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The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) Awards Geospatially-Aware Urban Approaches for Responding to Disasters (GUARD) Program to Rosettex
Emergency Communications System for First Responders Builds On Two Years of Prototyping Activity in New York City, Using Public Broadcast Television Spectrum As Backbone
GUARD Implements Congressional Vision for "Nationally Relevant Regional Model" of First Responder Communications and Decision Support Capability
January 2005 — ROSSLYN, VA - Rosettex Technology and Ventures Group (Rosettex) announces being awarded the $3M GUARD program. With this award, GUARD becomes a major focus of the National Technology Alliance (NTA) program, which manages and oversees the program. The award marks the transition of this groundbreaking homeland security initiative to the GUARD vision for a "Nationally Relevant Regional Model" of First Responder Communications and Decision Support Capability.
GUARD builds on two prior years of prototyping and demonstration as the "Smart Dissemination Networks" (Smart Nets) program, developed in conjunction with users from the Fire Department of New York (FDNY) and the New York Police Department (NYPD). GUARD extends the capabilities, team and technologies already in place to establish an operational prototype in New York City.
"Rosettex builds teams of Best-In-Class commercial partners to provide high-value solutions to the government," said Mark Lister, Managing Director for Rosettex. "The GUARD program demonstrates the power of this approach in unleashing the dedication and creativity of our commercial industry partners."
The GUARD plan calls for extending this capability with additional interconnected regional solutions in Washington, Missouri or Las Vegas. GUARD will provide an open platform and model for communities around the country to evaluate and adapt, to best serve their local communities.
To mark the transition to GUARD, Rosettex partner Thirteen/WNET New York, the flagship public television station of the New York metropolitan area, recently hosted a major demonstration of the prototype Smart Nets digital emergency response communications system. The demonstration showed legislators and federal officials, simultaneously in New York and Washington, DC, the powerful operational capabilities of the system in a real-world urban emergency context.
For the demonstration, the Smart Nets team ran a scenario simulating an emergency situation in New York City. Officials from the defense, homeland security and emergency services communities, monitored the demonstration from Washington via two-way satellite link, and had a first-hand look at how Smart Nets makes use of the Instructional Television Fixed Service Band (ITFS) and new WiMAX-Ready technology to provide dependable two-way wireless broadband communications to fire, police, EMS, and other personnel in the field.
GUARD is promoting use of this spectrum as a key, innovative element of the broader national solution. The ITFS spectrum provides dramatically wider, licensed bandwidth than conventional emergency response communications systems, enabling broadband voice, video and data to mobile response vehicles and individual First Responders. This spectrum is licensed across the country to educational institutions, not-for-profit organizations, and public broadcasters such as Thirteen, each dedicated to serving their local communities. By taking advantage of this in-place, national infrastructure, GUARD enables rapid, lower cost implementation of advanced systems to protect our communities.
"GUARD pushes the envelope for capability and technology in a number of areas, with only a very modest budget, by Government standards." said David Ihrie, Chief Technology Officer for Rosettex. "GUARD delivers world class applications for first responders from Raytheon and Grey Island, running over the new WiMAX-Ready Non-Line-of-Sight (NLOS) Broadband equipment provided by NextNet Wireless utilizing Thirteen/WNET's licensed spectrum. WiMAX is a standards-based technology platform for delivery of high-speed fixed, portable and mobile wireless services. With the addition of guaranteed video and file delivery from KenCast, we're able to deliver mission-critical high quality information directly to responders in vehicles heading for an incident. Seeing this system work in the urban canyons of New York is phenomenal."
GUARD is a collaboration between Rosettex Technology & Ventures GroupTM, and its partners, including Thirteen/WNET New York, Raytheon, NextNet Wireless, KenCast, and Grey Island Systems, Inc. GUARD represents the third year of development for this system, under a contract from the National Technology Alliance (NTA), which manages and oversees the program.
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About the NTA
The National Technology Alliance (NTA) is a U. S. Government program established in 1987 to influence commercial and dual-use technology development. The NTA's purpose is to discover, initiate or accelerate commercial technology development to meet U.S. national security and defense technology needs. The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency serves as the Executive Agent of the NTA on behalf of the U.S. Government. For more information about the NTA, visit www.nta.org.
About Rosettex
Rosettex Technology & Ventures Group, based in Rosslyn, Virginia, translates research and developmental technology into solutions using a unique business model. Rosettex has assembled a team of more than 75 partners representing major technology consulting firms, established and new companies, independent research institutes, premier academic institutes and government contractors. For more information, visit the Web site at www.rosettex.com.
About Thirteen/WNET
Thirteen/WNET New York is one of the key program providers for public television, bringing such acclaimed series as Nature, Great Performances, American Masters, Charlie Rose, Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly, Wide Angle, Stage on Screen, EGG the arts show, and Cyberchase - as well as the work of Bill Moyers - to audiences nationwide. As the flagship public broadcaster in the New York, New Jersey and Connecticut metro area, Thirteen reaches millions of viewers each week, airing the best of American public television along with its own local productions such as The Ethnic Heritage Specials, The New York Walking Tours, New York Voices, Reel New York, and its MetroArts/Thirteen cable arts programming. With educational and community outreach projects that extend the impact of its television productions, Thirteen takes television "out of the box." And as broadcast and digital media converge, Thirteen is blazing trails in the creation of Web sites, enhanced television, CD-ROMs, DVD-ROMs, educational software, and other cutting-edge media products. More information about Thirteen can be found at www.thirteen.org.
About NextNet
NextNet is the industry's most widely deployed provider of WiMAX-ready NLOS broadband wireless access systems. NextNet's NLOS plug & play Expedience® system is deployed today over licensed frequencies on five continents, including North America, South America, Europe, Asia and Africa. It is the carrier's choice for National deployment in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Brazil. In the U.S., NextNet's carrier partners include Clearwire, Plateau, SpeedNet and multiple ISPs in Arizona, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico, Ohio and Texas. NextNet's new Expedience Public Safety Mobile Subscriber Unit (MSU) family of products provides reliable high-speed vehicular data capability for a wide range of mission-critical public safety and transit applications. MSUs operating on the ExpedienceTM network provide the same services as NextNet's fixed subscriber units. These services include support of public and enterprise VPNs, Internet browsing, and IP voice and video streaming, all while operating from vehicular installations. NextNet is a principal member of the WiMAX ForumTM. In October 2004, WiMAX founder Intel announced a joint development agreement, with NextNet's parent company, Clearwire to deploy future products supporting the upcoming IEEE 802.16e (mobile) standard for WiMAX, using NLOS equipment from NextNet and future silicon products from Intel. This agreement also involved a significant investment by Intel in Clearwire. For more information, visit www.nextnetwireless.com or contact Barbara Heine, Director of Marketing Communications at Tel: 952-967-1116 or email: heineb@nextnetwireless.com.
About Raytheon
Raytheon is a leading system integrator and information systems and technology provider to the US Government. For Homeland Security, Raytheon has proven expertise in emergency management systems, advanced electronics and IT systems that provide 21st century solutions to tracking, monitoring and identifying potential threats, and protecting our communities. In addition, Raytheon technology can strengthen public safety networks, and enhance communities' first response and emergency management capabilities through planning and training, so that response is efficient and effective.
About KenCast
KenCast, Inc. provides software to IP multicast files and live streams for one-way and two-way applications. KenCast's Fazzt software products are capable of multicasting very large files at broadband speeds to very large numbers of mobile receive sites with great reliability and security - end to end.
About Grey Island
Grey Island Systems Inc., develops, markets and hosts real-time Internet-based Automated Vehicle Location and Telematic systems for public and private organizations with customers both in the US and Internationally. Grey Island provides the vehicle tracking and related applications for the Smart Nets program. For more information please visit www.InterFleet.com or www.GreyIsland.com.
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Press Contact:
Rick Parkington
Rosettex
(703) 310-1262
rparkington@rosettex.com
Kellie Specter
Thirteen
212-560-3009
specter@thirteen.org
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