There are many novelties presented between 21 and 23 June a Vienna al Critical Communication Worldthe event during which (for over 20 years) the progress made in the field of critical communications, dedicated to law enforcement agencies, armies, security forces, including private ones, and rescuers is shown.
Communicating today is easy and immediate, but there are situations where it is less so. Cases in which the security and confidentiality of communications must be protected and cases in which the cellular network is not usable.
Both conditions on which Motorola Solutions has been concentrating since 2011, closely observing the market to which it is aimed. A company strategy confirmed by the engineer Ildefonso de la Cruz: the best way to know the critical issues is to solve them. A research that prompted Motorola Solutions to also imagine future needs, putting the MXP7000 on the market.
As they say, it is a rugged device (robust, in short), designed for every condition and for every type of critical situation. The available applications allow the information collected in the field to be transmitted in real time, including videos that are forwarded to all members of the intervening group, as well as to the control centers from which the missions are coordinated. It combines the 4G LTE voice and data standard with the Tetra one, a radio wave communication system used mainly by armies, law enforcement agencies, rescue services and even private security services. IS also equipped with broadband Push-To-Talk, a closed communications system that allows the sending of video and data and through which each user accesses only the groups with which he is authorized to interact. And the 5 ”display can also be used while wearing gloves.
This is an all-in-one solution already adopted by the German armed forces. A flagship among Motorola Solutions products, as he pointed out The senior vice president, Mark Schmidl: “We want to meet our customers’ rigorous standards, while also ensuring the military has resilient voice communications and access to the critical intelligence they need to support every mission.”
Safety
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Evolving devices
The sensors, which the devices are equipped with, become more and more reliable thanks to the experience gathered in the field. There are sensors proximity, barometer, gyroscope, accelerometer, rain gauge, smoke detectors and more.
The data collected by the devices is subject to constant control because it is of vital importance for the response, which must be implemented by those who must guarantee security. Evolution is built “with customers for customers”Motorola’s vice president of sales Michael Kaae pointed out: Motorola’s are not solutions that try to break into the market, they grow with it.
Presence in Austria
Motorola Solutions is also involved in managing and maintaining communication networks: in Austria, the Tetra network has been implemented by the subsidiary Tetron Digitalfunk and has already exceeded the threshold of 100 thousand users of emergency services. Nationally, around 90% of digital radio devices used by public safety are Tetra handhelds with solutions implemented by Motorola Solutions, all certified by the Bundesministerium Inneres, the Austrian Interior Ministry.
It must be said that the Austrian market is not a simple market: being the destination of many tourists, it is advisable for the emergency services to be effective and coordinated with each other. The network includes over 1600 sites and connects 24 control rooms between police, rescue and firefighters. In January 2022, Vienna was the scene of various kinds of demonstrations, not least those organized by No Vax: in those days the network withstood the weight of over 50 thousand radio calls. Another 11 thousand calls were made to coordinate the interventions of the firefighters who had to put out a fire in an industrial plant in April.
Critical communications in the field
Devices are not enough to guarantee communication in critical situations. This is why Motorola Solutions has also focused on the Critical Connect service, a cloud-based gateway that eliminates the barriers between different communication networks, allowing the exchange of voice and data between different agencies. There is also the automatic license plate recognition system, called L6Q, used as part of targeted investigations.
Scan with precision vehicles moving up to 120 kilometers per hour and 23 meters away and is equipped with an infrared lighting system with improved sensors that allow it to work at its best even in the total absence of light.
Cameras are also used to verify i data collected by the sensors of the devices: if (for example) the presence of smoke is detected, the images of the area can give more indications, even to deny the gravity that the sensors can suggest.
Close the circle
Connectivity becomes as-a-service, therefore a control center is needed that acts both as a collector of information and as a hub for the administration and management of the human forces employed: Motorola Solutions has developed a platform dedicated with which it remotely monitors and manages the events on which an intervention is required. In moments of tension, confusion increases: knowing that one can be guided by those who have the overview has a impact positive on the outcome of the missions, whether they are safety or rescue.
The proliferation of data requires ever faster and more precise correlation, and Motorola invests heavily in software solutions, capable of interfacing with multiple databases and replicating them so that they are always updated and reachable. Being able to collect and manage information from devices and sensors is relevant, enriching them with the testimonies of those who have witnessed the events is an essential surplus.
What Motorola Solutions does
Lorenzo Spadoni, government account manager of Motorola Solutions, told us what Italy means for the US company, which has been on the market since 2011 with two spinoffs called Motorola Solutions and Mobility (Google bought Motorola Mobility in 2011 and then resold it to Lenovo in 2014): “We only make technologies for the mission critical world, therefore public safety, emergencies and private surveillance. In 2011, the entire Mobility package was sold to Google for 12 billion dollars with patents attached, money partly invested for make acquisitions and become very specific, so as to be an end-to-end security company. We have also acquired public safety operators, especially in English-speaking countries “.
Motorola Solutions is a provider whose core business is professional communication systems, also aimed at governments. On the other hand there is video surveillance, a sector that has a global level turnover of 8.2 billion dollars in 2021, 68% of which in the United States. Software solutions and management services complete the circle. Motorola supplies the network, maintains and supports customers in using it: “The Autonomous Province of Trento – added Spadoni – has a network that Motorola keeps performing well. When there was the Vaia stormin 2018, the network was 8 years old, and for days it allowed rescuers to intervene “.
Security solutions are not just cameras with software, but they rely on artificial intelligence algorithms which (applied to the cameras) make it possible to reach a higher level: “The stream generated by the cameras does not only contain images, but also metadata that locally pre-process the video streams for the rapid application of algorithms to identify people and anomalous behaviors. To date there are more than a billion cameras in the world, and it is unthinkable to believe that there are only operators watching them: they are necessary software that support them and activate the procedures necessary to the case. Once a risk is identified, communication systems are used to inform who is in the field and monitor the event ”Spadoni explained to us again. This is the sense of the Motorola strategy: to prevent, manage and examine the event even after it has ended.
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Motorola Solutions’ relationship with Italy
The Autonomous Province of Trento is not the only stronghold: in Italy, Motorola Solutions has about forty employees, and one of the two hubs that provide support to the UN in mission at peacekeeping is in Brindisi. Spadoni clarified to us that “they are operations management centers, while Motorola Solutions research is distributed all over the world“.
Motorola e l’Africa
Africa was the big absentee of the fixed telephone company, so Motorola’s solutions seem like an opportunity for the whole continent: “Radio equipment is important on the African scenario, made up of great distances and great variability of infrastructures local, because they fill the gap, they do simple things very well, such as the transmission of voice, messages and GPS positions ”, was Spadoni’s concluding reflection.