TEMECULA, Calif., May 15, 2012 -- Cassidian Communications, an EADS North America company, has successfully upgraded the 9-1-1 call processing solution at the York-Poquoson-Williamsburg Emergency Communications Center (ECC) and the James City County ECC in Virginia. The upgrades at York-Poquoson-Williamsburg and James City County, together, are one of the first geo-diverse Sentinel Patriot call processing solution installations in the state.

"Working together with our neighboring county, James City, gave us the opportunity to upgrade our existing equipment to a system that can provide a more seamless integration between multiple applications as well as with each other," stated Terry Hall, Chief of Emergency Communications, York-Poquoson-Williamsburg Emergency Communications Center. "With the geo-diverse Sentinel Patriot [solution], our call takers can simply back up the James City County ECC should its call center become inoperable, and vice versa."

The Sentinel Patriot solution's IP architecture, designed expressly for 9-1-1 applications, is based on current and evolving critical communications technologies and standards. This allows for the sophisticated design of backup, disaster recovery and overflow operations with the assured ability to provide reliable service under unexpected conditions. The geo-diverse deployment model provides maximum system survivability, and the efficient network architecture design minimizes data traffic and bandwidth usage for ongoing cost savings.

Rounding out the complete NG9-1-1 solution suite designed for York-Poquoson-Williamsburg and James City County is the ORION(TM) Vela(R) mapping solution, the Aurora(R) MIS solution for complete information management and the full suite of Managed Services--including disaster recovery, monitoring and response, and antivirus updating--all provided by Cassidian Communications.

"Upgrading their equipment to our NG9-1-1 solutions suite, including the geo-diverse Sentinel Patriot solution with our ORION Vela mapping solution, our Aurora MIS solution and our Managed Services, enables the call takers to respond to the community quicker and more efficiently as they immediately identify the location of the call and dispatch the appropriate first responders to the scene," said Jeff Wittek, chief strategic officer, Cassidian Communications.

Cassidian Communications customers since 1993, the York-Poquoson-Williamsburg ECC is equipped with 17 call taking positions and received approximately 325,000 calls for service in 2011. The call center is responsible for answering emergency calls from the more than 100,000 residents from the region and dispatching for the York-Poquoson Sheriff's Office, York County Department of Fire and Life Safety, the City of Poquoson Police and Fire Departments, and the City of Williamsburg Police and Fire Departments.

"The solution suite provided by Cassidian Communications is one that eliminates steps in processing emergency calls for service and allows for a quicker dispatch time to first responders," said Tal Luton, fire chief, James City County ECC. "And, having the back-up of the York-Poquoson-Williamsburg ECC provides that extra sense of security should either one of our call centers become inoperable as the call takers at each location are familiar with the software and area."

The James City County ECC, with 12 call taking positions, has been a Cassidian Communications customer since 1996. The ECC call takers answered over 150,000 calls for service in 2011 from the county's 70,000 residents and are responsible for dispatching emergency calls to the local police, fire and EMS departments within James City County. The James City County ECC also monitors the Surry Nuclear Power Plant Warning System.

Posted by Veronica Silva Cusi, news correspondent
Source: http://www.marketwatch.com