LA City Approves Motorola DIGITAL system for LAPD
Karl Dahlquist
LA City Council Approves $50.8 Million Motorola ASTRO Digital Radio
Communications System for LAPD
LOS ANGELES, March 3 /PRNewswire/ -- The Los Angeles City Council today
approved a $50.8 million, six-year contract with Motorola's Land Mobile
Products Sector for an advanced, UHF digital, ASTRO(TM) radio communications
system for the Los Angeles Police Department.
The new radio communications system is part of the overall LAPD plan to
upgrade its emergency communications system. Motorola will install a new
communications infrastructure to make it possible for LAPD officers in all
parts of the city to use their portable radios to communicate directly with
each other and with the dispatch center.
``The new radio system will provide the citizens of Los Angeles with
enormous public-safety benefits,'' said LAPD Police Chief Bernard C. Parks.
``It is a major priority of this department to enhance the communications
capabilities of the LAPD to strengthen our ability to protect our
communities. Police officers will have the ability to communicate across the
street or across town, greatly enhancing our day-to-day communications
efforts and strengthening our communications capabilities during
emergencies.''
The new Motorola ASTRO digital radio communications system will provide the
LAPD with a citywide, coordinated radio communications system. Motorola will
design and manufacture the digital radio system, providing the software and
hardware components for a new communications infrastructure. The Master
Radio System will interface with the Emergency Command, Control and
Communications System (ECCCS) and the newly planned 9-1-1 dispatch centers.
The Motorola ASTRO system will be a UHF, 57 channel, digital wide-area
simulcast system and will be specifically engineered for Los Angeles' varied
terrain. With Motorola's simulcast technology, all sites broadcast radio
signals simultaneously, improving the radio coverage area.
The Master Radio System will be divided into five simulcast subsystems,
which will use 24 sites throughout the City to support more than 9,500 ASTRO
SABER III(TM) portable radios used by LAPD officers. The state-of-the-art
portable ASTRO radios are dual mode (analog and digital). Once the new
system is in place, the radios will work in the digital mode. The ASTRO
portable radios were designed by Motorola to accommodate future technology
and feature enhancement through software downloads.
``As newer features, technology or systems requirements change, the radios
can be upgraded by 'flashing' the latest features into the existing ASTRO
radios,'' said Terry Jaron, Motorola corporate vice president and general
manager, Western Division, US and Canada Group. ``The radios were designed
to ensure that they would be current with the latest technology and
standards in the public safety industry.''
The portable radios will have push-to-talk ID and emergency ID features that
help dispatchers quickly identify radios and the personnel using them. Those
IDs appear on the dispatchers' console CRT screens and on the displays of
the radios. The system implementation is designed to allow portable units to
effectively communicate throughout the city.
In November 1996, the City finalized a $8.3 million contract with Motorola
to begin the civil site development portion of the contract. This contract
includes the construction of tower sites and buildings critical to the
installation of the ECCCS or Master Radio System. The installation of the
communications infrastructure will begin in conjunction with the civil
contract work already underway.
Since Motorola designs and manufactures its two-way radio systems to meet
the unique needs of each public-safety agency, this system will be designed
to meet the specific requirements of the LAPD. The design, development and
installation of this complex radio communications system will take
approximately three and a half years.
``The Master Radio System was designed with the capacity to grow and meet
the LAPD's needs well into the 21st century,'' Jaron said. ``We are pleased
to have the opportunity to support the LAPD's goal of upgrading and
enhancing its ability to provide critical services for citizens.''
Motorola also will install a $20 million state-of-the-art data
communications system, which will be designed to provide the LAPD with
expanded data capabilities, to support today's dispatch and informational
data requirements, as well as supporting many new data applications. The new
Private DataTAC(TM) system will offer a high level of data capacity to
support future multiple data terminal devices and connectivity to national,
state and local crime information computers and records management systems.
With the installation of the new voice radio system, Los Angeles will join
the growing number of public-safety organizations to install systems based
on Project 25 digital radio standards. Project 25 is the functional and
technical standard for digital two-way radios created and adopted by a
consortium of two-way radio user groups. The consortium includes the
Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials-International (APCO),
which is the largest organization of public-safety communications officers
in the world, the National Association of State Telecommunications Directors
and a number of federal agencies. Since the consortium adopted the standard,
other user groups including the International Association of Chiefs of
Police have endorsed the standard.
The Los Angeles radio system will meet the Project 25 standard for
conventional radio systems. This will ensure that a compliant Project 25
radio will be able to ``communicate'' with another one, regardless of the
manufacturer.
Motorola's Land Mobile Products Sector designs, manufactures and distributes
analog and digital two-way voice and data radio products and systems for
applications worldwide, from on-site to wide-area communications. Motorola
is one of the world's leading providers of wireless communications,
semiconductors, advanced electronic systems and services. Major equipment
businesses include cellular telephone, two-way radio, paging and data
communications, personal communications, automotive, defense and space
electronics and computers. Motorola semiconductors power communications
devices, computers and millions of other products. Motorola's 1997 sales
were $29.8 billion. More information on Motorola is available at
http://www.mot.com.