Public safety Case Study Emergency Dispatch

Series 4000 Cures Sunflower County’s Dispatch No Competition for System’s Price, Reliability, and Reputation

A lightning strike can wreak havoc on a radio dispatch Series 4000, is a vast improvement over the old console system. And this was the fate that befell one: “It’s so much smaller and simpler to use,” says the dispatch system at the 9-1-1 center in Sunflower Sunflower County 9-1-1 coordinator, Lane Kimbrell. “I County, Mississippi, in 2008. love it, and so do our operators.” “The lightning took out some of the center’s control Birthplace of stations and both of their dispatch consoles,” says Sunflower County is a place of uniquely American Eugene Pace, a technical engineer with Jackson historical significance. Situated deep in the heart of the Communications, the company that provides systems , it is home to the Dockery Plantation, sales and service for the center. “After the strike, I was the place many consider to be the birthplace of the able to get the consoles only part way back up.” Delta blues. The plantation is now widely known for the musicians who gathered, worked and lived there from This seemingly dire situation was an opportunity in the early 1900s up through the 1940s. This included disguise, however. such blues greats such as , Howlin’ Wolf, The damage caused by the strike gave Sunflower , and , who is widely County the impetus they needed to replace their aging regarded as the father of the Delta blues. dispatch system with a new, updated one. According to the customer, the new system, based on Zetron’s Sunflower County 9-1-1 “We were set on the Series 4000 from the start because Although much has changed since the Dockery of its price and reputation,” says Kimbrell. “We talked to a Plantation’s heyday, the clubs and back-street joints in county near us that’s using it, and they’re very happy with Sunflower County still churn out the music the region is it. We really didn’t look at anything else once we found out famous for. The population has grown to about 35,000. the price and heard the good comments.” And Indianola, the county seat, is home to both the B.B. Sunflower County’s solution includes: King Museum and the Sunflower County 9-1-1 Center, the county’s only public safety answering point (PSAP). • Zetron’s Series 4000 Communication Control System with Zetron’s Model 4020 Common Control Unit (CCU) “We answer all 9-1-1 calls for the county,” says Kimbrell, “and we provide dispatching for the Sheriff’s department, • Two positions of Zetron’s Integrator RD PC-based con- the county fire departments and ambulance agencies, and sole with Instant Recall Recorder (IRR) for several municipal police departments.” • Zetron’s Voice-over-IP (VoIP) Console Gateway “There wasn’t much we could do for it…” “The VoIP gateway will allow us to set up a mobile backup Eugene Pace says even before the old dispatch system site if we want to do so in the future,” says Kimbrell. was hit by lightning, its days were numbered. “The “Training was quick and easy” manufacturer told us a few years ago that they weren’t going to supply parts for it anymore. So when it was hit by Because time was a concern, the system was originally lightning, we knew there wasn’t much we could do for it.” preconfigured at Zetron to make it quicker and easier to install. Then Pace made the final adjustments, customizing Thus, the lightning strike spurred on the inevitable; the system to meet Sunflower County’s needs. Sunflower County asked Jackson Communications to help them obtain and install a new, updated dispatch system. “We had the cutover done the first day and got them up on their primary channel,” says Pace. “The next day, Jackson Communications we added the second console and got them fully up and Located in Pearl, Mississippi, Jackson Communications running. This took another day or so.” specializes in the sales and service of two-way radio “The transition from the old to the new system was equipment and in-house paging and wireless phone seamless,” adds Kimbrell. “And the training was quick systems. and easy. The operators picked it up really fast. I was very Kimbrell says that Jackson Communications was chosen impressed.” for this project largely due to their success with past Running 100 percent projects for Sunflower County. “We’ve done business with them before on smaller projects,” he says, “and they’ve When asked what he and his operators like best about the always done a great job helping us with everything we new system, Kimbrell says its simplicity and ease of use needed. So when we decided to get new equipment, we top the list. figured we’d give them a shot at doing this bigger project “For instance, to dispatch for the fire department, the for us.” operators used to have to punch five or six buttons,” he Zetron from the start says. “Now, they can do this with a single mouse-click.” Sunflower County’s goals for its new dispatch system “What’s more,” he adds, “the new system has ten times were that it should be cost-effective, compact and PC- the capability of our old one. And we haven’t had a single based, and that it should simplify their procedures. problem with it. It’s been running 100 percent ever since the day we installed it.”n “Our old system was a huge, 25-foot desk that used LED buttons,” explains Kimbrell. “We wanted a new system with a smaller footprint that would give us more room instead of having the equipment take up most of the space. We also wanted a solution with computer consoles to simplify operators’ tasks and reduce clutter.” Zetron’s Series 4000 dispatch console more than met these requirements and at an attractive price.

ZETRON USA ZETRON UK ZETRON AUSTRALASIA PO Box 97004 27-29 Campbell Court PO Box 3045 Redmond, WA Bramley TADLEY Stafford Mail Centre 98073-9704 Basingstoke RG26 5EG Stafford QLD 4053 USA UK Australia Reprinted from Zetron’s TEL 425 820 6363 TEL +44 (0)1256 880663 TEL +61 7 3856 4888 Advantage Newsletter FAX 425 820 7031 FAX +44 (0)1256 880491 FAX +61 7 3356 6877 March 2009. [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] All trademarks are the property of their respective owners. WWW.ZETRON.COM 005-7575A March 2009