British APCO 2012 – the annual event held by the British Association of Public Safety Communications Officials earlier this month – has been heralded as a great success by organisers and a marked improvement on last year’s show. Taking place at Manchester Central (formerly the GMEX) after several years in London, the event offered a mix of meetings, development sessions and an exhibition showcasing the latest technologies available in the sector.

The general consensus among delegates and exhibitors was that the change of venue gave the show a real boost this year. Alan House, president of British APCO, commented: “We are here in Manchester following the decision to change the long established tradition of being in London each year. We knew this move to be something that had risks, but we also saw it as a move to present new opportunities and carry the message that British APCO is being reshaped to meet the challenges that face all of us in the public safety communications sector now, and which are likely to face us in the future.”

Development sessions

A large section of the development sessions focused on the deployment of LTE and other 4G mobile broadband technologies. Peter Goulding from Motorola Solutions looked at how new developments in data networks and the existing strengths of current public safety communication services can bring real benefits and advantages to users and communities.

This was followed by Euros Evans, chief technology officer of Airwave, who introduced LTE as the potential future public safety technology. He looked at the roadmap to transition to LTE considering both voice and data needs.

Spectrum harmonizing was also a regular theme and day one concluded with a question and answer session featuring both Peter and Euros. This lead to some lively debate and Peter commented that it could have gone on for a couple more hours if they had been given the time.

Analysys Mason kicked off day two with a presentation on its telecoms predictions for 2012. It also focused on whether ICT is more of a help than a hindrance in bridging the funding gap at a time when Europe, and not just the UK, has the pressure ratcheted up on reducing public sector spending.

The sessions concluded with several senior figures from the emergency services debating the major disorder last summer which had a significant impact upon control of resources, working practices, liaison with other agencies and the new potential threat concerning social media.

The Tetra and Critical Communications Association (TCCA) was very active at the show and there was a lot of interest around elections for its critical communications committee. Tony Gray from P3 communications, an active member of the TCCA, said: “British APCO ’12 in Manchester was refreshingly improved over the last few years’ events from the TCCA’s perspective. The venue seemed better suited to the event, and both the exhibition and conference sessions felt busier overall. The quantity as well as quality of attendees certainly made it valuable for the TCCA to be there, and we were pleased at the level of overall interest – in particular in relation to broadband futures for critical communications. This is currently a high profile focus point for the TCCA, and we met and had some very positive discussions with a number of potentially key players in the field at the event.”

The exhibition

Exhibitors at BAPCO this year were showcasing a wide range of products and solutions, in many cases focusing on helping the emergency services become more efficient and integrated – but still containing costs. In some situations, this involved applying the potential of newer technologies – such as satellite and LTE-based broadband wireless to extend and expand connectivity – while other, more solution-focused vendors looked to eliminate friction, inefficiencies and waste through tighter integration and more intelligent ways of working.

Tetra service provider Airwave used the event to showcase three new solutions. Firstly, it was demonstrating its award-winning two-way messaging device – Tetra Messenger. This is a secure, resilient alerting solution that delivers two-way messaging over Airwave’s Tetra network, complete with GPS-based location and receipt acknowledgement functions. Pre-programmed respond and react responses can be readily integrated into existing control room systems to allow operators to access updates in real time. Secondly, to increase service transparency to its customers, Airwave was also demonstrating Insite, its web-based management and reporting tool that’s already in use by a number of users. Insite subscribers have access to live traffic and incident reports – including map views to put information into geographical contexts – enabling decision makers to identify peak usage times, gather information as incidents unfold and then analyse activities for better future planning.
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