Asheville Fire going to automated voice dispatch

[NCFireman11]

According to information from a contact of mine, Asheville Fire Department will be going to automated voice dispatch by late June or early July 2024. Testing is on-going to work out all the bugs right now. This will now add to Shelby/Cleveland County, Rutherford County Fire/EMS dispatching with a computer generated voice west of the Charlotte metro area.

 

[jake_Braker]

And Gaston

 

[drayd48]

Iredell county is planning on it soon

 

[kg4ehv]

Just started hearing Asheville this weekend using it, but not all the time.

 

[chief21]

UPDATE: Asheville FD has been testing the automated dispatch voice on Fire 10 talkgroup recently. However, they might be getting closer to deploying this full-time, as I've been hearing what sounds like alert testing for individual stations today.

 

[yardbird]

Cleveland County is using it as well

 

[newsnick175]

Is it a female voice and does “she” have a “name“?

 

[chief21]

In Asheville, it is a female voice, but "she" hasn't introduced herself thus far.

 

[yardbird]

Moore Co is using automated dispatch as well.

Just got back from down that way last Friday.

All Ems & Fire is automated on 453.150 Mhz.

David

 

[Mbk127k]

What's so special about these automated voice generated dispatch systems? I'm originally from the North moved to Raleigh area 4 years ago, the county I was a firefightert/emt used voice along with pretty much the whole Northeast and so it took me a while to settle in hearing computer generated. I still feel that voice dispatch is quicker than computer generated.

What is so special over that than human?

Now Morris County, NJ has migrated to computer generated over the last year or so for some of the towns they dispatch for and only use voice for like testing and corrections to dispatches or cancelations.

 

[KE4ZNR]

What is so special over that than human?

Simple: Standard voice across all dispatches (so no one person too loud another too soft another mumbling), Less chance for errors (since the automated voice reads the exact call entered into CAD). It also speeds up call taker/telecommunicator response time. Really no reason not to use it these days.

 

[llzel]

Is it a female voice and does “she” have a “name“?

Samantha

 

[kg4ehv]

I've not heard her lately, wonder if they are working on it.

 

[Tech21]

I've not heard her lately, wonder if they are working on it.

Helene recovery most likely put a stop to any testing for a few months....

 

[KK6ZTE]

What is so special over that than human?

A big reason is staffing. Smaller dispatch centers with one or two dispatchers can start resources while still on a 9-1-1 call instead of waiting for the call to end or an available partner to voice it out. Staffing is a huge problem in most 9-1-1 centers.