Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Martin County, Florida Accepts New Motorola Digital Communications System

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 21 Mar 2003 09:04:59 -0500

Martin County, Florida Accepts New Motorola Digital Communications System

New System Comes Online Early and Under Budget, Enhances Public Safety Countywide

SCHAUMBURG, Ill., March 20, 2003 – The Board of County Commission’s in Martin County,
Fla.  has accepted a new $9.1 million Motorola (NYSE:MOT) communications system to enable
public safety agencies countywide to respond more quickly and efficiently to emergency
calls. The system is part of Motorola’s extensive portfolio of integrated communications
and information solutions to address mission-critical public safety and security
requirements worldwide.

“We are pleased to report that the system came online a week ahead of schedule in
December, resulting in a savings to the county of almost $20,000,” said Russ Blackburn,
Martin County’s administrator.
The new system replaces the county’s existing decade-old system, which had shown
deteriorating performance for some time, according to Richard Jenkins Martin County’s
radio system manager.

“Our radio communications were plagued by ‘dead spots’ and the need for repeat
transmissions during dispatch. Motorola worked with us to design a solution that addressed
our specific safety concerns. As a result, our new system provides a significantly higher
level of communications performance for public-safety agencies including the Sheriff’s
Office, Fire and Rescue agencies, the city of Stuart, Sewall’s Point, Jupiter Island and
the Martin County School District,” Jenkins said.
More than 1,400 subscribers are online, including county hospitals, jail, schools,
Treasure Coast Mall and remote fire and police stations. Officials expect additional
subscribers to come on the system this year, including the Red Cross and other local
government agencies.

“We chose this system for its advanced digital technology that will provide reliable and
secure communications needed by public safety agency users well into the future,” said
Jenkins.

The Motorola 800 MHz ASTRO® SmartZone® digital system uses simulcast technology to ensure
that radio users anywhere in the county can communicate with each other, using handheld
radios. All messages are broadcast from all four primary tower sites. Motorola’s MOSCAD
fault-tolerant capability is built into the system to help ensure that if there would ever
be a failure at a single site it would not cause a system-wide communications failure.
MOSCAD also continually monitors system performance.

“Motorola served as a real partner with us on this project, designing a system to provide
the coverage and interoperability we were lacking, getting it up and running as quickly as
possible, and even remedying an ongoing electrical problem at our Emergency Operations
Center,” said Jenkins.

Electrical grounding problems had occurred during lightning storms in the past at Martin
County’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC). During implementation and build-out of the new
system, Motorola installed primary electrical grounding adjacent to the master site to
ensure that everything was grounded and connected correctly.

Dispatchers will operate from 16 new Motorola CENTRACOM Gold EliteTM consoles at the EOC
in Martin County, and also at the County Sheriff’s Office, City of Stuart Police, Jupiter
Island Public Safety and Indiantown Public Safety centers. The County also purchased the
most recent versions of Motorola’s digital two-way radios, including ASTRO XTS 5000™ and
ASTRO SPECTRA®, for public safety providers.

Initial testing of the system demonstrated significant improvement in coverage for the
south end of the county and on Hutchinson Island.

“These ‘holes’ in radio coverage have plagued the county for years with our old system and
we are extremely satisfied with the results of initial testing which now show 95 to 99
percent coverage in these areas,” said Jenkins.

An additional benefit is the technology’s interoperability with Motorola systems recently
installed in the adjacent counties of St. Lucie and Palm Beach, enabling public safety
agencies in all three counties to talk directly with each other.
“The superior coverage and interoperability of the radio system will improve the quality
and speed of police and fire responses between all of these jurisdictions,” said Jenkins.

Martin County, located halfway between Miami and Orlando, spans 555 square miles and has a
population of 130,000 people.
“We are proud to have partnered with Martin County to design a system that fit their
specific needs in responding to mission-critical situations,” said John Caldwell, Motorola
area territory manager.

http://www.motorola.com/mediacenter/news/detail/0,1958,2538_2074_23,00.html

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