Sedgwick County P25 System

[epicone]

Sedgwick County Commissioners approved the recommendation to purchase a 10-site radio system from Cassidian Communications.

[dgruver911]

Well, this could be interesting. I know the name Cassidian (we are a customer, bought our 911 phone system when they were Plant/CML) but I had no idea they were in the radio business too. Had to go looking, here is what I found:
P25 Land Mobile Radio

"The industry’s only true non-proprietary P25 network offering, CORP25 is 100% standards-compliant, enables interoperability within and between systems...you have the option of using best-in-class, off-the-shelf hardware from multiple vendors "

[dgruver911]

and here's a link to the newspaper article about the decision:
Emergency radio system will cost Sedgwick Co. $23 million | Wichita Eagle

and no, I'm not related to the reporter, although I have talked to her many times when she used to make the daily "anything happening?" calls to dispatch...(actually, for some of the media, it's more like 2-3 times a day).

[ks13645]

Sorry for the barrage of questions here, but since I'm local, this is all really interesting to me...

Anybody know if Sedgwick County intends to tie their new system into the statewide Motorola-based P25 network? If so, will the Cassidian system play nicely with the Motorola zone controllers, etc.? I guess the basic question is, if a unit from another county drives into Sedgwick County, will they be able to talk to their dispatcher once their radio connects to the new system?

Will the new system be a 10-site Simulcast system or 'cell'? If so, sounds like that could be bad news for scanner listeners, since the P25 scanners currently on the market don't handle multipath well at all, speaking from experience with the new Butler County 5-site simulcast system. I talked to GRE at Dayton, and it doesn't sound like they have any plans to update their hardware or software to accommodate simulcast systems.

Thanks

[nec911]

I sat through the Cassidian Demo up here in Shawnee County. They were talking about Sedgwick County and what I understand is that they are going to provide all the head-in and back-bone infrastructure including the towers and repeaters.

It would be a non-propietery system that will allow any P25 capable radio on the system; EFJ, Motorola, Tait, Vertex, Kenwood etc.



It will be interesting to say the least whether KSICS allows them to tie into the system or if they are forced to use Moto-bridge to do so. We were told that using a Raytheon ACU-1000 the systems could be tied directly together, but I can understand that State not wanting to do that and tie up previous repeater channel space.

Nelson

[ks13645]

Since there is already a single-site KSICS tower in Sedgwick County (Northeast Wichita), maybe they'll be able to do what Butler County did, which was to replace a single-site with a simulcast cell. I would think that might take care of the Moto-Bridge issue...

I did notice that Sedgwick County already has 10 interoperability talkgroups assigned to it on KSICS, so that's probably a clue that they do intend to tie the new system into KSICS.

I know that Motorola has been generally perceived as a manufacturer of high-quality and durable radio equipment, and that they are a US company with a local presence, with the potential to have a positive impact on the local economy. I don't know anything about Cassidian, except that they have installed some TETRA systems overseas, and that apparently they are part of EADS. Does anyone here know if their equipment is up to Motorola's standards?

[n0lqt]

I don't see KDOT replacing the Wichita site with a simul-cast system tied directly into KSICS. The Wichita site is THE southern "hub" of the system.

My thought is more along the lines an IP-based hard-line interconnect controlled by dispatch. Last I knew, not every unit will have direct access to the KSICS system.

[Raccon]

Originally Posted by dgruver911

Well, this could be interesting. I know the name Cassidian (we are a customer, bought our 911 phone system when they were Plant/CML) but I had no idea they were in the radio business too. [...]

Cassidian is not PlantCML, instead PlantCML is part of Cassidan (North America), who bought it when Cassidian was still known as EADS Defence & Security. PlantCML then later changed its name to Cassidian Communications, under which the radio part is marketed, too.
The radio business was already part of EADS Defence & Security, which also provides TETRA and TETRAPOL equipment (beside P25).

[epicone]

The radio system selected by Sedgwick County would not have tied into the KSICS system directly even if they had selected Motorola. The current KSICS system operates at a different software level.

The effort to interface radio systems (P25) requires licensing on both systems. Even though there are standards for the interface, not all functionality is available.

Users would not be required to use a Motobridge to use the state system. They can simply change to a talkgroup on that system.