First-response gearAlcatel-Lucent offers first-responders access to multiple video feeds using 4G LTE

Alcatel-Lucent is to provide first–response emergency teams the ability to view and rapidly share multiple video and data feeds simultaneously on mobile devices.

The company says that for the first time, fire, ambulance, and police teams will be able to share critical emergency situation information with operation controllers via video and data streams, thanks to Alcatel-Lucent’s First Responder Video solution. Building on Bell Labs research in multimedia and cloud, the First Responder Video uses 4G LTE mobile broadband networks to convey real-time video and information rapidly and cost-efficiently.

As urban populations continue to grow, adding new pressures to first responders as well as extra budgetary challenges, public or privately owned 4G LTE networks have become viable in delivering video and data capabilities to emergency services. Teamwork and safety can be improved, as LTE communication offers improved situational awareness in responding to an event.

Greater urbanization, however, also means more people in an urban environment using smartphones and other high-bandwidth devices and applications, stretching the capacity of a mobile broadband network. Alcatel-Lucent says its First Responder Video solves this issue by optimizing bandwidth use and integrating multiple video feeds and other operational data into one single stream to transmit to situation commanders. This enables the fast delivery of bandwidth-hungry video and data among teams, allowing them to assess and respond to a situation more effectively, without compromising the overall delivery speed or quality of the LTE network.

Philippe Agard, vice president of public safety at Alcatel-Lucent said: “Alcatel-Lucent’s First Responder Video capitalizes on our leading capabilities and expertise in mobile broadband solutions to deliver real efficiencies for public safety agencies. The solution has seen great results in a live end-to-end trial with the Polícia Militar do Estado de São Paulo, Brazil, allowing teams to be sent views from in-car cameras. Easy-to-use screens enhance operations in the toughest environments and the ability to maximize available bandwidth to share multiple high-quality video images on a variety of mobile devices maximizes cost of ownership at a time when budgets are being stretched.”

First Responder Video employs a thin client strategy, which ensures that data processing takes place at the powerful control centers to free up the device itself to focus on receiving and sending images and data. It works seamlessly with existing control center dispatch applications and allows teams to send video and data to many different types of smart mobile devices at the same time. This gives agencies the freedom to adopt a mobile device suitable to them or use existing compatible devices to maximize investments.

Teams can adjust the number of video and data views as well as the screen layout, so information is delivered in a way that is appropriate to the situation as well as meaningful in relation to the size of the device. Agencies can also allow first responder staff to share their own videos of a situation and team members can further customize their views by panning or zooming the video views to find out more about a situation.