Frequentis and Hexagon Safety & Infrastructure have been selected to supply mission-critical technologies for the "ELKOS Austria" project, a nationwide, unified command and communication system, that is seeking to streamline the incident management processes for public safety personnel in Austria. The companies will also support the refurbishment of the current control and command system at the warning centre in Lower Austria.
Over the next few years, a central command and communication system for the federal police will be implemented for all of Austria, with the Federal Ministry of the Interior acting as the contracting entity. The implementation will also support the fire brigades in Lower Austria, for which the Lower Austria State Administration acts as the contracting party.
ELKOS is intended to provide the federal police and its nationwide control centres with the technical foundation needed to ensure safe, reliable and efficient cooperation between different agencies and nationwide information sharing. The joint project will also support the Lower Austrian fire brigades (Feuerwehr Niederösterreich) in modernising its alarm infrastructure.
A photo of the contract award announcement. L-R: Norbert Haslacher, Frequentis AG; Dr. Michaela Kardeis, Director General for Public Security; Mag. Wolfgang Sobotka, Federal Minister of the Interior; Dietmar Fahrafellner, Commander of the State Fire Brigade of Lower Austria; Dr. Stephan Pernkopf, First Deputy of Lower Austria. Image provided by the Austrian Federal Ministry of the Interior, copyright: BM.I/Gerd Pachauer
The new infrastructure has been designed to support the federal police's business and tactical challenges. The system will integrate Frequentis’ multi-media collaboration platform 3020 LifeX with Hexagon Safety & Infrastructure’s Intergraph Computer-Aided Dispatch (I/CAD) and Intergraph Planning & Response software.
Through 3020 LifeX, eCall, NG112 emergency calls (featuring GPS data, real time messaging, images and more), video data (CCTV) and LTE broadband can be integrated into the platform as needed. Hexagon’s contribution to the project will support call-taking and dispatching for day-to-day incidents, as well as the planning and coordination of major incidents and events.
The integrated solution selected for the ELKOS project is currently deployed by the three state disaster control agencies in Vienna, Styria and Vorarlberg, among many other international customers. It combines three products for speech communications, command and control, and incident command. Their comprehensive capabilities enable police and rescue agencies to maintain reliable and efficient workflows in their daily operations as well as during major events.
Frequentis, an Austrian company, based in Vienna, is the leader of the two-company consortium and has 70 years' experience in developing communications tools for public safety control centres, while Hexagon has been providing computer-aided dispatch systems for public safety organisations around the world for nearly 30 years.
Frequentis' CEO Hannes Bardach said, "Internationally, we have provided many command center solutions for public safety and security agencies, among them the largest police center in Europe for London's police agency, Scotland Yard. We are excited to use our expertise in our national market in the visionary ELKOS project."
"We are pleased to contribute to the security of the Austrian population and help improve public safety throughout the country," said Maximilian Weber, senior vice president, EMEA at Hexagon Safety & Infrastructure. "The federal police, the Lower Austria State Administration, and the fire brigades in Lower Austria will benefit from systems that have been proven across Austria and around the world."
