Public Safety and Emergency Dispatch Customer Perspective Kent/Chatham Dispatch Gets Zetron a Second Time Around

New Functionality Added with the Zetron IntegratorRD Workstation The Chatham/Kent Emergency Dispatch Center in Ontario, Canada recently went through a similar upgrade to its Zetron consoles. This time the decision to upgrade was driven by the need to keep up with changing technology and the increasing number of radio channels and console positions. “We dispatch for Chatham/Kent Police and Chatham/Kent Fire which is comprised of 19 stations,” explained 9-1-1 Communications Manager, Ken Yott. “ In 2000 we received 22,551 9-1-1 calls, but our Comm Center answered a combined total of 292,998 emergency and non- emergency calls.” The Chatham/Kent dispatch originally operated with a Zetron Model 4024 A Zetron IntegratorRD workstation in use. The municipality communcates via an 800 Common Controller, Model 4116 Button mHz EDACS® radio system owned and operated by Thames Communications. Consoles and Model 4115 expander panels that had been purchased back in 1992. The “We put in a five position IntegratorRD radio upgrade involved a total remodel and refit of the dispatch workstation with a Model 4048 Common existing Comm Center, including new radio consoles. Controller and dual redundant power supplies,” explained Paul Mayrand, owner and president of Thames Communications. “Originally, we had all five “Our dispatchers picked up the consoles set up in our facility. This allowed us do our training in an office environment. Once we were done touch screens very quickly.” training, we immediately tore everything down and set Ken Yott it up in the 9-1-1 Comm Center.” – 9-1-1 Communications Manager, Chatham/ On the right side of the learning curve: Kent Emergency Dispatch Center The Chatham/Kent dispatchers were already familiar with the world of Zetron pushbutton consoles, but the new IntegratorRD radio dispatch workstations Thames Communications of Chatham, Ontario gave them some added functionality they hadn’t performed the original installation, and were the logical enjoyed before, such as the advanced paging screens. choice to perform the upgrade. However, the company Ken Yott explained that the dispatchers are still at an didn’t have the luxury of performing the install in a early stage of the learning curve when it comes to brand new, unoccupied facility. Instead they had to getting the most out of the equipment. work around a remodel of the existing Comm Center “We’re already streamlining many operations but with the old consoles kept hot and running throughout we’re not fully there yet from the fire perspective,” Yott the cut over. Group decided it was time to hire a new consultant. We then had to choose between buying our own radio system or going with one of a number of carriers.” The municipality finally decided to use the EDACS system privately owned and operated by Thames Communications. This 800 MHz EDACS system covers 2,500 square kilometers through a single site used along with one Futurcom Virtual site and multiple mobiles with Futurcom virtual repeaters. Touchy-feely: And how did the Chatham/Kent dispatchers adapt to their new touch-screen consoles? With tremendous ease, according to Ken Yott: “We had an issue initially using the touch screens for fire paging because of the close proximity of the buttons,” Yott explained. “So the dispatchers went to said. “Previously, when paging fire departments we mouse click for paging and that works fine. The great had to select the tower site and then select the page thing about the touch screen is it’s right there—you format. When we’re all done that will involve a single don’t get a sore wrist moving a mouse around. Our selection instead of multiple selections. We are trying dispatchers picked up the touch screen consoles very to remove chances for human error from the equation. quickly. Now they have happy fingers.” We’ll do that with fewer key strokes which means fewer chances for mistakes.” We need how many towers? The Chatham/Kent 9-1-1 Comm Center dispatches of an area of roughly 2,500 kilometers (965 miles) that is roughly 96 kilometers by 64 kilometers (60 miles by 40 miles). Covering that much territory required a few reworks of the radio system to get it right. “A few years ago a consultant told us we needed 3 VHF towers to cover the county,” Yott recalled. “But once we got to 8 VHF repeaters, all cross-banded The Chatham/Kent Emergency Dispatch Center in Ontario, Canada. through our EDACS system, the Information Systems

Reprinted from Zetron's monthly newsletter, the Advantage, November 2001

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