s.press 2010/2 En

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The Swissphone Magazine for Public Safety & Industry

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Issue 2 | 2010

Swissphone radio network planning:from simulation to verification Page 10

HURRICANE DUO: first POCSAG receiver with text and voice rendition Page 4

Efficient alert process withpaging, GSM and GPS Page 8

INSIDE

CONTENTS Editorial 03

PRODUCTS

HURRICANE DUO converts textmessages to voice messages 04

Add-on module gives operators overview of free hospital beds 06

SOLUTIONS

Combination of paging, GSM and GPSdelivers optimal alert management 08

Swissphone radio network planninggoes from simulation to verification 10

SOLUTIONS

Digital alert network deliversseamless coverage in Heilbronn 12

BACkGROUND

German Red Cross in Baden-Württemberg delivers training with Swissphone dispatch system 14

EVENTSSwissphone on the road 16

02 | 03

EDITORIALDear customers and business partners

Alerting operational crews is a question of time! They need to be mobilised as rapidly as possible, and directed as accurately as possible to the site of ope-rations – with the right level of manpower and the appropriate equipment. For over 40 years now, Swissphone has been working on designs and solutions to constantly improve this process. Paging is “just one”, but a very important component of the overall solution. To meet the above requirements even more precisely, we have adapted our product development initiatives to be better targeted to cu-stomer need. This has not only generated total solutions for alerting operational crews – showing the manpower level for the monitoring station immediately after the issued alert (for example by installing a RES.Q device and the corresponding monitoring solution), but also pagers yielded with even higher levels of performance (like the HURRICANE DUO), thus improving the entire alert chain. By applying this strategy of incorporating the various system components into the alert chain

– from pager to dispatch system to country-wide paging networks – in future, Swissphone will also be in a position to offer the best solutions tailored to customer requirements. The Swissphone team will be happy to assist you in finding the best solution for your needs. Our goal is to increase efficiency and quality levels for your alert process – not to mention minimising risks and costs at the same time. Our subsidiaries in Switzerland, Germany, France, Austria and the USA and our specialist retailers are all at your disposal for any enquiries. You will find the rele-vant contact details on our web site at: www.swissphone.com.

Yours sincerely, Helmut Adamski

Helmut Adamski, Chief Executive Officer


Author: Andreas Manser · Product Manager, Swissphone Telecom AG, Samstagern

HURRICANE DUO: new functions in a tried and tested

“package”

The upgraded HURRICANE DUO offers lots of new options, but Swissphone has left in the tried and tested features. In fact, the reliable and robust casing design from the Quattrino and HURRICANE messaging device series has also been used for the HURRICANE DUO. But inside, the messaging device is totally new. This is the world’s first POCSAG device where alert texts are not just displayed, but also read out using voice synthesis.

Text converted to speech

First, the written text is analysed through a speech synthesizer. This includes looking at the sentence structure in order to render the emphasis correctly later. When the analysis is complete, the text is converted into speech by assembling the memo-

rised “parts of speech” – called samples. Samples can include whole words, for example, figures, or just sound transfers. However, the stress on the words in a sentence is very important for the speech synthesis to be understood. This is why it is preferable to put whole sentences though the speech synthesizer. This makes sentence analysis easier, delivering the correct emphasis and therefore a good level of comprehension.

Now with full graphic display

You will notice another major innovation as soon as the HURRICANE DUO device is switched on. A customer-specific image appears: the display is now not just a segment display, but has full graphics instead. The graphic display enables

The HURRICANE DUO is the first POCSAG receiver to display alert texts and read them out, too.

PRODUCTS


intuitive operation of the device. Menu navigation is made simple with symbols that are easy to recog-nise, and up to five lines of message text can be shown on the display. This combination of text and voice messaging delivers a great number of benefits: people will grasp a message rapidly because it is addressed to more than one of the senses. The voice message option means that information about an event can be taken in immedi-ately at night – even if the recipient is not wearing his/her glasses. Because the device can be confi- gured for text messaging alone, confidentiality can be assured at all times. A message can be read “secretly”. The message can be made easier to understand in that it can be displayed and read out at the same time.

A range of options for setting alerts

Naturally, all the usual benefits of Swissphone mess-aging devices have been retained or upgraded in the HURRICANE DUO: it supports express alarm, boasts IDEA encryption and round cell (AA/Mignon) power supply. And it has also long been a standard option to change the alert settings depending on whether the HURRICANE DUO is left in the charger or worn on a belt. The “charger mask” will define separately for each RIC whether the alert in the charger is “always on”, “always off” or the same as when worn on a belt. This means that the mess-

aging device can be programmed so that it only vibrates during the day – in the office, for example – and, as soon as it is back in the charger, it will respond to a call with a loud alarm signal.

64 switchable addresses

The profiles option has also proved its worth – en- abling you to switch between several address groups. Swissphone calls this function the selection profile. The name reflects the feature where by any selection profile can be selected (active). For example, users can set the selection profile for “working day” or “weekend” and allocate different addresses to them: say the “working day” profilefor technical support and fire alert addresses and the “weekend” profile for fire alerts only. Users can then decide which of the two profiles needs to be active.The HURRICANE DUO now also offers the additional “switch profile” option. Again, one or more addresses can be allocated to each switch profile: this now gives the messaging device 64 switchable address-es. There is now no need to choose between “profile” and switchable address: you can now do both. HURRICANE DUO users are free to choose which of the 64 profiles should be set as selection profiles or switch profiles. This makes it easy to display emergency services and set up switch pro-files for specialist functions, for example.

04 | 05

Are you looking for free hospital beds for

emergency patients?

Do a quick search with “bed indicator”

Author: Angelika Maier · Marketing, Swissphone Systems GmbH, Stuttgart

An accident in the Cologne area on the A3 near Sieg-burg: the emergency doctor is treating a severely injured person at the scene. The victim is uncon-scious and has head injuries. For an accurate diagnosis, the patient needs to undergo computer tomography as quickly as possible. The operatorin charge at the Rhein-Sieg area command and con-trol centre checks which hospital the patient could be taken to quickest. Seconds later, a search using the add-on bed indicator module throws up that there is a bed free in intensive care in the emerg-ency surgery department of the nearby Helios Clinic in Siegburg. The bed indicator module is an add-on software package for the secur.CAD dipatch system. It also shows that the clinic offers computer tomography. The operator enters the hospital located in this way as the transport destina-tion in the operation acceptance mask and com-municates the search result to the rescue team at the site of operations.

Free hospital beds at a glance

The add-on bed indicator module gives the operator precise information on all hospitals in the region. A considerable amount of data is stored for thispurpose: “objects” i. e. hospitals, departmentsand stations on the one hand, and beds with adescription (regular bed/intensive care bed) and further information such as gender, special field, specialist department, bed type, ventilator etc.,on the other. The necessary criteria for the required bed are selected for the bed search. The result is presented in the form of a table. The object in which the bed is located can be directly entered as the transport destination.

PRODUCTSPRODUCTS


accident location

Bed availability update

To ensure that the system is always up to date, the operator has to carry out data management on a regular basis. The numbers of free beds are communicated by hospital staff by phone, fax or email. If there is a change to bed availability, the operator enters the end of the period of validity as a date and time. When this period has elapsed, it is indicated in the bed indicator that the information is no longer valid, and the operator receives a message automatically generated by the dispatch system. Hospitals can also manage bed availability information themselves via the web application secur.CAD//Web, which is the best way to ensure that data is up to date.

Forward planning for bed occupancy

The bed indicator search tool is not just useful for emergency cases only. Around 80 percent of rescue service operations are hospital transport assignments that can be planned in advance – hospitalisation of a patient, for example. Hospital stays of this kind are entered in the bed indicator as pre-bookings on a daily basis. The number of pre-bookings for a station/hospital is given in a coloured field in the bed indicator.

Optimal: combination of bed indicator, routing and secur.mobile modules

The routing module is a useful addition to the bed indicator. This will work out the exact route from the starting point – site of the accident or operation – to the hospital selected from the bed indicator. The linear distance of the bed indicator module is given as a rough guide to the actual distance. Routing will not only work out the exact distance, but also the estimated time to get to the hospital. This is particularly important if there are obstacles to over-come along the way. If the hospital is at the other side of a river, the route will go via the nearest bridge. In some circumstances, the routing differs conside-rably from the linear distance. If the rescue vehicles are equipped with a mobile PC and secur.mobile software, the selected result can be communicated directly to the driver, and the software will auto-matically initiate navigation to the hospital.

actual distance

linear distance

hospital

06 | 07

Author: Tony Nyffeler · Sales Director and member of the Executive Board, Swissphone Wireless AG, Bern

Combination of three technologies optimises alert mana gement

The demands in terms of alert management on emergency organisations are increasing all the time: The challenge is to improve damage limitation, at the same time achieving improved efficiency in terms of resources – all with a decreasing number of operational staff and specialists.

RES.Q combines paging, GSM and GPS Swissphone has taken on the requirements of the Zurich Property Insurance Company, and worked closely with this long-established customer to optimise alert management accordingly. The intelligent interaction of several technologies – paging, GSM and GPS – can help to make the alert process

for this property insurance company even more efficient. Alerts are still issued via the secure and reliable paging network, but the GSM channel now makes it possible to issue prompt responses – first as to whether the receiver has had the messages or not and secondly, whether a crew that has been summoned can attend the incident or not. There is also the option for zone alerts via GPS. This means that the command and control centre can summon those people who are already in the vicinity of the incident, and therefore attend the site of operations quickly.

SOLUTIONS

Combination of three technologies optimises alert mana gement

Dual frequency with response channel

The property insurance company project, which is now in its final phase of completion, includes a redundancy solution, which is a combination of dual frequency alerts (DFA) with the new RES.Q platform plus response channel. The corresponding RES.Q device receives messages on two paging frequencies via two mutually independent radio net-works, at the same time using the versatile options offered by the new RES.Q solution. In terms of the alert process, this saves the property insurance company valuable time, delivering security and transparency and ultimately improving the quality of its alert system.

Benefits at a glance

Shortly after receiving the automatic receipt confirmation and via the manual response (“Yes, I can attend”, “Unable to attend”), the RES.Q solution lets the command and control centre know the number and availability of the summoned manpower. A correspondingly precise follow-up alert is a further benefit offered by the RES.Q solution. Combining it with GPS location also makes it possible to establish the geographic availability of operation-al crews and specialists, which saves time: operation control can immediately summon specialists who are closest to the site of operations.


08 | 09

Author: Harald Pfurtscheller · Head of Research and Development, Swissphone Telecom AG, Samstagern

Swissphone radio network planning:

from simulation to verification

For users, the most important attributes of a radio network are good coverage and a high transfer rate. The network operator therefore needs to know from the start which locations they have to deliver reliable radio message reception. Whether this means inside buildings in built-up areas or in a moving vehicle in a wooded area, the insulation factors need to be individually factored into the simulation software calculation. This type of consideration has to be the basis of any radio network planning. The network operator also needs to be thinking about radio network monitoring and continuous surveil-lance at this point.

Transmission site assessment

When the network operator has established the required coverage values, available sites for trans-mission aerials need to be tested and assessed. In order to conduct the radio coverage projection using simulation software, further information such as aerial type, mast height and reliable emission performance is needed. Another important factor is the end device – the pager. It is necessary to determine the essential critical values for the call sensitivity level of the end device. In turn, this must be aligned with the scheduled network field strength. This ensures that the established coverage is also suited to the characteristics of the pager. In addition to field strength, the following parameters also need to be taken into account:

SOLUTIONS


multi-path reception, synchronous transmission and signal loss in overlap areas.

Establishing coverage levels

A range of strategies can be applied for simulation. You can plan for maximum field strength, minimum interference and other characteristics. However, these must always be supported by the network architecture established and level of coverage planned for at the outset. An iterative process is used to ensure that the desired quality and per-formance are in line with the available financial re-sources. This is because, in most cases, the cost of a radio network delivering optimal coverage ex-ceeds the resources available. The more freedom the planner has in the choice of sites, aerials and mast heights, the better he/she will be able to execute the task in relation to the performance of the radio network. After the planning phase, previously established coverage must be compared against calculated coverage. This marks the end of the radio network planning phase, and construc-tion can now begin. This starts with the construc-tion of the entire network, provided that all the neces-sary site approvals are available. If a site is not approved or is subject to restrictions, this will have a major influence on planning the radio network. The appropriate corrections will then have to be factored back into the overall plan.

Monitoring via continuous measurement

Given that is not always possible to take all factors into account in a computer-based simulation of radio coverage, it is essential to verify the actual situation. This can be achieved through continuous measurements or extensive test runs. The accuracy of the scope of measurement is also particularly important. The subsequent comparison of the measured and simulated values should show far-reaching agreement. Special attention should be given to any incompatible measurement values, as, in some circumstances, this can point towards future reception problems for the pager. In addition to field strength, the radio network should also be checked for overlap zones. Even really thorough planning and simula-tion will not encompass all the factors influencing a radio network. This particularly concerns over- shoots and reflection, which can lead to fading or co-channel interference from adjacent or foreign transmitter sites. For the smooth running of a radio network, it is therefore essential to carry out basic definition, planning, verification and monitoring proce- dures. Swissphone’s many years of experience in all areas is a guarantee of comprehensive advice and support.

10 | 11

Author: Christoph Schäfer · Head of Product Sales, Swissphone Telecommunications GmbH, Gundelfingen

Heilbronn: digital alert network delivers seamless coverage

The city and district of Heilbronn had the digital alert network up and running by the end of May. This covers the metropolitan built-up area of the city of Heilbronn – an area of one hundred square kilo-metres – and the large surrounding district, with a terrain of 1,100 square kilometres that is highly demanding for radio technology. With a resident population in excess of 450,000 over 75,000 alerts are processed for the fire brigade and rescue services every year. In future, this will be happening via the new Heilbronn integrated command and con-trol centre (ILS), which is planned to be brought on line by the end of 2011.

Future-proof alert technology

Following detailed research into the future of communications technology for emergency services, especially the future of alert technology, and under the guidance of Fire Chief Uwe Vogel, area command announced that it will be introducing a digital alert system. The reasons behind this decision are multi-layered: seamless coverage of the supply zone was achieved with optimal multi-supply for the entire area.

This constitutes major progress compared to the partially intermittent supply delivered by the previous analogue radio technology. Apart from seamless coverage, another important reason is the separation of alerts from the voice radio channel.In the past, the combination of the two led to un-acceptable delays to alerts in major incidents. Digital alert technology is also future-proof, as, even after the introduction of the new digital voice radio technology (TETRA is currently in development in the Federal Republic of Germany) and the attendant shutdown of the 4-meter band relay radio infra-structure, a stand-alone alert structure still re-mains in place.

Data protection assured

Another point in favour of digital alert technology relates to the requirements of data protection managers. In legal terms, the city and district of Heilbronn is the network operator. It has to

SOLUTIONS


ensure that any data sent via this network cannot be accessed by a third party. For example, it is obvious that alert messages from the rescue ser-vices in which address details and the clinical picture are communicated to the rescue vehicle should not get into the hands of unauthorised third parties. Swissphone’s digital alert technology guarantees that this will not happen. All texts are encoded with a 128-bit code, and can only be de-coded by the corresponding end devices, such as the BOSS 925V end device, or by the FDM.X vehicle communications system (with navigation). By using encryption, the city and district of Heilbronn is taking a leading role in Baden-Württemberg: It is the first district in Baden-Württemberg to encrypt all messages.

34 digital alert converters

The alert network for the city and district of Heilbronn includes fully redundant master DAU operation (digital alarm converter) with two digital alarm trans-mitters, which are controlled via radio relay system

and DSL. In addition to the digital alarm transmitter at the command and control centre for the voluntary fire brigade in Neckarsulm, the operation control ve-hicle of the Heilbronn professional fire brigade was also fitted with an alarm transmitter as a backup a number of years ago. A total of 34 DAUs were erected across the area, five of them in vandal-proof enclosures outdoors. Heilbronn uses 5,200 BOSS 925V pagers, which were fully programmed after ex-tensive preparative work at the Swissphone plant in Samstagern. With 32 radio identification codes, the pager model chosen offers a wide range of programming options, and has plenty of reserves for future tasks and changing alert structures.

12 | 13

Author: Günter Rapp · Head of Area Operations, Swissphone Systems GmbH, Stuttgart

German Red Cross College in Baden-Württemberg uses

secur.CAD

The College of the national Association of the German Red Cross (GRC) in Baden-Württemberg has been located in the idyllic Black Forest community of Pfalz-grafenweiler for decades. This school gives courses in all specialist areas covered by the GRC, plus training for command and control centre operators. Because the GRC has the greatest number of operators in rescue centres and integrated command and control centres, courses have been taking place at the College since as far back as 1974.

From hard copy to dispatch system

When the first course took place, the most important components of a command and control centre were a telephone system, radio equipment and an alert transmitter for triggering pagers. Most re-cords for emergencies and the entire workflow were made on paper, and recording the times of individual status reports from vehicles or situation reports was done with a time clock. Command and control centre technology has since come on in leaps and bounds. Having worked with dispatch systems in command and control centres across

The teaching centre at German Red Cross College in Baden-Württemberg was fitted with the Swissphone secur.CAD dispatch system in January 2010.

BACkGROUND

the country over the past 25 years, teaching staff in charge at the College set up a training room a number of years ago that was solely for the purpose of training operators. They then acquired the necessa-ry hardware for the dispatch system and started fitting messaging technology components.

Swissphone offers secur.CAD

Management at Swissphone Systems GmbH were asked to make the secur.CAD dispatch system available to the teaching centre, and this duly went ahead in 2010. The main task for Swissphone Systems in providing secur.CAD dispatch software was the efficient management of the system by specialist staff at a command and control centre using secur.CAD as the dispatch system. This challenge was quickly met within the GRC: staff at the Esslingen command and control centre and GRC in Stuttgart, who work simultaneously at the integrated command and control centre in Stuttgart, have been installed as command and control centre training staff.The dispatch system consists of a database server and five work stations, each equipped with three

monitors. The training control centre uses the data from the command and control centre in Esslingen, and both systems have the same software. This en-sures that trainees are trained on an actual up to date system.

User-friendly

Swissphone soon received lots of positive feed-back from the initial courses, especially from operators, who previously had no point of contact with the secur.CAD dispatch system. A rapid briefing soon taught them how to carry out the most important steps involved in a standard operation themselves without any help. From taking the emer-gency call to scheduling, issuing alerts and managing operations, secur.CAD can be used intuitively.The focus of the training is how to talk to callers and the proper tactical/operations procedure for daily tasks such as taking an emergency call, right up to scheduling and operation control for a major incident such as a large number of injured people for example.

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EVENTS

IMPRESSUM

Edited and published by:

Swissphone Telecom AG Corporate Communications

Fälmisstrasse 21CH-8833 Samstagern

Swissphone on the road

Design

D’ART Visuelle Kommunikation GmbHAdlerstrasse 41 D-70199 Stuttgart

[email protected]

Tel.: +41 44 786 77 70 Fax: +41 44 786 77 71

[email protected]

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2010 calendar

Dates Event Location Background information

1st – 3rd october Retter 2010 Wels (A) www.rettermesse.at

5th – 8th october Security 2010 Essen (D) www.security-messe.de

3rd – 5th november Sécurité Romandie 2010 Lausanne (CH) www.securite-expo.ch

17th – 18th november ArbeitsSicherheit Schweiz 2010 Basel (CH) www.arbeits-sicherheit-schweiz.ch

23rd – 25th november PMRExpo 2010 Köln (D) www.pmrexpo.com

s.press 2010/2 En

Documents

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