Motorola Solutions Adds Situational Awareness to Emergency Suite

Competing in an increasingly crowded market of situational awareness tools for first responders, Motorola Solutions announced new enhancements last week to CommandCentral Aware, a platform that funnels several data feeds onto a single screen.

Per the official announcement on April 10, when CommandCentral Aware fields a 911 call, it collects data from the caller, dispatcher notes, the first responders’ devices, historical records, local sensors and more. New enhancements to the platform allow it to make better sense of these disparate sources of information and display them in a clear, concise arrangement. These include enhancements to three modules:

• Mapping, which puts all location data from first responders, the caller and other sensors in a single map display, accessible anywhere with Internet.
• Video and Analytics, which gives responders real-time access to video feeds from IoT devices near an incident, plus analytics to read license plates or highlight other important aspects of the image. The platform is also automatically integrated with CommandCentral Vault, another aspect of the same software suite, which is a cloud-based storage and content management space for all the incoming data.
• Sensors and Alerts, which gives the call center real-time location and status information on first responders, including alerts for injuries, shots fired, weapons drawn, vest pierced and vehicle impact.

“Public safety agencies can tailor the software to their needs, deploy it quickly via the cloud and take advantage of enhanced security and seamless updates,” said Motorola Solutions General Manager Andrew Sinclair in a statement.

Motorola Solutions’ update of its CommandCentral suite comes on the heels of at least two recent acquisitions of related technology. The company acquired dispatch center system provider Avtec in March and VaaS International Holdings, the parent company of license-plate reading company Vigilant Solutions, in January.

The update also represents an investment in an increasingly active field of situational-awareness tools for emergency responders: Los Angeles-based Noonlight, a mobile app that automatically sends information from a 911 caller’s device to a call center, added automatic alerts for vehicle collisions and taser deployment last year; RapidSOS raised $30 million last fall to build out its emergency call-handing platform; Callyo announced a free website in November at which first responders can find a nearby caller’s location; and last week Carbyne and Cisco announced a partnership integrating their respective call-handling and data platforms.