September 20, 2006

Motorola Helps Update The Antiquated  Communications System To A New Software Based Control Center

Click here to view equipment install

On Friday September 15th, a meeting between Motorola representatives, Jack Odum and Doug Brownlee, and Laurens County 911 representatives, Linda Fowler and Alan Sanders, was held. Past problems, along with current problems, involving our communications system has caused us to look into replacing the old equipment with new software-based system.

On September 19th, at the regular meeting of the Board of Commissioners, a discussion was held on the 911 equipment.  County Administrator Bryan Rogers stated he received a call from 911 Director, Linda Fowler, and she stated that recently a glitch was noticed in the radio communications equipment and through Motorola attempting to fix the problem discovered Orbacom whom the system was purchased from 16 years ago had sold the company to IPC and all the parts for the Orbacom systems have been discontinued.  Mr. Rogers stated the system was 16 years old and money has been set aside for a new 911 radio system.  Therefore, bids were taken from Motorola and IPC.  Mr. Rogers stated Motorola came in with the less expensive bid of $144,479 which was about $4500 less than IPC.  Mr. Rogers stated this needs to be moved on as quickly as possible and he recommended going with Motorola.  Commissioner Mullis made a motion to go ahead and order the equipment.  Commissioner Lake seconded the motion.  All voted in favor.

The new system was ordered on September 20th and is scheduled for installation in about 6 weeks.

The old system, a Orbacom TDM-150, has run non-stop in our center for 16+ years. The Orbacom system used a Central Processor Package (CPP). This package provided the distributed microprocessor framework for the system and controls all data and audio processing.

---

The new system will be a Motorola MCC 5500 Dispatch Console. It is Motorola's  new high tier software-based radio dispatch control center. It features an intuitive, easy-to-use Graphical User Interface that runs under Microsoft XP operating system utilizing the industry standard PC platform. MCC 5500's highly recognizable icons are designed to reduce user training time and allow dispatchers to manage information more productively.

Designed for effective, flexible dispatch communications, MCC 5500 Dispatch Console provides a range of valuable features. For more info on this product, click the below.