May 6, 2011

Catalyst Communications Technologies, Inc. (Catalyst), a leading provider of Radio Control over IP (RCoIP) solutions to the Mobile Radio marketplace, today announced that it has installed its full-featured dispatch console for trunked voice communications at Bexar Metro 9-1-1 Network District for use in the greater San Antonio area.  Release 5.91 of the Catalyst IP|Console™ product provides advanced control of trunked radio features like Unit ID, Emergency, hundreds of talk groups, and call queuing.  The dispatch console runs on Microsoft’s state-of-the-art Windows 7 operating systems as well as Windows XP.  System administrators can uniquely customize the user interface for each shift and at each position using a variety of module types, color schemes, and feature controls.  In Release 5.91, Catalyst’s software-based integrated paging capability provides more flexibility by automatically steering tones and subsequent voice transmissions to different talk groups on various trunked radio systems and on different conventional channels.

For the Texas installation, the system administrator took full advantage of the ability to customize the Graphical User Interface for use with the countywide Harris EDACS 800 MHz trunked system and VHF conventional channels. San Antonio Fire Lieutenant Jesse Vera noted, “The new screens on the Catalyst console look very familiar to our dispatchers, a lot like the screens from the console we’ve been using for years – but updated for our current needs.”  The Bexar Metro 9-1-1 Network District is the host agency for the regional emergency operations center and coordinated the upgrade from an earlier version of Catalyst’s software and its more basic Desktop Dispatch Console, which had been in use at the facility since 2004.  Executive Director Bill Buchholtz observed, “The flexibility to provide different capabilities to each agency that may need to use this facility is very powerful.  No one can predict which group of agencies will need to use the Catalyst dispatch system on any given day, but we are ready for whatever might come.”

Release 5.91 of IP|Console extends the advanced features of earlier Catalyst products and provides new capabilities that better meet the needs of large and small critical communications agencies for both primary and secondary missions.  IP|Console can display the identity of the field radio as either a numeric Unit ID or an alias, as provided from a centralized database, and supports a variety of trunked and conventional systems like SmartNet, EDACS, Project 25, and MDC 1200.  The product can decode Emergency or Man Down messages and store the identification of the radio that declared it.  From a single console, dispatchers can select from hundreds of talk groups and channels on different proprietary radio systems and patch them together.  In addition to the custom screens, administrators can customize settings such as how the transmitted audio changes or stays the same as the dispatcher’s voice gets louder or softer.  Administrators can configure single button paging scenarios to steer the tones to a particular talk group or channel even when the scenarios need the tones to be stacked and have different destinations.  Bexar County Sheriff’s Office Emergency Coordinator Robert Adelman calls these advanced features “critical in these unpredictable times.”

This advanced messaging with a variety of land mobile radio systems and cellular push-to-talk systems combined with unique networking technology make the Catalyst solutions superior to ordinary Radio over IP (RoIP) approaches.  The IP|Console solution with integrated IntelliLink™ Patching and Interoperability is immediately available from Catalyst.

Catalyst Communications Technologies, Inc. markets Radio Control over IP technology for the Land Mobile Radio Industry and is a force for change in the effort to bring Internet-derived technologies into mobile radio applications.   Catalyst focuses on products that leverage standard Windows-based computers to reduce cost and increase the efficiency of network operators and end users.  Catalyst’s extensive product line significantly enhances legacy dispatch communications systems by seamlessly bridging wireless and wireline communications networks for network-based interoperability.

IP|ConsoleÔ and IntellilinkÔ are trademarks of Catalyst Communications Technologies, Inc.  EDACSÔ is a trademark of Harris and SmartNetÔ is a trademark of Motorola Solutions.

Windows® is a trademark of Microsoft.

Contact Catalyst at [email protected] or (434) 582-6146 for additional information.

For editorial information, please contact:
John Kramer
Catalyst Communications Technologies, Inc.
(434) 582-6146 or [email protected]