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AtHoc IWSAlerts Now Integrated With Cisco IPICS to Trigger Emergency Alerts to Land Mobile Radios and Push-to-Talk Phones
Integration Further Expands Number of Devices AtHoc Can Trigger Through Its Network-Centric Mass Notification System
| Source: AtHoc
SAN MATEO, CA--(Marketwire - June 17, 2009) - AtHoc, Inc., the pioneer and leader in
network-centric emergency
notification systems, today announced the company has fully tested
interoperability between AtHoc IWSAlerts™ and Cisco's Internet Protocol
Interoperability and Collaboration System (IPICS). This integration allows
the AtHoc system to trigger emergency notifications through the Cisco
platform to quickly reach people on land mobile radios, IP phones, landline
telephones and mobile telephones.
This integration expands the number of devices and systems AtHoc can notify
through its unified console for emergency alerting, which already supports
notification to computers, telephones, sirens, public address systems,
AM/FM radios, television and other emergency alert systems.
The integrated solution allows customers to extend their physical security,
public safety and emergency response networks through desktop and
mass-notification capabilities while also speeding the dissemination of
incidents detected by Cisco's physical security products, which include
video surveillance, access control, and incident response and notification.
With the new integration, a single notification, or system alert from an
access control violation, video surveillance camera or an IP network
integrated sensor, can be sent through the network to all network-connected
channels simultaneously.
By integrating AtHoc IWSAlerts with Cisco IPICS, the AtHoc solution can
also send "blast" multi-cast phone alerts to Cisco IP phones. The telephony
alerts support text-to-speech messaging, and the alerts do not require the
user to pick up the phone to get the audio message.
The AtHoc solution can help quickly alert people who are impacted by an
emergency situation, and it can also aid in first response processes. Cisco
IPICS is used widely in the emergency response community due to the fact
that push-to-talk devices, including phones and radios, provide first
responders with a fast and effective way to communicate critical
information. The integration with AtHoc IWSAlerts means that first
responders will also have quick access to emergency alerts being sent out
by emergency operations centers.
"Reaching people during an emergency requires a multi-pronged communication
strategy. No single device can reach everyone, especially when time is of
the essence. That's why we've been aggressively building the portfolio of
devices AtHoc IWSAlerts can trigger," said Tsachi Samocha, director of
product management for AtHoc. "The integration with Cisco IPICS extends
IWSAlerts' reach to activate land mobile radios and push-to-talk devices."
In addition to providing outbound emergency communications, the AtHoc
IWSAlerts solution also provides a tracking mechanism whereby recipients of
alerts can respond to acknowledge receipt of the message and/or to report
their status (hurt/ok/etc.). This two-way communication capability will be
available through Cisco IPICS to make sure that responses are tracked and
reported.
About AtHoc
AtHoc is the pioneer and recognized leader in providing enterprise-class,
network-centric emergency notification systems to military, government and
commercial organizations for physical security, force protection and
personnel accountability. Millions of end users worldwide, in organizations
such as the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, U.S. Patent and Trademark
Office, NASA, Microsoft, Boeing and PricewaterhouseCoopers rely on AtHoc's
unified management systems for their emergency alerting and critical
communication needs. AtHoc has partnered with market leaders including
Microsoft, Cisco, Dell, Harris, Siemens, Avaya, Lockheed Martin, DCC and
others to bring these notification solutions to the public and commercial
markets.
For more information on AtHoc, please visit http://www.athoc.com.