Siemens, Catalyst partner on communication interoperability

Boca Raton, Florida-based Siemens Communications and Forest, Virginia-based Catalyst Communications Technologies, a provider of Radio Control Over IP for public safety and commercial markets, will collaborate on integrating Catalyst’s technology into Siemens HiPath Dispatch command and control center. Among the more pressing lessons of 9/11 and Katrina is the issue of emergency communications interoperability. Coping with disaster, searching and rescuing people, and planning for recovery are difficult enough without the added obstacles of emergency and first response units being unable to communicate with each other.

Siemens integrates Catalyst’s technology to provide a single console and user interface that can link to a wide range of radio equipment using standard radio interfaces. Command center and emergency operations center personnel may use the HiPath Dispatch center to communicate with virtually any radio system anytime. Siemens’ event management system combines radio and telephony IP interoperability to provide users with features such as radio caller ID and emergency alerts.

Customers like what they see. “Partnerships like the one between Siemens and Catalyst demonstrate the interest and commitment by manufacturers to develop and enhance strategies for public safety communications interoperability,” says Charles Werner, fire chief for the City of Charlottesville, Virginia, and chairman of the Virginia Statewide Interoperability Executive Committee. “This further stimulates the evolution of radio over IP.”