriately managed. The overall objective is to ensure that first responders and public safety agencies (and by implication other critical communication sectors) can use video effectively and for operational benefit.

Identifying the key questions and challenges posed by mass use of video was achieved by surveying representatives from government agencies and the critical communications industry. The most frequent key challenges related to: being able to set priorities and maintain control over the video flows; ensuring seamless communications across different systems; and avoiding network flooding due to excessive video traffic.

Key use cases representing different categories of operations are documented, ie, day-to-day routine operations, pre-planned events and major incidents. When analysing these use cases, identifying video producers and consumers is fundamental to understanding the overall problem domain, and those identified include actors such as first responders, officers, dispatchers, operators, government agencies and other stakeholders.

“This white paper was created by a task force that gathered together the views from a cross-section of experts from the user community, government agencies, commercial operators, industry vendors and partner associations. The findings offer a new perspective on our understanding of how video is currently used and expected to evolve,” said Jason Johur, TCCA board member, Vice-Chair of TCCA’s Broadband Industry Group and a member of the white paper task force.

“The paper provides insights from user community early adopters and the opportunities and challenges involved in the operational use of massive mission-critical video, as well as what is likely to be demanded from the technologies involved, and the networks and services that will ultimately deliver them.”

Using video requires some forward planning and appropriate design of the network platforms to be used, especially in the case of massive video use situations. The white paper provides a set of recommendations intended for public safety agencies, network operators and solution providers/developers. It provides initial guidance for the successful use of massive mission-critical video, ensuring solutions can meet mission-critical operational needs.

The white paper ‘Guidance for the successful usage of Massive Mission Critical Video’ can be downloaded from here. The main points will be covered in a webinar on 21 January at 2 pm GMT (ie, 22 January at 1 am AEDT) — register to join here.

Image courtesy of Modirum Platforms.