Seattle, WA — In Motion Technology, the leader in mobile networking systems, announced today that the City of Seattle Fire Department has deployed the onBoard Mobile Networking System to improve Fire and EMS responses en route and on-scene. The system allows Seattle Fire to leverage new voice, video and wireless data initiatives by providing secure, seamless fast switching in real-time between multiple networks. Seattle Firefighters and Paramedics are now better equipped for incident responses, pre-hospital emergency patient care and day-to-day operations.
The City of Seattle Fire Department provides fire suppression and emergency medical services, as well as building inspections, fire code enforcement, tactical rescues, public education and specialized units including the hazardous materials response team, dive team, confined space rescue, heavy rescue, and marine emergency response teams. The Seattle Fire Department responds to nearly 80,000 fire and medical incidents in the City of Seattle each year. The Seattle Fire Department’s Medic One Program provides the City of Seattle with Advanced Life Support activities and responds to approximately 45,000 Basic Life Support (BLS) alarms and 19,000 Advanced Life Support (ALS) alarms per year.
As part of Seattle’s city-wide public safety network, Seattle Fire needed the ability to:
- centrally manage dispatch and emergency communications with multi-network and fast switching capability;
- leverage new mobile technology with increased bandwidth for video and audio;
- increase overall system security with two levels of device authentication, end-to-end VPN connection and data encryption;
- remotely handle fleet-wide software and file updates to mobile data computers (MDC);
- view in real-time pre-fire plans including building diagrams, bird’s eye views, hazardous materials, access and egress routes and fire control systems; and
- transmit audio and EKG files in mass casualty situations, and the ability to transmit bar codes and medical triage codes to the emergency room before patients are transferred.
“We have deployed In Motion Technology’s mobile networking system to improve patient care and response times as part of our commitment to provide the citizens of Seattle the best emergency and medical services possible,” said Leonard Roberts, IT Director, City of Seattle Fire Department.
The onBoard Mobile Networking System provides Seattle Fire with a secure, manageable end-to-end communications system to extend the enterprise network to the vehicle fleet:
- The onBoard Mobile Gateway turns Seattle Fire and EMS vehicles into mobile wireless hotspots or wireless access points (WAP), connecting all wired and wireless devices in and around the vehicle over any wireless network with the ability to use multiple broadband networks.
- The onBoard Mobility Manager is a powerful network management system that allows operations to manage and monitor the health of the Seattle Fire fleet including remote configuration, network coverage, vehicle diagnostic data, and fleet wide software updates and maintenance.
- The onBoard Connection Manager is a mobile-optimized VPN server, providing secure IP mobility and sub-second switching in a multi-network environment designed to provide continuous connections and enable the use of real-time applications as vehicles roam between multiple wireless networks.
“With 33 fire stations and over 60 vehicles including fire engines, ladder trucks, and medic units, we needed to have the ability to remotely monitor vehicle health, location, network connections and to accurately monitor and manage all mobile computing devices which is only possible with In Motion Technology’s onBoard Mobile Gateway,” said Roberts.
“The City of Seattle Fire Department initiative of creating a centrally managed wireless technology management system to reduce duplication and increase security is a credit to its coordination with the other Seattle agencies and a true benefit to the community,” said Tony Morris, In Motion Technology’s vice president of sales and marketing.
About City of Seattle Fire Department
The Seattle Fire Department provides fire suppression and emergency medical services to a culturally diverse and vibrant population of Seattle. Since organized in 1894, the Fire Department has evolved from an organization focused only on fire fighting, to one that includes other critical services such as building inspections, fire code enforcement, tactical rescues and public education. The Seattle Fire Department responds to nearly 80,000 fire and medical incidents in the City of Seattle each year. It was one of the first fire departments to allow public access to Real-Time 911 Dispatch information through the Internet. For more information about the Seattle Fire Department, please visit www.seattle.gov/fire.
About In Motion Technology Inc.
In Motion Technology is the leader in mobile networking systems that provide organizations with secure, manageable end-to-end communications, serving all systems in and around the vehicle using multiple broadband networks. The onBoard System includes onBoard Mobile Gateway (patented Mobile Wireless Hot Spot System, US Patent #7,382,771), a rugged in-vehicle mobile router, onBoard Connection Manager, a mobile-optimized security system and onBoard Mobility Manager, a powerful management platform. The system provides an integrated end-to-end solution that provides a common architecture for managing and extending the enterprise environment to mobile users. In Motion’s solutions are used by hundreds of transportation, public safety, utility, municipal, and healthcare organizations worldwide. For more information, please call Amanda Keating at (202) 441-5332 or visit: In Motion Technology, Twitter, Facebook and Google+.
