How will technology help define Australia’s future prosperity?

Protecting Australia from public safety and security threats always presents a formidable challenge. Apart from our giant landmass, which means very large areas to monitor and reach in times of emergency, Australia’s hot and arid environment is conducive to massive bushfires, as evidenced by the Black Summer fires of 2019-20.

Meteorologists and emergency authorities expected bushfires after the dry spring of 2023. However, we endured huge floods and wild storms instead.

No two crises are ever the same and it’s impossible to predict what Australia will face next, be it this year or some time over the next decade. In this volatile environment, technology innovation can help emergency services, commercial and security organisations to be better prepared for these challenges while reaching higher levels of safety and productivity.

No capability is more critical than communication in a crisis

When an emergency or disaster strikes, nothing is more important than reliable communication. Motorola Solutions has long provided Australia’s public safety agencies with mission-critical radio networks and handsets that allow first responder teams and frontline workers to communicate with each other, rapidly and securely.

These networks are used every day, but their importance is underscored when bushfires, storms and other disasters occur. Those on the frontline may not have access to mobile phone service if cellular networks become damaged or simply overloaded by masses of people trying to contact each other during a crisis.

Much of the mission-critical radio technology used by emergency services in Australia is based on a set of global standards called Project 25 (P25) that provides reliable, secure and interoperable voice and data communication - even if agencies and rescue organisations use radios from different manufacturers.

One of the biggest users of P25 radio technology in Australia is the NSW Telco Authority which provides its Public Safety Network (PSN) to more than 50,000 radio users across the state. PSN is one of the largest communication networks of its kind in the world, connecting more than 50 emergency and essential service organisations, government agencies and local councils to secure and reliable communication.

From disasters to stadium spectaculars

At the risk of becoming another story about Australia’s growing obsession with Taylor Swift, the American megastar’s current national tour provides food for thought on delivering effective safety and security for large scale events.

While economists debate the monetary value of ‘Swiftenomics’, stadiums in Sydney and Melbourne have been heaving with more than 620,000 tickets sold across her seven leg tour - not to mention the hundreds of Taylor-gaters parting outside the stadiums during every show.

Managing such a huge influx of people creates real challenges for transportation networks, stadiums and catering suppliers as well as for emergency services and security firms responsible for keeping concert goers safe.

One important way to support the smooth and safe delivery of large scale events is by creating common access to communication and data networks, so that event organisers and public safety agencies can collaborate together, said Martin Chappell, Motorola Solutions’ channel business in Asia Pacific.

“Behind the scenes of any large scale public event you’ll always find complex logistics, careful planning and the need to coordinate across a variety of different organisations, functions, teams and tasks,” Chappell said.

“When teams involved in delivering a major public event have access to real-time communication and data, they form a more complete picture of everything happening around them. That facilitates more effective collaboration and ultimately, leads to safer and better run major events,” he said.

One technology that helps teams to improve their awareness, operational agility and efficiency is Motorola Solutions’ WAVE PTX, an innovative broadband push-to-talk service. The solution supports voice, data and video communication across a variety of devices and networks, connecting first responders, security staff and other event teams via the same communications channel, regardless of where they are located or whether they are two-way radio or smartphone users.

Building and connecting technologies for “better together” outcomes

Over the past decade, Motorola Solutions has expanded its technology portfolio beyond voice communication into control room software and video security and access control solutions - both through strategic acquisitions as well as growing its internal capabilities. 

Why? Because the company believes that by building and connecting different technologies, it can strengthen collaboration between public safety agencies and enterprises to drive more proactive approaches to safety and security.

Today, Motorola Solutions offers a safety and security ecosystem spans mission-critical communication devices and networks that perform in the harshest conditions, video security technology powered by responsibly-built AI that can alert human operators when action is needed and command centre technologies that unify voice, video and data to help people to make better and faster decisions in critical moments.

Consider then, how using these technologies together could help to boost safety and productivity at a Taylor Swift mega concert or other major event. 

Control room workers can maintain real-time visibility and awareness across entire operations with a variety of information sources. This can include CCTV cameras powered with AI analytics and data from automatic number plate recognition cameras helping to quickly detect unruly crowd behaviour or identify vehicles or people attempting to enter unauthorised areas. Rather than requiring control room workers to constantly monitor screens, AI can be used to flag unusual events like these and trigger alarms in control rooms which can be verified by human security operators.

Body cameras worn by event personnel can provide additional perspectives of crowd congestion bottlenecks or other issues while streaming live video feeds back to the control room. And when immediate resources or back up are needed, help is available at the press of a button on a two-way radio.

“Whether responding to security threats, keeping transport services moving or helping public safety agencies scale up their responses to natural disasters, technology becomes exponentially more powerful when it is used together and helps businesses and public safety agencies to collaborate in more effective ways,” Chappell added.

Australian organisations embracing the digital age

Although Motorola Solutions operates in more than 100 countries, its customers in Australia are well known for deploying innovative technologies to solve complex challenges.

One public safety agency that leverages the latest technology to support better decision making and faster response times is Western Australia Police Force (WA Police). Serving one of the world’s largest police jurisdictions, spanning 2.5 million square kilometres and over 150 police stations, the force depends on technology to increase its speed and efficiency in managing incidents.

WA Police uses Motorola Solutions’ PSCore smart mobile app to provide officers with real time information from public emergency calls and other back-end systems to help them work more safely and efficiently on the streets.

PCCore is the first native public safety mobile app in the world to be successfully integrated with Apple Carplay, giving officers the ability to talk with Siri while driving so they’re better informed about the circumstances they could confront when they arrive on scene.

More importantly, the solution has done away with pen and paper notebooks for officers and the need for up to 180,000 handwritten infringement notices annually.  Aside from saving trees, it means officers are spending less time back at the station filing reports and more time policing in their communities.

A long history of innovation

Motorola is a brand that has been synonymous with innovation for nearly a century since its inception in 1928. Among its many achievements are broadcasting the first words from the moon in 1969, producing the world’s first commercial, portable cellular phones, two-way pagers, and of course, producing those iconic flip phones of the 1990s.

The new Motorola Solutions was born out of that storied history in 2011, when the company was split into two independent public companies, Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions. 

Motorola Solutions’ continued expansion from mission-critical voice communication into an ecosystem of technologies that leverage software, video security, the cloud and AI, is enabling it to deliver better outcomes and serve the public safety and enterprise security sectors in new ways.

Used together, these technologies can help to surface vital clues in a criminal investigation, leverage the power of AI to identify threats in public places and of course, provide reliable communication on the frontlines.

Local needs for safety and enterprise security in 2024 are already proving to be very different and more complex than they were just a few years ago.  

By providing solutions that improve collaboration between public safety agencies and enterprises and continuing its successful partnerships with local organisations, Motorola Solutions believes it can play its part in helping Australia to realise a safer and more resilient future.

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