Oct 15 2012
Ambient Control Systems announced today the release of FireALERT MK1.5 and then the MK2.0, wildfire detection system. The units will be shipping in February 2013. Ambient is working with municipalities and fire departments on upgrades, and new installation plans.
FireALERT wildfire detection system deployed in Fallbrook, California
Ambient's Q1 2013 release will include enhancements to:
- Options for wildfire detection-range and performance
- Real-time fire-perimeter mapping and tracking, following early warning of fire outbreak
- Integration of meteorological information, to enhance prediction and management of events impacted by weather
- Support for collaborative information sharing between field responders and operations centers such as Office of Emergency Services and Sheriff's Command Centers
- Support for GPS-enabled asset locating and tracking within the event area
- Integration of social-media feeds, enhancing community response through management of information release enhancing public confidence
- Web-based dashboard control via any desktop or portable device using Windows, Apple, Android, and Linux operation systems or smartphones
The Poway, Calif.-based company performed extensive testing and analysis of the system's readiness and robustness in installations of the FireALERT Wildfire Detection sensors and Vigilys System in Deadwood, South Dakota., and Fallbrook, California. Additional tests were conducted in conjunction with Ambient's complementary public-alerting and notification system in Montecito, California.
The tests were progressively successful in the evolution of the system. "Ambient FireALERT will give a community the security and peace of mind of having a fire watchman on duty 24/7 that reports the location of a fire while still in its infancy stage," said Ken Hawki, Deadwood Fire Department training officer.
FireALERT's tight integration with Vigilys— a situational awareness emergency management operating system, provides a real-time, map-based environment that extends the system from wildfire detection to an all-inclusive system with feeds from cameras, weather stations, seismic and tsunami detectors.
Ambient's unique ability to provide sharing of critical information between multiple agencies involved in any first-response activity recently earned the company membership as a technology provider in the Unified Incident Command and Decision Support (UICDS) team. UICDS' objective is to bring the most advanced information-management technologies to bear on the work of the first-responder community. UICDS' system-of-systems allows first responders to manage the interchange of data, voice, and video related to an incident, thereby helping them prevent, protect, respond, and recover from natural, technological, and terrorist events. As one of UICDS 100 key industry partners, Ambient's Vigilys will now be able to share data from a vast array of additional resources by supporting multi-agency collaboration, greatly enhancing first-responder performance and safety throughout the response cycle and in the event area itself.