Increased Coverage — The upgraded system design will significantly increase coverage throughout the entire County. Today's Public Safety Users rely heavily on hand-held portable radios. The upgraded SmartZone system will significantly increase coverage reliability for portable radios inside buildings.
Increased Capacity—The current system primarily serves Police, EMS and County departments such as Sheriff and Detectives. Many of the County's Fire Service Providers want to move onto the trunked radio system — but cannot do so until this upgrade provides the additional channels needed to support these users.
New Technology — The proposed upgrade enhances the existing infrastructure by adding support for new technology such as digital voice. Digital voice provides clear, noise free audio and enhanced encryption. Digital operation is in compliance with APCO Project 25 standards for Public Safety.
Support for Existing Subscribers — The upgraded system will still support the approximately 2000 existing analog mobile and portable radios that have been purchased by the County and the individual Using Agencies. This will save millions of dollars compared to purchasing new radios on a system not compatible with these units.
Support for Existing Dispatch Consoles — The proposed system also includes enhancements to the County's existing dispatch console system making it fully compatible with the SmartZone wide area digital technology.
New Digital Subscribers — To take advantage of the digital capabilities of the upgraded system, the price quoted includes 444 new digital radios. These units will be assigned to the departments currently using Securenet encryption. The Securenet modules in the existing radios will be removed, allowing these units to be re-deployed elsewhere in the system.
Multiple Subscriber Sources—To support our customers' demand for choices, Motorola has licensed our SmartNet/SmartZone technology to other manufacturers such as Transcrypt EFJ. Thus, in addition to the wide variety of Motorola analog and digital radios the system supports, compatible radios are also available from other vendors. This assures the County's users will have many choices, and competitive prices. The expanded SmartZone system offers by far, the widest range of models and prices for subscriber units - ranging from basic radios starting around $1,000, up to high tier full-featured models at $3,000 to $3,500.
Increased Data Capacity - The new 3 channel data infrastructure operating in parallel with the trunked voice system provides much higher data speed and throughput than any integrated voice and data system. The use of a dedicated, parallel data system inherently provides redundancy and provides uninterrupted capacity for demanding data applications such as reports, maps, mug shots, etc.
Improved Network Management - The upgrade to SmartZone includes a number of enhancements to the County's ability to monitor and manage this critical system. SmartZone system management tools allow the system to be quickly and easily configured to meet changing needs, inherent in this system is the ability to monitor the health and status of all major elements at a central location. This ensures that failures can be detected and repaired quickly — often before system users even know there was a problem.
Smooth Transition - Since the proposed upgrade supports continued use of existing consoles, and mobile and portable radios, user training would be minimal. Similarly, although this upgrade provides enhanced coverage by adding SmartZone wide area roaming, and supports new features such as digital, the basic technology behind the system remains in place. Thus, County technical personnel can continue to work with a system they are very familiar with, and already well equipped to support.
