Cassidian Communications, working with Alcatel-Lucent, is demonstrating multi-entity and multimedia collaboration — i.e., unified communications — over an LTE network during the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials conference in Philadelphia this week.

A freight train with chemical tanker cars that derailed in a heavily populated area would be one of many examples where such collaboration would be valuable, as such an event would require response from police, fire, EMS, hazmat, transportation and public works.

Specifically, Cassidian is demonstrating how personnel from such myriad entities could engage in voice, data and video communications with each other — and, potentially, with subject-matter experts from around the world — over an LTE network using Alcatel-Lucent’s My Teamwork smart-device application, which originally was developed for the enterprise sector. For example, incident commanders could leverage the app to receive detailed manifests from the freight company regarding what the tanker cars contained and then consult — via video or voice conference — with hazmat experts or the manufacturers of the chemicals to determine the best method of mitigating the incident.

In addition, the app lets land-mobile radios connect to any IP-based telephony device. Such a capability would enable an incident commander using a Project 25 digital radio to participate from the emergency scene in a voice conference with experts on the other side of the state, country or planet, which would save valuable time and result in clearer communications, said Michael Doerk, a Cassidian marketing manager.

“Otherwise, he’d have to get on a cell phone, or talk over the radio to someone who is on the phone, in order to join the conference,” Doerk said. “This way, he uses his P25 radio to join the conference directly.”

The data speed that LTE offers makes such multi-entity and multimedia collaboration possible, said Tami Timperio, Cassidian's vice president of marketing.

“If you attempted to do that at 3G speeds, it would be rather choppy and probably not a great experience for the end users,” she said.