We want to congratulate Red Grasso, Charles Laird, and the NC DIT team for putting on a great event in Raleigh, NC this week. The North Carolina First Responder Emerging Technologies Technical Expo brought together a cross section of the first responder and technology community.

The sessions were informative and timely. The lunch sessions regarding the role of NC Public Broadcasting role in public safety and Cary, NC smart cities initiatives were very interesting.

Orion had multiple industry partners participating and displaying at the event including Sonim, JPS Interop, Cradlepoint, AT&T FirstNet, Verizon, and FirstNet Association. We look forward to participating in next year’s NC’s First Responder Emerging Technologies Technical Expo.

About NC DIT

The North Carolina Department of Information Technology is the leading provider of IT services to state agencies, local governments, and educational institutions across North Carolina.

To learn more about the North Carolina Department of Information Technology, visit their website or follow them on LinkedIn.

First responders and eligible public safety organizations can communicate in real-time to stay connected and better protect their communities

SAN FRANCISCO (Dec. 5, 2018) — Orion Labs, provider of the award-winning Orion voice-enabled platform for real-time workforce communication and collaboration, today announced that its Orion Push to Talk iOS 5.2.8 mobile application is now FirstNet Certified™ and included in the FirstNet App Catalog. First responders can use Orion’s voice communication platform with FirstNet’s priority access and preemption services, enabling teams to respond to emergencies faster and more efficiently.

FirstNet is the nationwide communications platform dedicated to America’s first responders and public safety community. It’s being built with AT&T in a public-private partnership with the First Responder Network Authority to favor the important work first responders do. It offers technology, features and functionality designed to properly handle the rigorous, specific and niche demands of first responders. With this much-needed technology upgrade, first responders can connect to the critical information they need every day and in every emergency.

“We’re pleased that Orion Labs’ push-to-talk application is now FirstNet Certified™,” said Bob Sloan, Chief Operating Officer, FirstNet at AT&T. “Having options is important when it comes to first responders’ communications tools.  As a FirstNet Certified™ application, public safety can be confident that Orion Labs’ push-to-talk app is a trusted solution that meets FirstNet requirements for relevancy, security, data privacy, mobility, resiliency, and scalability.”

Historically, first responders have relied primarily on traditional land mobile radios (LMR) to stay connected during mission-critical situations. With a new breed of push-to-talk mobile devices on the market today, public safety teams can augment those communications and quickly communicate across their organizations and between emergency agencies with the touch of a button. First responders on FirstNet using Orion Labs’ mobile application receive priority above commercial users, helping to alleviate network congestion and offering a means of highly secure, reliable and boundary-free communication.

“Orion Labs was born from our experiences in the fire and emergency medical services. We’re incredibly excited to bring Orion’s advanced communication platform to support first responders on FirstNet,” said Orion Labs’ Founder and CEO, Jesse Robbins. “Orion is honored to meet the high requirements for FirstNet Certified™ apps and hopes to be one part in helping public safety teams in their mission to save lives and better protect their communities.”

The Orion push-to-talk application is available now through the FirstNet App Catalog and the Apple App Store.

About Orion Labs

Orion Labs is a voice-first communication platform for mobile teams. Orion delivers instant and secure voice, location, and data messaging across a constellation of connected devices, applications, and AI-powered services. This powerful combination enables mobile teams to collaborate without losing focus, on any device, across any distance, without boundaries. The Orion platform includes the Orion Push to Talk app and Onyx wearables. These work with Orion’s web-based command center, advanced location services, language translation, voice bots, and workflows. Orion interoperates with traditional VoIP and Land Mobile Radio (LMR) systems, and Orion’s APIs and SDKs enable developers to build on and extend the Orion platform.

Orion was recently named an IDC Innovator, received an Edison Award for Voice Technology, and won the 2018 “IoT Wearables Innovation Vendor of the Year” and “AI Breakthrough Best Overall Bot Solution” awards. The company was founded by cloud infrastructure pioneers Jesse Robbins and Greg Albrecht, who were inspired by their unique experiences using traditional radios as first responders. Orion is backed by leading investors and is based in San Francisco, CA.

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Media Contact

Racepoint Global

Allison DeLeo, 415-694-6700

press@orionlabs.io