SCOTTER
Member
Our new dispatch center will open this week and will dispatch from there to all first responders starting in june using a computerize automated dispatch system.This is the end I think.
Oh crap say it aint so !
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n5ims
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What are you expecting to happen with this change. Many agencies use a computerized automated dispatch system to standardize and automate their initial dispatching. They're generally easily monitored and are often just as easy, or even easier, to understand than a human doing the dispatching.
Here's a link to the computerized automated dispatch system for the Dallas Fire Rescue agency providing EMS and Fire services for the city of Dallas Texas. Dallas City Fire/Rescue Automated Dispatch
They use the Locution system (Fire Station Alerting System | PrimeAlert | Locution Systems), one of the more common ones on the market. What it does is allow the 911 operator to remain on the line with the caller, keeping them calm and collecting additional information, while the call is sent to the responding units, without requiring an additional person to make the broadcast. It also ensures that the broadcast is emotion free even if the call is one that may cause even the most professional dispatcher to have some emotional attachment to the call (think 9/11 or even the recent ambush of the Dallas PD officers where several were killed).
Locution (or any automated dispatch) isnt bad, i don't think anyone would be laid off, a computer will never be able to take 911 calls, and a computer wouldn't be able to handle the incidents, also you would still need a main dispatcher to make any human related decisions related to move ups, etc
my only concern is the initial installs like in Columbus, OH had some issues, but many departments are going to this, Phoenix, San Antonio, Dallas, West Palm, and a few others
my only concern is the initial installs like in Columbus, OH had some issues, but many departments are going to this, Phoenix, San Antonio, Dallas, West Palm, and a few others
SCOTTER
Member
They use CAD along with dispatch now. It sounds like most calls will be sent through the system not dispatched. So I would not hear alot im not sure. Its in Sundays South Bend Tribune under Countys merged 911 facility opening
GTO_04
Member
IFD has been using a similar system. Don't worry it is not the end. You can monitor it just fine. Its an automated voice.
GTO_04
Locution CAD is in use by Marion, Johnson, Hendricks, Hamilton, Madison, and other counties all over IN, as well as in Dallas, TX, Shelby County/Memphis, TN and hundreds of other places nationwide. For Fire/EMS, there will never be an full MDT based communications system due to the nature of the work. So lets not scream the sky is falling until an cloud bumps you at ground level. 
Lake County Consolidated has been using Locution now for around six months. It is simulcast on both the old 'analog' system and the new 700 MHz trunked system.
SCOTTER
Member
Thanks guys for your links and replys I feel better about it. I started freaking out when this past week all PD and FD were told to come in for radio changes and new tones. Have a good day.
DJ11DLN
Member
I've been hearing Hendricks County automated dispatch "Rosy the Robot" a lot lately..."she's" not difficult to understand. The first couple of times I heard it, it was a bit odd, but once my ear had the "code," I find it concise and easy to understand.
Off-topic...I am hearing Hendricks County, all of it not just fire dispatch, in the evening just about every day so there must be someone from there hanging out around here with their radio on and affiliated with one of the towers I monitor because NE of Terre Haute with an RS800 duck I do not believe I can possibly be hearing one of their towers.
Off-topic...I am hearing Hendricks County, all of it not just fire dispatch, in the evening just about every day so there must be someone from there hanging out around here with their radio on and affiliated with one of the towers I monitor because NE of Terre Haute with an RS800 duck I do not believe I can possibly be hearing one of their towers.
I wouldn't take it to Vegas!
I HOPE that emergency services dispatching ever become totally automated; however to say never is something no one should ever say about anything. Man can NEVER fly. The 60 mph speed barrier will never (and cannot) be broken... then 100...etc... etc. We are less than 40 years into 'modern' computer development. In the late 70's when the PC was first conceptualized and then designed... and shortly there after built and on the market in the mid-80's the "experts" and 'Greatest Computer Minds" all said that it was impossible for a PC or small business computer (then called Middies) to ever... operate above the 32 bit level; that hard drives will NEVER exceed 250 megabits... and on and on and on... They were wrong about it all, as they were dealing with a brand new device called the IC ... after spending years working with vacuum tube designs and only about 20 years with trying to covert it all to transistors. We've managed to exceed in everything man was told he can't do (except coexist in peace)... Some day... and I am hoping it will be much later than sooner... there will be automated dispatchers the once they become mainstream will be as good or better than the humans we have today. Personally, I have taking the human side out of a lot of things, but times are still a changing... and changing. The other side of that coin is ... if it saves lives... Now where did I park my brand new Google Autonomous Patrol Car.
For Fire/EMS, there will never be an full MDT based communications system due to the nature of the work. So lets not scream the sky is falling until an cloud bumps you at ground level.
I HOPE that emergency services dispatching ever become totally automated; however to say never is something no one should ever say about anything. Man can NEVER fly. The 60 mph speed barrier will never (and cannot) be broken... then 100...etc... etc. We are less than 40 years into 'modern' computer development. In the late 70's when the PC was first conceptualized and then designed... and shortly there after built and on the market in the mid-80's the "experts" and 'Greatest Computer Minds" all said that it was impossible for a PC or small business computer (then called Middies) to ever... operate above the 32 bit level; that hard drives will NEVER exceed 250 megabits... and on and on and on... They were wrong about it all, as they were dealing with a brand new device called the IC ... after spending years working with vacuum tube designs and only about 20 years with trying to covert it all to transistors. We've managed to exceed in everything man was told he can't do (except coexist in peace)... Some day... and I am hoping it will be much later than sooner... there will be automated dispatchers the once they become mainstream will be as good or better than the humans we have today. Personally, I have taking the human side out of a lot of things, but times are still a changing... and changing. The other side of that coin is ... if it saves lives... Now where did I park my brand new Google Autonomous Patrol Car.
DJ11DLN
Member
Think of it in economic terms. While station MDT devices for municipal departments are already in use, there are a lot of VFD or mixed departments where not everybody is hanging around the station waiting for a run. And even in the big departments, when off-duty personnel have to be called in for a large event, that also means rounding up people from home, work, or wherever. I don't see MDTs being put into each and every Fire/EMS personnel's hands. The cost would be prohibitive. And unless FirstNet devices, whatever form they eventually take, are a heck of a lot less expensive than trunked radios, I don't really see those taking over for pagers either. Many departments can't even afford to put a trunked radio into each of their personnel's hands; they end up confined mainly to officers and other key personnel, while scene comms are often handled on older conventional/analog gear running Simplex. The tax base to fund such simply isn't there.
Pagers on the other hand are relatively cost-effective and fairly durable. There is an element of "it ain't broke so don't be a-tryin' to fix it" in pagers that IMHO will keep them in operation, in one form or another, for a very long time. Cellular (commercial, anyway) can't compete with the reliability of pagers so that's out too, though it makes for a decent back-up.
Just because it "can" be done, it may not make economic sense to do it. Flying cars were first marketed in the '40s I believe...yet where are all the flying cars these days?
firefighter6122
Member
What you reference with local departments needing to continue use of pagers is exactly the reason for the Locution software that will be implemented this year. The Locution software is added to the CAD system so that as soon as the 911 call is entered, when the dispatcher hits the button for the MDT's it will activate Locution to do an automated voice dispatch over the legacy VHF system so pagers can still be used.
However, all of that being said, just because there won't be a person speaking on the VHF radios, doesn't mean anyone loses their job, it just allows the people in the dispatch center to focus on the tactical channels. It reduces the likelyhood that they miss fireground traffic because they were on the primary doing a dispatch. The MDT's make it so that they don't have to tie up radio traffic with simple routine traffic such as going en route. There will be a need for physical people in the dispatch center for quite some time. Until artificial intelligence can understand emotion, tone, and inference, we will always need a person there to listen to us when we talk on the radio.
We've been successfully using Locution here in Lake Co, IN for over a year. 80,000+ Fire/EMS runs in a year and it hardly fails. Calls get out quicker and the format is always the same. Takes a little getting used to,but as long as it's set up right, it's a wonderful addition to the dispatch system.
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MDT's suck.
W8RMH
Feed Provider Since 2012
Columbus Ohio has used Locution now for close to 10 years with no major issues. The main benefit, with over 500,000 runs per year, is the system's ability to dispatch up to 20 calls simultaneously which greatly reduces response times and saves lives. The calls go to the stations over the internet and are also transmitted over the radio when available.
It also does not eliminate dispatchers. A dispatcher still has to review and approve each call before it is actually dispatched.
It is not an automated voice but an actual human voice which is pre-recorded. The information is dispatched the same way, in the same order, every time, which has been proven to be less stressful for all.
You can listen to Columbus as well as MECC (which is slightly slower and has a little different setup) on the live feed http://www.broadcastify.com/listen/feed/11148
It also does not eliminate dispatchers. A dispatcher still has to review and approve each call before it is actually dispatched.
It is not an automated voice but an actual human voice which is pre-recorded. The information is dispatched the same way, in the same order, every time, which has been proven to be less stressful for all.
You can listen to Columbus as well as MECC (which is slightly slower and has a little different setup) on the live feed http://www.broadcastify.com/listen/feed/11148
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