The Mission-Critical Resource Center

Butler County, PA Maximizes the Value of its P25 Radio System While Boosting Coverage, Capacity and Interoperability

In Summary:

• Butler County, PA's existing public safety land mobile radio system was facing end-of-life and had begun to experience reduced reliability.

• They County worked with MCP to develop a road-map that would replace the system with one that would meet their future needs.

• MCP provided a detailed assessment and implementation support and eventually, helped Butler County realize 43 percent cost-savings and long-term maintenance savings.

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"MCP has played a key role in helping us meet our project goals by managing multiple vendors on our behalf—holding them accountable for meeting project milestones, managing project risks and ensuring that they meet schedule deadlines and requirements."

Steve Bicehouse, director, Butler County, Butler County

Overview and Agency Challenge

Located 20 miles north of Pittsburgh, PA, Butler County serves nearly 200,000 people across 800 square miles. Their existing radio system was facing the need for end-of-life support and had begun to experience reduced reliability. The ten-site, eight channel system operated in a frequency band that had be reallocated by the Federal Communications Commission as mandated within the Middle-Class Tax Relief Act of 2012.

Florida County Gains 911 Network Visibility with MCP's Co-Managed IT Platform

In Summary:

• Lee County, Florida 911 officials were not satisfied with the network maintenance they were received from their technology vendors
• MCP provides ongoing IT support for Lee County via an online dashboard that is intended to provide a real-time network diagram and information on active alarms and ticket status, as well as reporting capabilities.

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Overview and Agency Challenge

Maintaining network up time during large-scale disasters like Hurricane Irma and during normal operations was top of mind for Lee County, Florida officials. Despite several 911 vendors providing 911 network monitoring services, Lee County officials weren’t satisfied with the level of service they were receiving. They sought greater clarity on network activity, more customization (instead of an off-the-shelf solution), and a mechanism for identifying current and historic network activities.

10 Facts Every PSAP Should Know About Data Integration

The future of data integration: 10 facts every public safety answering point (PSAP) should know.

Critical data is springing up everywhere. This quick read discusses the ten most important elements about data integration every public safety agency should know, ranging from precise location information, smart and safe cities, social media data usage in the PSAP, data sources, supplemental data, as well as GIS data management. 

Public Safety Should Look Hard at Mission-Critical Push-to-Talk

In Summary:

• Push-to-talk over celluar (PTTOC) and mission-critical push-to-talk MCPTT services are provisioned over broadband wireless services and replicate the walkie-talkie functionality of traditional land mobile radio (LMR) portable radios.

• Through gateways, these services can be interfaced with LMR networks to allow audio to be transmitted from LMR channels to the broadband application, and vice versa.

• They offer a good alternative for personnel who have no need for a digital radio on a daily basis but need to be provided situational awareness and coordinated incident command.

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This whitepaper examines push-to-talk over celluar and mission-critical push-to-talk technology, explaining why they may be a better choice than LMR in some cases, and how they provide significantly more flexibility regarding application, device and network choices. The biggest benefit of MCPTT service is that it replicates the PTT functionality of traditional LMR systems on devices that are smaller, lighter and much less expensive than portable radios traditionally carried by first responders. Also examined are important factors to consider when deciding whether to implement the technology.

On-Demand Webinar: Making the Case for 5G in Public Safety Communications

Fifth-generation (5G) wireless communications has the ability to accommodate the fast-growing demand for bandwidth required for the delivery of multimedia content, including video, images and social media, to PSAPs. During this webinar, MCP subject-matter experts discusses how 5G can help improve emergency response and what it means for communities and public safety organizations alike.

Discussion topics during this session include:

• Why 5G is critical to evolving emergency response
• The types of platforms and data 5G will support
• How implementation of 5G will impact municipalities
• Steps you can take to prepare your public safety organization

On-demand webinar length: 45 minutes 

Infographic: The Possibilities of a Converged FirstNet and NG911 Public Safety System

See the possibilities of a converged FirstNet and NG911 public safety system with this infographic from Mission Critical Partners.

911 Call-Handling System Procurement and Implementation Support in San Francisco

In Summary:

• The San Francisco Department of Emergency Management sought a robust, modern call-handling solution and needed guidance defining requirements, as well as during the procurement and implementation process.

• In 2017, they hired Mission Critical Partners to help them build requirements, and to support the agency's implementation efforts.

• The new call-handling solution has played a role helping 911 call-answering times improve.

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"MCP's guidance during the procurement stage was invaluable. Their familiarity working with 911 call-handling system vendors and their knowledge of the newest technology and vendors available played an essential role helping us feel more comfortable with the requirements-gathering and RFP process."

Jun Chen, PMO Manager, City and County of San Francisco

Overview and Agency Challenge

The city of San Franscisco Department of Emergency Management (DEM) sought a robust, modern call-handling system that would support its 42 call-taking positions. A second requirement was a path to a National Emergency Number Association (NENA) i3-compliant system and meeting public safety standards for performance and reliability. They looked for a partner that could provide guidance defining requirements, as well as during the procurement and implementation process.

MCP Helps the Imperial Valley Pursue PSAP Regionalization

In Summary:

• Imperial County, CA is served by four public safety answering points (PSAPs) that provide call-taking and dispatching services for the Imperial Valley.
• In 2017, they hired Mission Critical Partners to help them determine if physical regionalization made sense.
• MCP provided a comprehensive feasibility study that made a recommendation to transition its four PSAPs into two mutually supporting PSAPs.

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"With MCP's help, we've identified the issues and challenges that stand between us and a successful regionalization effort. Now that we know it could work for us, we need to determine how to make it a reality and execute on that plan."

Mark Schmidt, Emergency Communications Project Coordinator, Imperial County Communication Authority, Imperial County, California

Overview and Agency Challenge

Imperial Valley, California, is served by four public safety answering points (PSAPs) that provide call-taking and dispatching services for the Imperial Valley. The Imperial Valley Communications Authority (IVECA), in conjunction with the San Diego County Regional Communications System , provides public safety voice and data communications to more than 200 local, state and federal agencies in San Diego and Imperial counties.

The County’s PSAPs were already sharing technology resources, but wanted to figure out if sharing services also made sense in terms of staffing and maintenance costs.

On-Demand Webinar: FirstNet and NG911 Convergence: The New Public Safety Communications Platform

Over the next 5-10 years, FirstNet will deploy the Nationwide Public Safety Broadband Network (NPSBN). As a parallel process, emergency services IP networks will be built to provide interconnectivity between PSAPs to allow for deployment and utilization of Next Generation 911 (NG911) technologies by PSAPs across the nation. In this session, MCP examines the major issues involved with the transition to this new platform for public safety communications and provide a glimpse into what the emergency communications environment could look like in the next 10-20 years. 

What's the Future of Land Mobile Radio in a FirstNet World?

In Summary:

• Many public safety agencies have pondered whether the Nationwide Public Safety Broadband Network (NPSBN), being implemented by the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) will someday replace the land mobile radio systems that have traditionally provided mission-critical voice services.

• Agencies should continue to invest in their LMR systems, even to the point of replacing them if necessary.

• Government agencies should continue to track the progress of FirstNet, for the day will eventually come when the NPSBN has developed to the point that it is a viable alternative for LMR.

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On-Demand Webinar: Radio Interoperability and the Role of FirstNet

This on-demand webinar explores the concept of radio interoperability, which is an essential and fundamental component of effective first responder communications. Topics of discussion include interoperability tools and methods, technologies available on the market today, as well as what agencies should should consider when improving interoperability. Also discussed is how interoperability doesn't stop with technology, and the role that operations, training and planning plays in achieving true interoperability.

In this webinar we discuss:

• Why the industry isn't there yet from an interoperability standpoint
• What has been done to date
• Roadblocks to interoperability
• The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Interoperability Continuum
• The role of FirstNet

MCP Provides Vendor Support Services in Cobb County, GA to Drive Service Excellence and Cost-Savings

In Summary:

• Cobb County, Georgia public safety officials wanted to assure they were paying a fair price for support of their land mobile radio (LMR) system.

• Working alongside MCP, they completed a fair market pricing assessment and data-driven analysis for the LMR system maintenance costs.

• Armed with this information, the partnership was able to negotiate more favorable cost targets, enhanced system performance reports and significant savings on costs.

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Overview and Agency Challenge

Looking to lower expenses without sacrificing support, Cobb County, Georgia, began exploring the possibilities of renegotiating their Project 25 (P25) land mobile radio system maintenance agreement with the vendor. They wanted to better understand the services, terms and conditions, and the associated costs included with the maintenance contract. With limited knowledge of how their fees compared to similar-sized systems in the public safety sector, they sought assurance they were paying a fair price for the support provided.