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EADS DS unveils new secure communications network for Tyne & Wear Fire and Rescue Service
Following the announcement that EADS had delivered new voice and data communications delivered across 22 sites for Tyne & Wear Fire and Rescue Service, Dawn Read talks to Alan Holmes, deputy chief fire officer about the application...
Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service serves a resident population of 1.08m in the North East of England. It employs 1,233 staff, 969 of whom are uniformed officers. The Service has 17 Stations, a state of the art training centre and a new headquarters and a new technical services centre, where vehicles are maintained. A £32million Public Private Partnership (PPP) Scheme, has resulted in six new community stations and the new technical services and headquarters building. Each of the stations and new headquarters began opening in December 2005 and have continued sequentially to the present day. The contract for the multi-million pound secure voice and data communications network was awarded to EADS Defence and Security Systems (DS) UK, which has now been completed. Designed, tested and implemented by EADS DS, the new communications infrastructure places Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service at the cutting edge of integrated communications for Fire and Rescue services. Achieved with minimal disruption to daily operations, EADS DS provided a seamless transition to the new network across all 22 sites including the new Service headquarters. The strategic investment in this new flexible voice and data network will enable Tyne & Wear Fire to meet the rapidly evolving role and demands of the Service. “EADS‚ ability to de-risk the solution and to understand our needs as a Fire and Rescue Service, for example the importance of continuity in this change management project, has meant that we have been able to continue to operate at optimum levels with minimal disruption to our service” said John Spruce, ICT manager, Tyne & Wear Fire and Rescue Service. “EADS has worked very flexibly with us demonstrating the company is a safe pair of hands with the proven experience, knowledge, and capability to deliver critical projects to the Fire and Rescue Service.” Commenting further, Alan Holmes, deputy chief fire officer, Tyne & Wear Fire and Rescue Service said, “Under the PFI Project, which was awarded to Jarvis Construction, we had outlined the functionality and requirements within the user specification of what we required from the voice and data solution.” “One essential area was the need to monitor performance.” Continuing Holmes explained that the service was rolling out leading edge solutions for community safety and some of its initiatives had been cited as best practice. To ensure this was maintained, it was essential that the service deployed a sophisticated data communications network. “The solution provides us with patterns and clusters of incidents enabling our officers to be proactive,” he continued. In addition, Holmes pointed out that this was the largest Fire PFI project to date and was a good example of information sharing and project management. In fact the service is sharing data on separate practices with all emergency partners across the NE of England. “Our new voice and data network has been designed to ensure connectivity and interoperability across all potential CCA users.” “Delivering this project to Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service has given us hands on experience and a deep insight into the daily operational needs of the Fire & Rescue Service,” said Steve Whitby, director global security (UK) EADS DS UK. “EADS‚ network provides inbuilt redundancy and resilience, and is a real-time model for the development and control of fire and rescue service communications infrastructure. It represents an important regional foundation for the fire and rescue services ICT Roadmap,” added Whitby. Tyne & Wear Fire and Rescue Service is currently working toward building a further 5 stations which will begin in 2009.
