Tait to showcase comprehensive P25 solutions

Trunking, simulcast, portables, mobiles, base stations and deployable solutions – Tait will display its most comprehensive P25 suite during this year’s 74th Association of Public Safety Communications Officers (APCO) conference and expo.

Through live demonstrations and interactive presentations, tradeshow visitors will be able to find out for themselves which Tait P25 solution is best suited to their needs. Throughout the expo, in Kansas City from August 3-7, Tait staff will deliver presentations at the Tait booth (#1536) on radios, base station/repeaters, Key Filled Device and networks.

“With Tait being on the GSA (General Services Administration) list and our digital radios having FIPS certification, these presentations will be of interest to Federal agencies wanting to experience an interoperable Tait solution,” says Tait Radio Communications President Steve Cragg.

“Public safety officials are looking for genuine choice and, because taxpayers' money is at stake, they are seeking competitive value. Tait trunked, simulcast, and conventional P25 networks have been proven to work with other manufacturers' mobiles and portables, while our radios work with other manufacturers’ P25 networks.”

Tait has been a key driver in realizing the interoperability goal set out by APCO, including being part of the ISSI Call Group. Tait was involved in the ISSI demonstration at IWCE this year and will again be involved with the daily ISSI demonstrations at APCO.

The P25 ISSI interface enables two or more trunked, P25 networks to be connected at the network layer. The P25 ISSI provides roaming across multiple networks while enabling dispatchers to monitor operations and communicate with users outside the coverage area of their “home” network.

Another example of multi-vendor co-operation were the independent tests that took place in Illinois in March, 2008, which also confirmed Tait terminals' ability to fully operate on other trunked networks. At that session, radio industry representatives conducted meticulous and thorough tests on a variety of manufacturers' radios to certify operation on a different manufacturer's trunked network.

“The idea of openness inherent in the need for P25 interoperability came naturally to Tait. IP networks, commercially off the shelf network components, open non-proprietary encryption; they all formed the core of our solution from the very beginning,” says Cragg.

“Our P25 Simulcast network solution is proving to be a real hit with customers needing to make the most of the limited frequency band available. Cochise County in Arizona and Oneida County, Wisconsin are the latest North American customers to implement Tait P25 Simulcast. Meanwhile, in New Zealand the country’s police force is implementing a Tait P25 trunking solution to ensure their front line staff have the best communications on offer.”

“What all of these customers have in common is that despite using other manufacturers’ radios, they wanted to be able to incorporate Tait as part of their solution,” concluded Cragg.