Conference focuses on public safety

Hospitals' response to the Victorian bushfires was one of the topical papers read at the APCO Australasian 2009 conference and exhibition.

Presented by Paul Holman, operations manager (Emergency Management) Ambulance Victoria, he outlined strategies and methods used in one of Australia's worst disasters. (RadioComms Asia–Pacific hopes to publish the full paper when it becomes available.)

The overall theme of this year's event, held at Australia's Technology Park in Sydney, earlier this month, was 'Leaders in Public Safety — When Every Second Counts'.

Nearly 60 papers were presented and some of the topics included: 'Radio Over IP: Applications and Trends' by John Florenca of Omnitronics; 'Global Trends in Public Safety Spectrum Standards' by David Lum of Motorola; 'Hand Held Mobile Satellite Broadband Technology' by Henrik Jacobsen of Applied Satellite Technology; 'The Future Direction of Project 25' by Robert Barden of Aeroflex.

Exhibitors who featured the latest in communications, search, surveillance and in-vehicle systems included: Motorola; Telstra; Tait; ComGroup; Sigtec; SDSI; Tyco Electronics; Tenix Solutions; Intergraph; 4RF Communications; ADDCOM Contact Solutions; Adtec; AnsaldoSTS; AST; Auria Wireless; Avalias; Barrett; Benelec; Britax; CallDirect; C4i; Dataradio; Electrodata; Hazard Systems; HighGround; iCom; InfraWorks; LogicEnergy; Omnitronics; Optima; Optus; Pivotel; Priority Dispatch; Radixon; RFI; RF Technology; Teltronic; Tough Corp; VectorCommand; Verint; Vicom and Zetron.