It is now over ten years since the establishment of TETRA as the European standard for digital radio and its global spread is more than impressive. TETRA networks are now present in 105 countries, with more than 2,000 contracts worldwide (figures according to members of the TETRA Association).

Yet one fact that springs to mind in the midst of all the impressive TETRA-related statistics regarding usage and benefits to the emergency services of TETRA is how few municipal fire brigades actually have TETRA in context of the number of worldwide users. Especially as TETRA’s benefits (voice quality, RF coverage, non-voice services, security and cost) have always been deemed ideal for the emergency services.

But even if there are currently very few large-scale brigades actually using TETRA both to communicate with each other and their counterparts in the police and ambulance services (another widely disseminated key TETRA benefit) there is, however, an impressive number of municipal fire brigades in the process of going over to either city-wide or national networks – Denmark, UK, Madrid (Spain), Sweden and Norway being just a few. And according to Motorola’s Jeppe Jepsen, Director, International Business Relations, it will be just a few more years before the whole of Europe is integrated in TETRA, with the technology remaining in place for at least a further 10 years as countries reap the benefits of their investment.

TETRA is here to stay for mission critical voice and its widespread success (yet to be fully realised in the fire market) is owed in no small part to the fact it is an open, non-proprietary standard, explains Jepsen. “In a survey carried out last year I counted 40 different TETRA-related products from different suppliers, ranging from hand-helds to in-vehicle terminals. And you can only have a big, wide market like this when you have a harmonised standard and spectrum availability.”

Most benefits, least users

Sepura is a UK-based manufacturer of TETRA terminals – in fact it prides itself in being an independent supplier of Public Safety TETRA radios. In this context being independent means Sepura’s radios need to work on all TETRA networks, such as infrastructure supplied by EADS or Motorola. Marketing Manager Keith Higginson explains that one of the reasons why many fire services have lagged behind other emergency services when it comes to adopting TETRA is because of the Fire Service’s traditional structure. “In many countries fire brigades are small and staffed by part time firefighters. If you look at Germany, there are literally thousands of small local fragmented brigades consisting of a handful of volunteers and a fire engine. That is a contributing factor.”

There is little doubt, however, that the built-in applications of the latest generation of TETRA hand-helds could greatly enhance the safety of firefighters.

Sepura’s STP8000, an IP55-rated (water/dust ingress) hand-held that was launched last year, includes an in-built DMO Repeater function which enables a firefighter to extend coverage into buildings and tunnels, by using colleagues’ devices to “repeat” an incoming and outgoing signal. Earlier this year, this model was chosen by Eurotunnel, the operator of the world’s longest undersea tunnel, for communications in emergency operations between both French and English services during an incident or training exercise.

Another safety feature is a “man-down” capability (currently available only on Sepura’s STP8100 radio) that automatically sends out an alert when certain parameters have been breached – eg if a firefighter falls down unconscious. Higginson explains more; “All Sepura’s radios can incorporate a highly-sensitive GPS receiver (factory option) which means that the hand-held can provide very accurate positioning even in urban canyons and some buildings. The radios will send current GPS location information when the emergency call or lone worker alert is initiated.”

With the plethora of new clever features being incorporated into handsets, it may turn out that by being the late-comers to the TETRA party, it is the fire fighters who will reap the most benefits.

Motorola’s new MTP850Ex radio, for example, is ATEX and IEC EX compliant for workers and firefighters in hazardous environments containing potentially explosive gas and dust. It also includes an integrated WAP browser and Multi-Slot packet data enables rapid access to critical information in the field.

Interoperability between the emergency services
However, it is one thing having the technology and another being able to use it appropriately to communicate meaningfully with fellow emergency services.

In the UK the FireLink programme is underway, and it will enable fully integrated voice communications between the FRS and other blue light services, in accordance with a tri service agreement between the professional heads of the Police, FRS and Ambulance service. The agreement covers voice interoperability at strategic and tactical command levels.
Interoperability between the emergency services will be managed using shared talk groups.
Even though the hardware installation process is underway with municipal fire brigades, locally agreed protocols are yet to be established by the respective services for inter-agency communications.

At a seminar organised by the BAPCO Association (formerly called the British Association of Public Safety Communication Officers) in Preston (UK), in October last year, one speaker from the National Policing Improvement Agency talked about the Interoperability Programme. Paul Kinsella outlined how the first hurdle was establishing a mechanism for exchanging information across the three services (fire, police, and ambulance) – and one that can scale up easily – but without requiring a new way of doing things. “I have been in the police for 25 years and I should not be asking people to do things differently during a stressful crisis if we can help it. ‘Keep it simple’ works for me.”

Increasingly communications department, he went on to say, were asked to do things differently, but fiddling with the fundamentals of working processes could affect the results. “So we have to make it work for the users.”
To overcome this, joint training and exercising was in the process of being developed, and ideally there would be multi-skilled tactical TETRA advisors that could advise across all three services. “But we need to build it to all levels, including Bronze.”

Once a common vocabulary has been defined and widely spread that the full potential of TETRA interoperability will be realised.

Beyond voice
The limitations of TETRA when it comes to data are well known – TETRA was always primarily designed to be a voice medium – and communications infrastructure providers are now coming up with solutions that either sit in parallel to TETRA or are completely stand-alone.

Motorola, for example, has developed the Broadband Disaster Relief  (BBDR), a wifi-type capability that works at 4.9 or 5.1 GHz (compared to 2.4 GHz typical of Wi-Fi). Jepsen explains more. “It means you can have a solid broadband data connection from within a building to a commanding officer outside, with each firefighter acting as a repeater.” With the BBDR mesh, live video or infrared images can be transmitted to the outside world. “This product is on the market today, but I would say take-up in the fire service has not been that fast,” adds Jepsen.
That’s not to say that fire services are unable to see the potential of high speed data networks. Last year saw the first ever trial of mobile WiMax* technology involving a UK emergency service, successfully carried out by EADS Defence and Security with Kent Fire and Rescue.
Working in partnership with the Mobile WiMax Acceleration Group (M-WAG) the trial was carried out at Kent’s fire training centre in Maidstone.
More than 20 fire fighters took part in a rescue exercise involving a mock road traffic collision to demonstrate how the WiMax technology had the potential to be used to stream high quality video from the scene of an incident back to headquarters in real time.

As fire crews worked to cut out an actor posing as a trapped motorist, live video footage was simultaneously fed back to the senior commanders at headquarters.
The technology was installed into the service’s Command Support Unit (CSU), a mobile control room that can be used major incidents to provide at-incident control capability.
It was also installed into the headquarters building where the main control room is located and also into another vehicle stationed at the scene of the mock incident.
The live pictures that were being fed back to the control room where witnessed by members of Kent Fire and Rescue Service, invited guests, M-WAG and EADS Defence and Security staff in order to demonstrate how the technology worked in practice.
Richard Fletcher, Senior Policy Advisor for EADS Defence and Security believes that the live video feed from the incident to the command control room, the video conferencing facility and the exchange of large data files would have had a favourable impact on the decision making and co-ordination with other first line responders had it been a real life scenario.

“All our customers are making increasing use of data applications such as video, CCTV, imagery and various sensors. The major common requirement we have identified is to share information in real-time from the scene of an incident back to a central command and, in some cases, distributed to partner agencies.”
John West, Station Manager with Kent Fire and Rescue, said: “The trial went very well and it demonstrated just how useful the technology is for enhancing the delivery of risk information. It also highlighted to us just how valuable a role it can play in post incident de-briefing and also for training purposes.”

*WiMax is an international standards-based telecommunications technology that provides wireless data in a variety of ways, ranging from point-to-point links to full mobile cellular-type access. Current technology solutions either allow the transmission of high quality video communications over a small area or lower quality video over a large area. Mobile WiMax technology can fulfil both these criteria.

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