3 Trends from APCO 2018

Over 5,500 attendees from the public safety communications industry converged upon Las Vegas this month for the annual APCO Conference and Expo. Our Orion team had the privilege of meeting many public safety industry professionals, demonstrating the latest in our Orion Connected Voice Platform and push-to-talk apps. We also showed off voice bots like Panic Bot and Orion Translator, as well as Orion Radio Bridge.

During the show, our team noticed three major themes:

FirstNet Is Growing, Creating a Broader Public Safety Ecosystem

Over the past year, all 50 States plus Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia signed on to FirstNet, the wireless carrier for first responders. FirstNet’s mission of interoperability for first responders generated considerable interest among attendees at APCO. Visitors to the Orion booth often talked about what FirstNet would mean for their community or their business.

FirstNet is also helping create a broader public safety ecosystem. Manufacturers like Kyocera and Sonim are already certifying their devices for FirstNet. Other critical mobile infrastructure and device players like Samsung and Nokia are taking a stronger position in the market, too. From our experience at APCO, it’s clear that technology players are expanding and evolving to serve the growing needs of FirstNet and the overall public safety market.

New Players Innovate in Public Safety

The public safety technology ecosystem as a whole is growing, too. Public safety communications directors will be able to leverage brand new technologies to provide a high level of service to their communities. We were especially impressed by the new public safety entrepreneur platform Responder Corp and the computer-aided dispatch product Rapid Deploy. We also saw innovative products from Cubic that bridge traditional land mobile radio networks to other mobile services including the Orion Platform via the Orion Radio Bridge.

Public Safety Teams Use Integrations to Solve Tough Problems

As public safety teams adopt more and more technologies, they need those technologies to work together. One effective way to do that is through service and platform integrations. For example, the Orion connected voice platform integrates with the automation service IFTTT. Creating automations on Orion with IFTTT is a flexible way to customize services and tools for public safety teams.

If you visited us at our APCO booth, thank you! You likely have received an email inviting you to talk about how Orion can help your team. If not, email sales@orionlabs.io to continue the conversation.

Would you like us to call you to discuss how Orion’s connected voice platform can help your organization? Click “Contact Sales” at the bottom of this page and add your contact information.