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The Enterprise View of Public Safety

The importance of having reliable public safety system has been stressed repeatedly within the connectivity and real estate industries. Typically, the importance comes under the pretense of, “In the event of (emergency), first responders need to be able to communicate with each other and locate people in the buildings.”

The hypotheticals are a good step towards making CRE owners understand why they need a public safety system. However, TEC Systems Director of RF Engineering Tony Balletta drove the point home with a real life example during the “Enterprise View of Public Safety” panel during the Connected Real Estate Summit at the ITEXPO in Florida. Safe-Fi Tech Founder and CEO Laurie Caruso moderated the panel that also included City of Fort Lauderdale Telecom Coordinator Bobby Brown, Comba Telecom Sales Engineer Ed Zaldivar and City of Fort Lauderdale Telecom Systems Manager Gary Gray.

TONY BALLETTA

Balletta shared a story from his time as a volunteer fire fighter. His partner went down and screamed that he lost his mask and could not breathe. Balletta called on his radio that there was a fireman down, but no one heard him. Fortunately, there was another firefighter who was nearby and pulled Balletta’s partner out.

“Why am I so passionate?” Balletta said. “Because I’ve experienced it and communications is so important. How many people have tried to call 911, but the call can’t go through because there’s a problem there? So, yes, I’m very passionate.”

PUBLIC SAFETY INSPECTION PROCESS

The motivation for a CRE owner to install or improve their public safety system often comes after the local fire department does an inspection or after an incident where the department has communications problems. The department will inform the building owner they need to do something to fix the issue.

“The building owner then contacts us,” Gray said. “We talk to them about what we require. One of the requirements is any BDA system that’s put in for public safety must be separate entirely from a cellular DAS network. The requirements for design, operation and maintenance are totally different between those two networks. The interference between the two frequency bands that are used are incredible.”

When a public safety system fails inspection, it’s often due to a lack of installation experience, according to Brown. An RF company hired to do the job knows RF, but not construction or the level of fire ratings that are required. Meanwhile, low voltage companies know how to pull cable, but don’t know RF and so on.

“It’s difficult finding a company that has a good understanding of all the components of construction, RF, cabling and fire survivability of cables,” Brown said. “That’s what we usually see as some of the main issues—inexperience. The vetting process for real estate people should (include) making sure (installers) are well versed in all the aspects, from soup to nuts, to make sure the system’s installed and performs correctly.”

CRE owners and the installer also need to make sure that any system that’s installed meets the authorities having jurisdiction’s (AHJ) approval. The signal cannot be legally transmitted without the AHJ’s OK, so the system has to be installed correctly.

“That’s why we have NFPA (National Fire Protection Association) standards and things like that, so that these integrators and systems installers can refer to—to make absolutely certain each system is installed correctly,” Zaldivar said.

GARY GRAY

“Unfortunately, the NFPA standards do not address the radio frequency issues that can be created by an improperly installed BDA network,” Gray added. “The licensee is the final word. Even if the fire marshal says a system has to be installed, he can’t make you put it in. The licensee can say, ‘No, you cannot turn it on.’ You must engage all of the AHJ’s, licensees, your fire marshal and make sure you’re all on the same page because these systems have the capacity of totally disrupting public safety communications networks.”

“The high cost of fines is another reason CRE owners should make sure their public safety system is installed properly.”

As an example, Gray pointed to a company that improperly installed a BDA network which took down Miami-Dade County’s entire radio system as well as parts of Broward County’s.It took a week to find the source of broadband interference that wiped out everything.

“We’ve all had issues caused by that,” Gray said. “Here in Fort Lauderdale, we had an installation where I tried to convince the people doing it to redo their design. I am not allowed to design it for them, but I can encourage them to check their design and vet it well. They refused and consequently when they turned it on the day before their first scheduled inspection, they took down Broward County’s radio system and Fort Lauderdale’s radio system. I could not fine them—I wanted to, but I couldn’t.”

The high cost of fines is another reason CRE owners should make sure their public safety system is installed properly. If the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) receives a complaint and acts on it, the fines could be hundreds of thousands of dollars. If the issue goes on for days, the fines continue to increase.

“It can be very expensive for you,” Gray said. “You cannot turn on a BDA system without written authority of the licensee. Make sure you engage the FCC licensee in any BDA systems that you put in. It’s critical for your financial health, and the health and safety of the public safety responders, residents and people inside your buildings.”

One of the audience members at the event, Michelle Wray from M-Communications, commented “I really appreciated the comments of the two AHJ’s on the panel as we take their comments seriously. They had really good suggestions about how to make the process go smoothly and a collaborative approach is required for successful Public Safety solutions,” she commented.

PUBLIC SAFETY TESTING AREAS

When inspectors test a building’s public safety system, they check any spot where people might go. They will check common areas, restrooms, stairwells, and test the signal strength in elevator cars and shafts. They also test in fire pump rooms, fire command rooms as well as where the fire alarm control panels are located.

“We walk through every part of it and between the county, fire inspector and my team, there could be six people in the building at one time or on the same floor doing radio checks to make sure that they have a good DAQ (Delivered Audio Quality),” Brown said. “Non-critical areas require 95 percent coverage. Is that one bathroom 5 percent of the building? If not, we can keep going (with the inspection). It’s when we keep coming across more and more areas that the percentage rises. If there’s more than 5 percent of the building, the common areas, you fail.”

“Then you have to figure it out. A good designer will more than likely install more antennas and have low gain, but have good coverage rather than have few antennas and have high gain. Hopefully most of the building is covered.”

Elevator signal strength is critical to non-fire related calls, which are a majority of the calls the Fort Lauderdale fire department gets, according to Gray. Unlike during a fire, first responders will use elevators to move up and down the building. In one case in Dade County, an EMS team responded to a medical call in a high-rise building. One of the team members went down the elevator to retrieve medication but was then told via radio to grab a different medicine. Unfortunately, the EMS member didn’t hear the request and came back up without that medication and the person died.

BOBBY BROWN

“When that story was relayed to me, I went to my fire marshal and said, ‘We need to make sure that in elevators, we have communications because most of our calls are EMS calls,’” Gray said. “There’s a lot of things that people do not think about.”

UNDERSTANDING PUBLIC SAFETY AND FIRSTNET

It’s important to educate CRE owners about the importance of pubic safety, but it’s just as critical that those outside of the industry understand exactly what public safety is. There’s a misconception about both pubic safety in regards to terBOBBY BROWN minology, as well as FirstNet, a dedicated network for first responders, according to Balletta. When people hear “public” safety, they assume it’s something the public has access to.

“We really have to start trying to educate people on just because it’s public safety, it’s not public safety—it’s first responder safety and it’s for them,” Balletta said. “Most of us here get it, but the market out there, they don’t realize that. They think, ‘Well my building has public safety or my building has FirstNet, so everybody’s going to be safe.’ That’s really not the case.”

THE COST OF PUBLIC SAFETY

Installing a pubic safety system is critical— but it’s not inexpensive. According to Gray, BDA systems could cost between $200,000 and $250,000. To keep costs down during a new build, Balletta recommended having provisions in the stairwells and to make sure the conduits are ready for any future installs. “So when it has to go in, you have the capacity to put it in,” he said.

“I’ve been talking to developers for years and when I bring up the prospect of putting in a conduit when they’re building a brand new building, everyone has told me the same thing,” Gray said. “That’s cheap to do—it’s just the conduit. If we have to go back and core drill, do x-rays, the cost is just astronomical. I would encourage, especially for new buildings, get them to put in conduits dedicated for the BDA system.”

LAURIE CARUSO

“If you bring in somebody to give you pricing and presentations, make sure they know the code,” Balletta said. “Make sure they know RF design. If they come in with the cheapest quote, it doesn’t mean they are the best. Sometimes, you have to pay a bit more to get it.”

CHOOSE THE RIGHT PUBLIC SAFETY SYSTEM INSTALLER

Since it can be costly to install a public safety system, CRE owners should be sure they’re working with a company that knows what it is doing. All of the panelists had thoughts on what public safety installation expertise entails.

“If you bring in somebody to give you pricing and presentations, make sure they know the code,” Balletta said. “Make sure they know RF design. If they come in with the cheapest quote, it doesn’t mean they are the best. Sometimes, you have to pay a bit more to get it.”

“You see a lot of guys coming in from out of town, right?” Zaldivar said. “Knowledge of local regulations is important. That’s not to say there aren’t national companies that travel throughout the U.S. to do installations that can do a good job. But for the public safety market, I think knowing the local regulations and being in contact on a regular basis with local radio system operators is very important.”

“When you’re looking for these vendors, you want to make sure they have construction experience, they have RF experience,” Brown said. “You want to make sure that they’re well versed. Find out what projects they’ve completed. Have they worked in this area before? Are they familiar not only within a PA, but the local regulation?”

“Vet the people and check their qualifications,” Gray said. “Make sure they are doing two-way radio system work, not just putting in mesh networks for alarm systems.”

EDUARDO ZALDIVAR

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