New Emergency Response System Cuts the Chatter in Texas

Things have gotten a lot quieter in the Fort Worth/Tarrant County Joint Emergency Operations Center (JEOC) in Texas. But the change isn’t necessarily due to a lack of incidents. The center has upgraded its entire communications network, allowing users from multiple agencies to monitor radio channels and document events silently through computer workstations.

Managing an ever-increasing noise level was the key factor in the overhaul, according to Juan Ortiz, emergency management coordinator with Fort Worth’s Emergency Management Office. The project included a radio-over-IP tool, integrated audio-video conferencing and a Web-based crisis information management system.

“One of the challenges was when you have ... radios at the workstations, you have a competition of audio,” Ortiz said. “Part of our solution was to bring that audio to the [computer] and let that user decide what they want to listen to.”

JEOC officials opted for RadioConnect for Sametime, a social software tool from IBM and UnifiedEdge that allows operators to listen to multiple channels at a computer using a headset. Ortiz said the tool cost roughly $230,000, a price tag that included some of the infrastructure, such as antennas and cables that were installed. 

Go to Government Technology to read more about the JEOC's communications upgrade.