Station End Equipment

[Evie]

Hi,

In Suffolk FRS we're looking to replace our aging station end equipment. 
I'm looking for any potential suppliers of GD92 compliant station end equipment, or seeing which suppliers other FRS' have - I don't think there is much competition out there.

Thanks
Evie

[Matt]

Hi Evie,

My background is IT and my fire connection is voluntary but this side is an interest to me with the day job.

There are a number of services that have recently gone through this process, if you look at the various tender sites out there (often via service websites and procurement sections) it will show a few.

The North West brigades have just awarded theirs to Telent this week by the looks of it who also support many others.  The majority are still using the Multitone kit, equipment when you travel around the country, brochure here and here.

Funnily enough was talking to my WM friend the other day who said they had mentioned about app based alerting which to me in a critical envrionment is the wrong way to go, alerters work, better coverage in some places than mobiles, not reliant on mobile network which can go down, if you go down that route are you going to supply device and ensure there is coverage, are you going to pay for charging of said device?  

My advice would be if it aint broken don't fix it, keep it simple from an end user point of view, maybe use an app alert as a backup but not solely rely on it.  The technology used for this purpose is tried and tested and has stood the test of time.

Most stations are still using dot matrix printers and a link to the MDT for notifications and print outs, a few out there use laser printers but they are in the minority as they are the odd ones using different systems.  Scotland would be a place to approach as they are in the midst of changing their mobs systems as I believe Northern Ireland (but don't quote me).

Hope that is of some limited help.

[Evie]

Thanks for your advice Matt.
I've been trawling online a lot and have only identified a 4 potential suppliers, and that includes Telent and Multitone (the latter is our current supplier), but didn't want to miss anyone. To find a supplier via a framework is quite hard when what you're after is specialist, as what we want comes under "network services" which is so broad!
Hoping not to have to touch our alerter system, and printers is a contentious topic. I'd love to do away with ours, but I think I wouldn't be on anyone's Christmas card list if I did 🤣

[Matt]

This might be worth a look, its a generic filter you can tweak as well as here and here.

I would look at crown commercial service framework, as well as YPO & ESPO but might be worth touching base with NFCC as I know some IT discussions have happened.

Did you go to ESS this year as that would of been a great opportunity to network.

The majority of the setups are the same up and down the UK having visited stations all over, Remsdaq did have an offering that was used but not seen it for some time.  Multitone is tried and tested, Telent supply this in their solution I think.  It's quite a niche market so your choice of suppliers is limited unless you want to start from scratch and then try and get a solution approved which is more hassle than its worth.  

Good to see a refresh programme been put in place as in many areas I suspect their kit is alot older than you think but its probably the most critical of it all.  Not sure if applicable but the MG4 specification may come into play with this too if your not aware of it.

I cannot give you much on that, I applied for a role both GD92 and MG4 were mentioned but there isnt' much out there on it so clearly kept internal but if you look in the FSM's both are mentioned on mobilising station end equipment.

[Evie]

You're a star Matt, and have re-assured me I've not overlooked anything. All the resources you signposted me to I'd already checked out, but I'll definitely follow up with NFCC too. We want to refresh, exploiting opportunities for efficiency and improvement rather than the headache of starting from scratch (and I think our service has one of the smallest budgets out of all the FRS' so doubt we could afford that route), and yes, I think the mobilisation equipment is reliable, so is definitely older than any other equipment, and I'm sure that other FRS' are in the same boat. We're running out of spare parts, and technology has changed, so a refresh is the way forward for us.
Bit more market research, then ITT it is 😀