Strathclyde Fire and Rescue provides perfect example of

08/03/2006

QUESTION: How do you ensure that firefighters can access critical files, connect to the internet, and communicate with HQ in a region which covers almost 5,500 square miles, includes 31 inhabited islands, has a larger coastline than France, and contains one of the biggest cities in the UK along with many large towns?

The answer is circling the earth above our heads thanks to Excelerate Technology’s industry-leading Transportable Satellite Broadband Virtual Private Network (TSBV) solutions.

Communication can and does save lives in an emergency, and for that reason, Strathclyde Fire and Rescue provides an excellent example of the effectiveness of the communication solutions supplied by Excelerate to Emergency Services organisations up and down the UK.

Strathclyde Fire and Rescue covers almost 5,500 square miles and serves almost 2.3 million people. However it is the diverse circumstances faced by officers every day which led Chief Fire Officer Brian Sweeney to Excelerate’s door.

Providing the brigade’s 3,000 firefighters with the very best communication technology available is a difficult task when faced with such huge differences in location on a daily basis. However, fast and secure communication at the scene of emergencies is essential – that’s where Excelerate and the use of satellite broadband come in.

Excelerate’s TSBV solutions enable anyone operating from Strathclyde’s Incident Command Units (ICUs) to connect to the internet and access the brigade’s computer network as if sat back at their very own workstation.

All of this takes a matter of moments of the ICU being parked at an incident, and the link is accessible whether that ICU is at a remote cove on the Strathclyde coast or right in the heart of Glasgow.

Incident-critical files and information to aid firefighters can be obtained wherever the ICU may be parked, and no matter what conditions may be faced. At the same time, information at the incident can be relayed back to HQ securely, whether that is in the form of e-mail, video and voice telephony or even live video streaming.

Five of the Strathcylde operational vehicles are now equipped with Excelerate’s TSBV solutions – and the technology has already been deployed at major incidents.

Brian Sweeney, Chief Fire Officer at Strathclyde, explained: “Excelerate Technology was the company chosen to supply us with everything that we requested to make our command vehicles fully operational across the whole region, whilst keeping a direct and secure link back to headquarters.

“We now have five units equipped with Excelerate’s satellite broadband systems. I believe it is crucial that a service operating on the scale that we do has full communication with key stakeholders whenever we need to. Broadband access is still rather limited in some areas, and within minutes of arriving at a destination we know that our command vehicle is 100 per cent operational.”

Excelerate’s part in ensuring that the ICUs remain ‘100 per cent operational’ includes the management of Strathcylde’s satellite bandwidth as the company is now the only one of its kind in the UK to operate as a Virtual Network Operator (VNO). The Excelerate technical team has even boosted power on its own satellite carrier to enable customers to operate in areas such as Northern Scotland and Western Ireland without hindrance.

And in addition to the satellite broadband solutions, Strathclyde Fire and Rescue has also acquired Excelerate’s exclusive Metal Mickey eXtra camera – a tool designed to help aid risk assessment where further information is required prior to entering a burning building or for gaining additional information at a search and rescue incident.

Metal Mickey eXtra has the ability to assess and pinpoint exactly where a fire may be and the temperature of the heat source – and this can be managed both at the scene and remotely through the TSBV solution.

With vital decisions made at ground level and safety always of paramount importance – this technology puts Strathclyde Fire and Rescue in a position to assess exactly what lies behind a solid brick wall, and what the temperature of a fire is.

Adapted from the traditional MIC1-400 camera (now affectionately known as ‘Metal Mickey’) it is designed to be completely weatherproof enabling it to be used as a submersible unit, and can be mounted in a number of ways to provide as many options as possible.

As Martin Saunders, Sales Director at Excelerate, explained: "The camera has the ability to assess and pinpoint exactly where a fire may be and the temperature of the heat source. With vital decisions made at ground level and safety always of paramount importance – this technology puts the Fire Service in a position to assess exactly what lies ahead before tackling the situation from an improved perspective.”