In early August, ADRF attended and sponsored the Safer Buildings Coalition Safety Training event in Dallas, Texas. The half-day event was led by Alan Perdue, CFO and Executive Director of the Safer Buildings Coalition, and subject matter experts, including Gabe Guevara, Director of Sales from ADRF, Charlie Schulz, Director of In-Building and DAS from Alliance Communications, and Josh Gerst, VP Engineering from RF Connect. Attendees were comprised of local code officials as well as electrical contractors and wireless industry leaders.
We attended presentations about the future of public safety and how we can prepare for the breadth and depth of FirstNet. Alan Perdue presented this topic along with Emilee Fulton, the principal consultant at AT&T FirstNet, who spoke about the Band-14 rollout in the Dallas market, followed by a Q&A session.
Gabe presented his ideas on understanding the basics of radio frequencies, the spectrum, and technologies. He gave an overview of the various types of public safety frequencies such as the VHF, UHF, 700 MHz/FirstNet, and 800 MHz frequencies. He also delved into the types of DAS offered in the market, such as passive DAS used in small to medium-sized businesses, active DAS used in medium to large-sized venues, and the differences between public safety and commercial DAS. In regards to public safety, our DAS systems are good options offering frequency capability and NFPA 1221 2016/NEMA-4X code compliance such as our ADXV PS-MPR and FiRe-78-4.
Following all the sessions, there was an interactive round-table discussion to answer any unaddressed questions from the audience. Since several counties in Dallas started to adopt national fire code requirements, there were still many questions around the FirstNet roll-out plans. Other questions were geared towards the design and engineering process for public safety radio systems, and the testing requirements and procedures with code officials.
The future of public safety support in the upcoming 5G upgrade was also addressed at the round-table. It was consequently debated whether having FirstNet and cellular bands in the same system would be a feasible option. Yet, with a rapidly evolving network, there will be a constant influx of codes, rules, and testing requirements. In order to keep up with these new code requirement changes, attending events such as SBC help subject matter experts carefully monitor and follow code requirements to save money and time.
We’re grateful to the team of the Safer Buildings Coalition for letting us participate and sponsor the event! You can learn more about our public safety solutions by visiting our page.