Facilities - Sample Projects
The following are three (3) sample project stories specifically concerning our firm’s engagements in helping public safety departments plan, design, and acquire new dispatch systems:
State of California Highway Patrol
Macro was engaged in 2004 by MTC SAFE and the California Highway Patrol (CHP) to lead the Bay Area Regional Tactical Emergency Communications System (BARTECS) project. BARTECS is a regional communications gateway intended to improve radio interoperability among state, county, and local first responder agencies when responding to incidents on the San Francisco Bay region’s dozens of miles of congested freeways and expressways. The gateway can connect existing radio communications channels together, either on an always-on basis, or on demand, to enable communications between agencies using different radio channels or technologies. The gateway system designed and configured by Macro will utilize existing mutual-aid channels when possible – or existing agency channels when practical – to minimize disruption and overloading on primary channels.
During Phase 1, Macro evaluated the feasibility and costs of interconnecting mutual-aid or interoperability channels through existing microwave radio links to fill interoperability gaps between existing systems owned by other agencies, concluding with several technical and operational recommendations, including CHP and MTC work with local agencies to deploy and evaluate a pilot project in Marin, Napa, and Sonoma Counties. Phase 2 today involves Macro’s planning, deployment, and testing of this pilot project.
San Mateo County, CA
Macro conducted an intensive needs assessment, developed and presented alternative designs and costs, and developed a phased project plan for a new public safety radio and microwave datalink system for San Mateo County – a large and densely populated county immediately south of San Francisco. Stakeholders in the plan include the County Sheriff, County Fire, EMS, County General Services, and the individual community law-enforcement agencies. The land mobile radio infrastructure includes a County-owned, six-site simulcast system serving 1,200 mobile and portable radios. It also includes a unique, four-channel, simulcast mutual-aid system, jointly owned and operated by the County and the law-enforcement agencies of 21 local communities in the County. The microwave system includes 28 high-capacity digital and medium-capacity analog links.
Macro’s work included an evaluation of the County’s legacy radio system performance, growth forecasts, and user requirements for radio system features and coverage. Design alternatives for the mobile radio system considered analog, digital, and trunked technologies. Macro recommended and the County accepted, upgrading the Sheriff, EMS, and General Services’ mobile systems to 480 MHz trunked technologies, with mutual-aid systems to remain conventional for compatibility. Analog and older digital microwave sites were also upgraded to higher-capacity digital to support simulcast mobile radio and enterprise networking.
Macro was subsequently contracted to develop detailed designs and cost estimates and implementation and cutover plan for replacement of the three major mobile and microwave networks. This included extensive mobile coverage prediction studies for site selection for the planned mutual-aid and 480 MHz trunked systems, FCC licensing, and airtime loading studies in preparation for the trunked radio system. The final system today is a 17-site, 24-channel, 480 MHz trunked radio system, consisting of two simulcast zones, as well as seven stand-alone trunked “fill-in” zones. Seventeen new dispatch workstations were designed for the County’s 9-1-1 center. The system was interconnected through an eleven-site, loop-protected SONET microwave and fiber network, with over twenty additional microwave spur links connecting to the fill-in sites, other local law enforcement agencies and various other County facilities for telephone and data use. The voice radio channels on the new trunked system are digital and compliant with APCO Project 25 standards. Over 1200 mobile and portable radios will be purchased and deployed. The SONET microwave loop and various spur links were designed with significant spare capacity to be used later by the County’s Information Technology (IT) Department to share redundant, high-speed network connections to numerous County offices. (Note: Redwood City, located within San Mateo County, has since joined the County’s radio system.)
Monroe County, NY
Monroe County’s Public Safety Communications bureau selected Macro to plan and design a consolidation and upgrade of their disparate, obsolete police voice, mobile data and microwave wireless system and supporting facilities. The County's police radio system operates on seventeen UHF radio frequencies in support of 750 mobile and 1,400 portable radios. This system includes 570 mobile data terminals and a 51-site interconnect backbone comprised primarily of new microwave radio links and site upgrades.
Macro studied the existing police communications system, completed a needs analysis, and made recommendations as to system replacement, siting for new tower for improving coverage, and what technology will provide the most effective solutions. Because of the number of frequencies available to the County and the desire to have capacity to support non-public-safety agencies, the County agreed with Macro’s recommendation to implement the new radio system and site architecture on trunked radio technology for more efficient spectrum and site utilization.
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