A new industry alliance has been announced in Canada to support the development of public and emergency service wireless telecommunications. The Secure City Technology Alliance (SCTA) aims to provide governments around the world with interoperable, city-wide security solutions that can be rapidly deployed, easily managed and will allow instant co-ordination for dramatically improved public safety and emergency response.

Such requirements are a global concern and many government initiatives worldwide have been started to modernize and improve these systems. Large projects have been launched in the US during 2010 by the Department of Homeland Security, including the Urban Areas Security Initiative (US$832 million and the State Homeland Security (US$842 million, while billions more are likely to be spent around the world – for example), China’s Safe City initiatives, to be deployed in over 600 cities.

According to some projections, public spending on such initiatives will accelerate by 30 per cent annually over the next few years. 

Dealing with threats

“This is an opportunity to transform how our public and civilian organizations deal with threats and emergency incidents”, said Terence Matthews, who has founded or funded more than 80 technology companies and will serve as SCTA chairman. “The challenge is to improve interoperability between communications and security systems to enable immediate, co-ordinated responses to emergency incidents. We are uniting world-class technology companies and thought leaders to ensure we fully realize the capabilities of safety and security organizations globally.”

Facing pressures

City, municipal and state governments today face significant pressure to ensure that their emergency teams can prevent, respond to and recover from disasters and threats in an informed and co-ordinated manner, the SCTA explains. Their mandate is broad, spanning critical infrastructure concerns such as airports, seaports, railways, subways, electrical power systems, water supplies and gas utilities.

Further complicating this responsibility is the fact that these teams must manage emergency events using disparate and complex systems across multiple groups, jurisdictions, formalized command structures and varying standard operating procedures.

To improve today’s systems, government agencies need a flexible platform that will allow them to collaborate more effectively among government organizations, non-government services and civilians. The SCTA intends to work with systems integrators and consultants to deliver end-to-end wireless solutions that will support integrated voice communications, video surveillance, sensor monitoring, mass notification and telecollaboration capabilities. Its members have ensured interoperability across their solutions to simplify the integration process and save organizations both time and money.

Real-time information

“Assuring the safety of the world’s cities requires managing the flow of diverse, real-time information so decision makers have the situational awareness and context they need to take confident action”, said Craig Betts, chief executive of SCTA member Solace Systems. “Together, the members of the Secure City alliance are integrating our proven individual technologies to reduce the time and cost associated with delivering improved national and regional security.”

Also among the founding members of the alliance are BelAir Networks, Benbria, Bridgewater Systems, DragonWave, March Networks, Mitel and the Wesley Clover Group of Companies.

• www.securecitytechalliance.com