Batboard

Hi-

The communications vehicle I have at work is in need of a controller 'facelift' We have the Orbacom TDS system controlling 5 radios, one cell and one sat phone. The control interface takes up a lot of room and is a bit hard for my folks to use... The hardware side of the issue has 2 big card cages taking up valuable space in the rack, so I have no space to add a few more radios... After just completing a large MOBEX this week, and identifying our 'issues' with our current system, my boss wants me to come up with a suggestion for replacement. A few of the FEMA teams were using pellican-cased 'portable' units with the ACU1000 and most of the communications / command vehicles were also using the ACU. One of the teams was commenting how they wanted to switch to RIOS instead of the ACU...

Currently, my radio component is 1 LB, 2 VHF, 1 UHF and 1 800 mHz radio(s) I'd like to have 2 in each band, as well as keeping the cell and sat phone as patch options. I also understand there is RoIP available, which would be extremely helpful for our EOC to be able to transmit / receive messages as well... Maybe fax over the system would be nice too...

Obviously, cost is a major factor (as well as simplicity and reliablity) Can you folks help provide suggestions; what do you like / dislike? If you have the ACU, what would you do different? I'll only have one shot to present the proposal to the boss and don't want to miss something... Any help appreciated. Thanks in advance, Ben

The biggest problem I have with the ACU is I have to keep retraining people. The geek factor is moderately high. We've put several packages together for different groups, deployed them, trained their crew, and a year later they have a new crew who can't make it work with the instruction documentation provided. Some people understand it, some people don't.

I'm with you on that one... I have the same problem with the Orbacom... Most of my guys just grab a portable and tell me 'make it work' Thanks, B

One thing the Telex Nexus software with their IP223 hardware does really well is crosspatch. We built an interoperability trailer based on the IP223 & Nexus with a dozen VHF, UHF, and 800M stations, and everybody mastered that quickly. Point-n-click ... radios connected & disconnected in a heartbeat. Granted, the Telex graphics sprang from the Crayola School of Design, but if you can stand primary color rectangles on a black background, it's very easy to use, and reasonably easy to configure.

http://www.telex.com/RadioDispatch/Cate ... egoryID=25
http://www.telex.com/RadioDispatch/Prod ... oductID=78

A system that many users are finding easy to learn, easy to use and is very flexible is the RIOS gateway from the
Sytech Corp. Unlike using an IP223 that costs in the order of $1300 for 2 ports, the RIOS gateway comes in an
8 or 16 port package or more. You can use a normal laptop or desktop computer as a control point and be able to
create patches between the different devices. The computer becomes what they call a "CLIENT" and allows you
to also use it as a dispatch point. With the simple IP interface that the system uses, you can have as many
"CLIENT" stations or control points as you need. With the IP connection, you can be halfway around the world
and be able to control and dispatch right from your laptop computer.

The SEPTA group in Philadelphia have 3 of these RIOS gateways connected to their radio system. Their transit
police supervisors have laptops in the cars. They can get into the IP network using a wireless connection and
have an EVDO connection into the RIOS gateway. They then can control or remotely change the radio channels
on what ever radio they need to configure for the communications requirements right on the scene.

The state of Virginia has some 50 dispatch center 911 sites on line now that allow them to interlink the radio
channels that are connected to the RIOS gateway. The system is called COMLINC. Currently there are 3 of
the Virginia State Police dispatch locations that are part of the system. Additional locations are being added
as funds are made available. Currently there are some 15 additional 911 dispatch locations that are being
added to the network.

Many of the Federal agencies have the RIOS gateway installed into their mobile command vehicles. If you ask
around the country, a number of state and local agencies have a RIOS gateway in their MCV.

There are a number of different vendors that have provided some form of a gateway to their command vehicle.
It is just the question of what your trying to do, how easy is the gateway to use and what features can be had
in the gateway. With video becoming very important today, you might want to ask around and see if there is a
gateway that can do what your looking for.

I myself would rather have a simple device that doesn't require an engineering degree to run. The gateway needs
to be simple to train on, simple to operate and be simple in the flexibility to interconnect the different devices.
You need to look at what kind of a network you need if you will be linking multiple locations together. In the
linking, is it a spoke and hub system or a mesh system. In a mesh type configuration, if one location goes out,
you don't loose the entire operation. The outage can be caused by something as simple as the IP network to
that location failed.

Jim

Bill_G wrote:One thing the Telex Nexus software with their IP223 hardware does really well is crosspatch. We built an interoperability trailer based on the IP223 & Nexus with a dozen VHF, UHF, and 800M stations, and everybody mastered that quickly. Point-n-click ... radios connected & disconnected in a heartbeat.

Bill_G wrote:Granted, the Telex graphics sprang from the Crayola School of Design, but if you can stand primary color rectangles on a black background, it's very easy to use, and reasonably easy to configure.

Lol. Yes, the C-Soft GUI is very basic, but also quite flexible. With a bit of work, and some bitmap importing, you can make it look like a pretty good dispatch screen. Here's a screenshot of a GUI we built recently for a customer, which they are quite happy with:

That's beautiful wavetar. I am seriously jealous of your artistry. Well done. I'll have to beg a copy of your veg file in PM. For everyone else, here's the positively Atari look of the consoles I've been making lately.

Bill_G wrote:For everyone else, here's the positively Atari look of the consoles I've been making lately.

ROFLMAO! That was a funny comment. We had a two day training course through the Telex distributer here in Canada & they built very similar GUI's to yours as examples. The customer had some experience with Centracom, so I put some effort into trying to emulate the look & feel of it. The software by default is heavy on using colour to help differentiate what buttons do, but I figured placement, icons & alpha tags already accomplished that. So, the key was lots of easy-on-the-eyes blue & gray. I'll send you the veg file, no problem.

wavetar wrote: ROFLMAO! That was a funny comment. We had a two day training course through the Telex distributer here in Canada & they built very similar GUI's to yours as examples. The customer had some experience with Centracom, so I put some effort into trying to emulate the look & feel of it. The software by default is heavy on using colour to help differentiate what buttons do, but I figured placement, icons & alpha tags already accomplished that. So, the key was lots of easy-on-the-eyes blue & gray. I'll send you the veg file, no problem.

Yeah - I learned this product like I learned everything else - rtfm and fiddling. Definitely no nonsense graphics. But, with this product a dispatcher can be just about anywhere in the world. People trade look and feel for decentralization and portability real fast, not to mention cost. Excellent product.