Baker Integrated Technologies
makes communicating easy.
Branson,
Missouri, which dubs itself "The Live Music Capital of the World," is
a popular spot for family vacations because of its theatres, restaurants,
outlet malls, lakes, and tourist amusements. Branson's attractions spill
over to adjacent Stone County, which boasts Silver Dollar City and the
Ozark's recreational lakes. The county, which has historically been rural,
now sees more than seven million tourists each year. The seasonal surge
in population means increased motor vehicle and boating accidents and
increased use of the county's public safety system.
Prior to 1996, Stone County citizens and visitors who had an emergency dialed a seven-digit number to one of the two dispatch centers: the county sheriff's department or the police department in Kimberling City. In 1996, Stone County voters approved funding for 9-1-1 service. In 1998, voters approved the construction of a new, centralized dispatch center to bring together 16 different public safety organizations from across the county. One acre of land was donated by Stonebridge Village, a private residential golf community, to house the dispatch center. The new center was finished in February of 2000 and went to 24-hour rotating shifts on March 1, 2000.
The Stone County Emergency Services (SCES) board carefully considered vendors for its new center. It took a minimum of three bids on each subsystem, and reviewed each vendor's customer satisfaction, installation practices, pricing, follow up service, and upgrade policy.
"Our theory was to start off as close to the leading edge as we could, without taking technical risks… and then direct the budget so we could stay there," said Malcom Vedane, who had been director of SCES before retiring recently. Baker Integrated Technologies was chosen as the radio and telephone interface vendor.
Baker's product, DISPATCHWorks®, uses a sophisticated user interface and a fully redundant Windows NT backroom with a modular design that allows system expansion through the addition of hardware. The system integrates advanced call taking and dispatch features, including radio, telephone, E9-1-1, TDD, and instant recall recording.
"It's very, very crucial that if you're going to have centralization, that you have dependability," said Vedane. He made sure that there was redundancy in the telephone lines, electrical power, and grounding. Dependability and redundancy are some of the reasons why DISPATCHWorks® was selected.
"DISPATCHWorks® was designed to be fully redundant - there is literally two of everything in our backroom," said Keith Hicks, president of Baker Integrated Technologies. "In this way, if server A fails, the system automatically switches to the B server. In this way, there is no loss of operations due to any one particular unit. This also comes in handy for upgrading the system. The technicians simply switch to the secondary side, perform upgrades, and then switch back, without any loss of service. In fact, it is such a seamless transition that we had to install alarm boxes so that people would know that the switch had occurred."
Thunderstorms are common in Ozark Mountains, so lightning is always a threat at the dispatch center, which sits at the highest location in the county. Because SCES sits 1,400 feet above sea level, with the top of the tower reaching 160 feet above ground level, the centers designers implemented a thorough grounding system.
It's a good thing they were prepared. On July 20, 2000, lightning hit the dispatch center, including the DISPATCHWorks® system.
"It was a major strike that mainly hit the Baker equipment," said Leeta McCoy, current director of SCES. When she opened the backroom door, a strong electrical burn odor filled the backroom and dispatch area. The primary servers had been "fried." However, the system was still functioning. DISPATCHWorks® backroom computers automatically switched to the redundant secondary side, with only slight interruption in service.
"Our Baker system withstood the lightning strike very well," said Leeta McCoy, who is the new director of SCES. "We did drop one call, but we called them right back. (Baker Technician) Chris Stone came in to help us with it. He stayed two weeks and he did a really good job in getting everything put back together."
"The personnel at Baker understand the nature of public safety and twenty-four hour a day demands," said McCoy. "It is not just the quality and price of the equipment that we look for in a product. It is also the after-care service. Baker is committed to the aftercare we need. We take great satisfaction in the relationship between SCES and Baker DISPATCHWorks®. They are there when we need them to be."
Copyright 2001 Baker Integrated Technologies, LLC. All rights reserved. Site updated 2/19/01.
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