MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA –– June 6, 2011 –– Covia Labs, Inc. today announced that it has received a contract from the U.S Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate’s (S&T) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program to research and develop public safety mobile broadband applications for mission critical voice.

Under the contract, Covia will start by engaging the public safety community to understand their requirements for mission critical interoperable voice communications.  It will then develop a plan and deliver software technology that leverages Long Term Evolution (LTE), existing communications systems, and Covia Labs’ Connector interoperability platform to address these requirements.  In future phases, this software can be used  to build a working system that will operate over LTE on selected commercially available off the shelf (COTS), third-party communications equipment and Land Mobile Radio (LMR) systems to allow the seamless integration of mobile voice with text, photos, video messaging, GPS, maps and sensors across a wide range of devices.

The licensing of the 700 MHz band along with the selection of LTE for a national public safety broadband network presents a strong opportunity to solve the systemic inability of public safety personnel from disparate agencies to seamlessly communicate with each other.  While using the 700 MHz block and LTE standards provides a strong base for solving incompatibility problems, a new standardized methodology and application framework is needed to bridge, unify and evolve all the technologies needed to provide the interoperability, features, performance and security required for mission critical mobile voice communication.

“The problem of interoperable communications has long challenged the brave men and women in uniform serving our country, from public safety officers to emergency responders to soldiers,” said David Kahn, CEO of Covia Labs.  “With this program, we will identify the best solutions to address these challenges in a timely, economical and comprehensive manner.”

Covia was also recently recognized as a “Top Performing Technology” in the assessments of the U.S. Department of Defense’s 2010 Coalition Warrior Interoperability Demonstration (CWID) events that took place in June 2010. At the event, a simulated terrorist attack in the U.S. was staged and Covia demonstrated its software platform that enables encrypted interoperable communications between a wide array of organizations, devices and equipment.

Covia Labs, Inc.
Covia Labs, Inc. is the developer of the only software platform that enables secure interoperable communications across an unlimited number of diverse devices, from smart phones to proprietary police and fire department radios to weapons systems. Striving to improve communication in an increasingly insecure world, Covia’s technology enables diverse entities to work as a united team in order to accomplish a singular mission. By empowering personnel from different organizations with real-time information regardless of infrastructure or equipment, first responders and military personnel can improve operational capabilities and save lives. The company was named a “Top Performing Technology” at the U.S. Military’s 2010 CWID (Coalition Warrior Interoperability Demonstration) events.