San Luis Obispo

A full-service city, SLO provides police, fire, planning, water, parking, engineering, parks and recreation services for its community. It is also contracted to provide fire service for the California Polytechnic State University campus and student residences.

The Challenge

Providing network coverage for public safety

The 30-year-old analog network that supported the Police, Fire, Public Works and Utility Departments did not provide the coverage needed. The hilly terrain made portable hand-held service particularly unreliable.

Steve Schmidt, San Luis Obispo IT Manager, says, "In an emergency or disaster, our first responders had to physically leave the emergency site and drive until they could establish radio communications with the dispatch center to request back-up. Even worse, they would use their cell phones to communicate. This was simply unacceptable; people's lives were at risk."

In 2009, the City decided to replace the old analog network. The new network needed to provide:

• reliable city-wide coverage
• analog and digital use
• increased interoperability between Police, SWAT Fire, City and dispatch teams
• secure, encrypted communications for Police and SWAT
• a flexible solution to meet the needs of each City department
• re-use of existing fiber infrastructure

The Solution

TaitNet QS2 Simulcast/P25 Simulcast Mission Critical Network

Tait designed a six-site IP-based TaitNet QS2 Simulcast/P25 Conventional Simulcast network for the City’s Police, SWAT, Fire, Public Works and Utility Departments.

The new network consists of:

• two analog Simulcast FM channels (VHF)
• five analog Simulcast FM channels (UHF)
• one digital Simulcast P25 encrypted channel (UHF) for Police and SWAT
• cross-band city common channel, managed by the dispatch center via IP-based console equipment which links the Fire city-wide channel (VHF) and Police city-wide channel (UHF) together

The hybrid solution interfaces with Avtech IP-based console equipment located at the Emergency Communications Center.

Tait Senior Systems Engineer Jerry Vargas explains how Tait network design overcame the terrain challenges without compromising reliability: "The San Luis Obispo project addressed the threat of network failure extremely well by deploying several layers of redundancy.

Together, we carefully selected three geographically diverse radio sites to reduce the risk of network failure and ensure more network reliability. Re-utilizing their existing fiber infrastructure provides 100% redundancy."

The network deployment in 2010 was managed by qualified Tait professionals. "Project Management was great," says Steve Schmidt from San Luis Obispo. "They kept everything on time and there were no delays with installation." Commissioning, Technical Training and ongoing support are also provided by Tait Services experts.

The Outcome

Interoperable communications the City can count on

Coverage tests prove that San Luis Obispo now has 98.5% coverage on their portable and mobile radios. "With the new state-of-the-art Tait network, our city workers feel confident now with their communications equipment," says Steve Schmidt. "The system has solved all of the coverage issues we had in the City and out at the Cal Poly campus."

The Simulcast cross-band city common channel means Police, Fire, Utility and Public Works can work together and manage large events, accidents or road closures.

"We also have a P25 digital encrypted channel specifically for the use of Police and SWAT teams to keep our covert operations secret,” Steve explains. The City chose the FIPS-certified 140-2 Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) to improve the safety of its workforce and community.

In August 2011, the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials (APCO) International awarded the San Luis Obispo Communications Center the prestigious Horizon Award: Recognizing the Proactive Achievements of Communications Centers.

Bill Carrow, President of APCO International, describes the City as a role model to the Public Safety industry. "City of San Luis Obispo Communications Center is leading the way to the future and the norm of telecommunications centers by showcasing the highest technological enhancements and demonstrating efficient operational procedure. APCO is happy to emphasize their success."