Breakthrough communications technologies for volunteer emergency responders

 

Tone Capture and Relay technologies combined with Response Verification is a powerful 2-in-1 complete solution designed to solve common communication problems for volunteer fire departments.

 

Thuh Company, a leader in emergency messaging systems, has taken its award-winning FireQ – Response Verification System and combined it with its new PageQ product to provide a complete solution for emergency responders. PageQ is a Tone Capture and Relay system that captures either an audio page or an electronic page from emergency Dispatch Centers and re-broadcasts the page to all fire departments’ members via phone call, text message, and email.

 

First, the most common problem for volunteer responders is NOT getting the emergency page in the first place. Volunteer first responders often work full-time jobs, which may take them out of range for their pagers, or into areas (e.g. such as a business meeting or warehouse) where they have the pager turned off, or worst case, completely forget their pager.  If they miss a page, they will not respond.  But now using PageQ as a relay tool, they can still be in virtually any location and discreetly get a text message that will not be disruptive. Cellular networks have better coverage and a longer range than pagers. In many rural areas, pagers can fail because of terrain or distance.  But when departments use PageQ, they always get the page.

 

PageQ has some very advanced features. PageQ can relay either audio messages or text-based messages. First responders can choose to receive the page via any or all of the three communication methods: Phone Call, Text Message, or Email. They can even choose for the phone call to be directed to a home phone and the text messages to go to a cell phone. If the message is received by PageQ in a text format, PageQ uses a high-quality text-to-speech-voice program to read the message to the first responder over the phone. Members can press 1 if they are (and 3 if they are not) responding to the call or they can press 7 if they are responding directly to the scene. Once a page is transmitted over the air waves, it is gone. If it is captured with PageQ, the message is sent in a text message and can be viewed or listened to as many times as necessary. 

 

Next, the FireQ Response Verification System solves the second essential need of first responders by allowing them to reply to pages to let department command personnel know who is responding and when they will arrive at the fire station.  First responders can reply by pressing a button on an app or responding to a text message. When a first responder responds via the FIREQ app, the system will register them at the station by utilizing GPS on their phone to calculate their ETA. Seconds matter during emergencies. When you don’t know who is responding and when, valuable time is wasted waiting to see who is going to show up.  FireQ improves response times because the duty officers now know exactly when their team will be able to leave the station with the proper personnel and apparatus.  Additionally, FireQ has extensive messaging features to enable flexible communications for ongoing daily departmental communications along with a host of other reporting functions.

 

FireQ and PageQ technologies are designed with the very latest leading-edge communications and data technologies to ensure the uptime and system integrity demanded by emergency services. While FireQ and PageQ are incredibly powerful by themselves, it is the combination of the two systems that makes this an unbeatable complete solution. Thuh Company is the first company to combine these two types of technologies into a single offering. In fact, the combined price is less than many fire departments are paying for only a partial solution offered by other companies.