Friday fragments - comms news from around the web for 30 August 2013

A weekly round-up of critical communications and public safety radio news from around the internet for Friday, 30 August 2013.

Marathon review. Boston Emergency Medical Services has combined radio traffic tapes with video footage recorded by a photographer to review events and procedures in the wake of the bombing on 14 April 2013. Boston EMS superintendent Brendan Kearney told The Boston Globe, “A lot of people just had so many mental gaps about what happened, that's why they wanted to hear the tape; and once they heard the tape, a lot of it came back."

Brouhaha brewing. A decision by the US State Department to award a US$67.6 million contract for public radio safety systems for embassies to a foreign supplier has come under fire from a domestic manufacturer of P25 radios. The manufacturer claims the foreign-supplied radios are inferior to its products and that the State Department should have supported local industry over foreign suppliers.

APCOA 2014. Organisers of the 2014 APCO Australasia Conference and Exhibition, to be held in Melbourne from 29 April to 1 May, say bookings for exhibition floor space is selling fast. Exhibitors who were at the 2013 event can save 25% on their 2014 booking.

CCTV in the UK. The United Kingdom is the world's fourth-largest market for CCTV, behind China, the USA and Japan. It's a technology that is widely used by security and public safety agencies, with an estimated one camera for every 16 people. A new video surveillance code of conduct introduced mid-August is unlikely to slow down the proliferation of CCTV installations, says a new market report from IHS. The report's authors say that suppliers and installers are already accustomed to working within stricter regulatory environments in other jurisdictions