The future of wireless technology

I was recently asked by a colleague (thanks Richard) if I could be the CDEM Groups' rep at this Ministry of Economic Development seminar. I thought cool... imagine going to the Sydney car show with the very latest in cool cars... all shiny and beaming, draped with appropriately attired support staff, big bangers alongside hybrids and the quirkiness of future transportation. Now put this in a tech setting - routers, mobile phones, convergent tech, gadgets and gizmos galore!

Now put on your very best Clarkson face... how wrong I was! Imagine instead a room full of mechanical engineers drooling over progress towards the flux capacitor, thermo-coupled double doofterised over-head underhangers and drive-by-wire architecture.

In real terms, my expectation of finding out about the consumer end of wireless technology developments was stretched well beyond even my comfort zone. Where we talk about web 2.o, these guys talk about web 4.0 (there are no wiki results for this), where we talk about a wireless router, these guys talk about MiMO, and where we speak English, these guys (and girls) speak an entirely different language. I did enjoy the surfer surfing the net though!

I thought I might learn a bit about the APCO 25, satellite stuff with IPSTAR and BGAN and possibly software to provide cross-band connectivity. Instead, we covered cognitive radio, the move of TV frequencies, SASRATS, WiMAX, frequency selective surfaces and much, much more - WOW!

Although there was no talk about BGAN, and femtocell was passed off as just a fad, the day was interesting and assured me that there are people thinking about not just tomorrow but 10-15 years into the future and putting policies in place and doing research we will be the beneficiaries of. It is nice to know that we are out performing the Aussies in this area at the moment too!

Video and presentations from this day will be available on the RSM web site in the near future

Vehicle donated to Manawatu Coastguard

Horizons issued a press release yesterday in regard to our donation... here it is.

Volunteers at the Manawatu Coastguard can now respond to incidents faster and drier thanks to the Horizons Emergency Management Group donation of a used vehicle.

The SsangYong ute was formerly owned by the Manawatu District Council (MDC) and was transferred to Horizons when the MDC contracted its emergency management services to the regional council.

The ute was not fully suitable for Horizons’ use and would have been tendered for sale. But when Horizons became aware of the Coastguard’s need for a vehicle the donation idea was suggested to the council’s executives.

Manawatu Coastguard President, Leighton Judd, says the ute is a great asset to them.

“It means we can make a far quicker response to incidents as we can tow our jet ski down the beach, instead of getting to the scene on our jet ski or on our boat. In some instances, especially at night, the ute will mean our response is far more efficient.”

Leighton Judd says the Coastguard had intended on fundraising to purchase a vehicle. The hard work involved with fundraising can now be focussed on purchasing radio equipment for the ute, as well a major project to buy a new Coastguard boat.

“All of our members are volunteers and up until now we have all used our private vehicles when necessary. We do a lot of support work for the surf lifesaving clubs on the Manawatu and Kapiti coastline and the ute will also be used to respond to swimmers and people in trouble in the sea."

Horizons Emergency Manager Officer, Ross Brannigan, says he is delighted that Horizons executive members agreed to donate the vehicle. There is an important working relationship between the council and the Coastguard, he said.

“Horizons has Harbourmaster responsibilities, and in circumstances like a marine oil spill or anything to do with maritime safety we need to call on the services of the Coastguard boat. Donating a vehicle has done a lot to cement excellent working relationships between us.”

Outcome of EMDO training

Well, the EMDO and EM staff training day went really well last week. It was a good opportunity to work our way through the activation procedures and practice everything we've talked about and documented.

I'm sure some of the things were new for a few of the team so this would have been a significant learning curve. We only had a couple of minor equipment hiccups but that just proves that having an IT duty officer is important too. William Gordon and

Alistair Williams helped out during the day to resolve any technical issues.

We also practiced send an SMS via our message media site - its really the first time

we've had the HorizonsEM user logged on in

several places at once. I think this fact is partly to blame (but that won't stop the shout) for Rosco sending an SMS to a rather random list... asking 'where's da emergency?' Not sure how that happened! Anyway Rosco - make mine a Tui!

We have also decided to use CIMS language in our accounts so we've now set up HorizonsPlanningIntel, HorizonsOperations and HorizonsLogistics accounts in Groove, gmail and Skype. The base account used in the Comms Room for generic e-mail and warnings is still HorizonsEM.

Latest e-bulletin

The latest e-Bulletin is now available from the MCDEM website here.

In this issue...

• Tribute to Mike Kennedy
• Murupara community builds resilience
• Canterbury to better connected
• Volunteer award for Nelson Response Team member
• West Coat Controllers Forum
• Council supports emergency management staff development
• Public Education update: Revised Stan launched
• CDEM Professional Development
• CDEM Research
• Submissions sought on draft business continuity standards
• Personal security and communications course
• MCDEM Lifelines update
• Earth science book wins award

EMDO training day

Tomorrow will be a full day for the Emergency Management Duty Officers and staff of Horizons Emergency Management Office. An extensive programme has been arranged for the team to work through the details for a cold start to EOC/ECC operations at Horizons. The day will include activation of all hardware and software that might be used in operations.

Each of the EMDOs is expected to be able to fully activate the EOC and support the Horizons Incident Controller and/or Group Controller without the support of any other EM staff. It's quite a big ask to do in slow time, let alone when the pressure of an event is upon us. We'll be practicing setting up the EOC, spreading our wings into the Compliance space, conference calls, Groove, useful websites and how to make the most of the wall monitors. Sending sms messages, preparing sitreps and arranging the first two shifts, using the BGAN, the new financial system and looking through the several emergency response documents we have will also be part of the day.

This training day is the first in a series of activation training days for EOC staff. Here, our expectation is that many of the staff that might be first into the EOC might be expected to perform any number of roles. Each Friday afternoon for about a month we'll be running training for batches of staff

Volcano short course

GNS Science and Massey University are again running their very successful Planning for a volcanic crisis short course. This year the course is being held at the
Mercure Hotel in Auckland on 23-24 September. An optional field trip will also visit Rangitoto Island on the 25th.

The course covers:

• The volcano problem
• Impacts and mitigation
• Monitoring and warning systems
• Two case studies
• Lahars and breakout flooding
• Discussions on crisis management
• Planning for volcanic crisis
• Learning from others, and
• So what can you do?

For more information about the course, you can download the brochure from here. You can also contact Daryl Barton on 04-570-1444 or d.barton@gns.cri.nz. The course costs $500 per person and the field trip is $100.

Mobile Command and HazMat

Mitchell Brown invited emergency managers and CEG members to visit one of the new NZFS command and hazmat vehicles as it was passing through Palmerston North yesterday. We've been hearing for a while now that the Fire Service is investing in 16 of these vehicles at around $1M a piece.

I've got to say, I'm impressed! The vehicle is well designed for its purpose and very well constructed. The tail-lifter on the back of the truck allows for quick removal of six large containers

of hazmat response equipment. This leaves a large open floor space for people to be briefed, whiteboards with status to be maintained and a very clever touch screen TV/monitor. The forward part of the unit has two work stations and quite a lots of the technology for patching radios and managing incidents.

On the outside of the vehicle there is a hydraulic mast for radio aerials, telescoping mast for the site camera and the IPStar satellite dish (clever enough to find the satellite on its own). The vehicle is stabilised to ensure a steady working platform. Total set up time was less than 10 minutes for one person.

Whilst this is a specialist platform for NZFS incident management there is provision for it to be used at other types of incidents. I suspect that due to its dual purpose though that this won't be left at incidents for extended periods of time unless there is a significant commitment by the Fire Service at the scene.

Any future developments we do with EOCs will take into account this significant investment by the Fire Service. Well done guys!

(Troy Gerbich and Tony Groome at the helm... whatever next?)