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C O M M U N I C A T I O N S

October 2011 MCCmag.com

SPECS SURVEY: Software WHAT’S NEW: Surveillance Equipment 25

P25 Phase 2inMaryland

How It’s Tackling 700 MHz Regulatory Hurdles

A New EOC on a Budget

The FCC andCritical Infrastructure

Your Guide toSoftware and Providers

Inside

HHow does the second-most denselypopulated county in the state of Penn-sylvania achieve National IncidentManagement System (NIMS) compli-ance on a fixed shoestring budget?The answer is very carefully, espe-cially when funding becomes avail-able more than two years after grantproposal submission and no funds areavailable for any architectural modifications.

Michael Chertoff, then secretary ofthe U.S. Department of HomelandSecurity (DHS), included a forewordin the fiscal year (FY) 2006 Infrastruc-ture Protection Grant Program forChemical Sector Buffer Zone Protec-tion Program (BZPP). “The prepared-ness mission transcends the entiredepartment,” he said. “Our approach topreparedness aggregates critical assetswithin DHS to support our operatingcomponents and the work of our exter-nal partners to prevent, protect against,deter, respond to, and recover from ter-rorist attacks and to continuously miti-gate threats to America’s safety andsecurity. The BZPP provides fundingto regions with significant sector con-cerns to enhance the security and pro-tection of chemical sector critical

infrastructure and key resources and surrounding communities.”

With DelawareCounty borderingPhiladelphia County tothe south, its popula-tion density is 3,000 persons per squaremile, second only to Philadelphia with10,726 persons per square mile. Thecounty’s density of population andprevalent chemical industry reflectnumbers almost double any othercounty in the state. Complying withNIMS — a Federal Emergency Man-agement Agency (FEMA) template forthe management of incidents — on anemergency operations center (EOC)-wide level was mandatory for commu-nity safety.

Beginning in 2007, DelawareCounty Office of Emergency Manage-ment Services (Delco EMS) sought aDHS federal grant administeredthrough the Pennsylvania EmergencyManagement Agency (PEMA). TheBZPP grant would provide for a “tech-nologization” of existing rooms to pro-vide multilevel activation for an EOCin Delaware County’s existing emer-

gency management facility in Lima. A$600,000 grant was awarded to imple-ment this project in March 2009, whilerequest and submission was made asearly as November 2007.

The plan, developed by the office ofthe director of emergency services,was to implement a design based onthe EOC renovation theory as stated inthe Delco EOC planning document:“The plan will separate the unifiedcommand group from the operationsand planning group and the logisticsand finance group. Senior officials willbe sequestered from the commandgroup. News media and some countyliaison groups will be separated fromthe remainder by keeping them in abriefing area.”

The goal was to create a workplaceprepared to manage scalable responsesto situations in the county. This wouldenable command, communications and

A Pennsylvania emergency operations center (EOC) redesign met federal requirements, a tight scheduleand a limited budget.

By Edwin J. Truitt and William H. Wright

20 October 2011 MissionCrit ical Communicat ions www.MCCmag.com

EOC on a

Tight Budget

Left: EOC first stage activation room, Right: second stage EOC activation room

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www.MCCmag.com MissionCrit ical Communicat ions October 2011 21

control from the emergency manage-ment office, its liaison agencies, publichealth, utilities and other entities locat-ed within the county. The renovationwould be accomplished through theaddition of technology and task-oriented furnishings. Technologywould be purchased to allow portabili-ty, enabling the relocation of the EOCfrom its permanent location in Lima toan off-site unprepared or partially pre-pared alternate facility if the primaryEOC site became compromised andunusable by EOC staff. This projectpresented challenges of space con-straints within the existing facility, lim-ited budget, and a short timeframe forrenovation construction and installa-tion of the new technology.

Design/InstallationBecause not all incidents require a

full activation, the planned designwould bring the EOC online in stagesto meet and activate all components ofNIMS. Preliminary sketches identify-ing five rooms within existing facilityspaces were used as the basis of design(BOD) for the new EOC facility. ThisBOD reflected the goal to provide bet-ter management of events, coordina-tion with agencies, and media andimportant party access. This aided indeveloping the following rooms basedon the requirements of the grant andthe needs of the county:

■ Privacy and sequestering room ■ Unified command/joint command

group room■ EOC first stage activation room■ Second stage (full) EOC activa-

tion room■ 9-1-1 emergency communica-

tions/network incident commandstructure room

The deputy director of emergencyservices, John Gallagher, was namedproject director for the county. Gal-lagher oversaw purchasing all equip-ment for the project through PEMA.To implement the program and allengineering, Professional SystemsEngineering (PSE) was selected byPEMA as the project consultant. PSEhad responsibility for wireless, wired

and display/control technology facilita-tion, final engineering design docu-mentation and specifications, projectmanagement and installation oversight,and full commissioning for the project.

Within 45 days after notice to pro-ceed, PSE was required to provide:

■ Full system designs, schematics,engineering details and specificationsincluding documenting electrical, unin-terruptible power supply (UPS), voice,

data, video, audio/video (A/V) control,paging, wireless and live feed signals,and control paths;

■ Detailed drawings for the electri-cal and A/V contractors for intensiveinfrastructure changes to support thetechnology; and

■ A critical path construction sched-ule to meet the project requirementswhile not interfering with ongoingcounty training schedules.

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Because of the speed needed fordesign and engineering, PSE wasrequired to generate complete wiringschematics of all wired and wirelessconnectivity, telephone, data, graphicaluser interface (GUI) controls andinput/output devices. Drawings wereproduced two weeks after notice toproceed.

With changes in models and stan-dards in electronics occurring rapidly,PSE took advantage of acceleratedtechnologies from what was originallyselected almost two years prior. Thisallowed the best high-definition multi-media interface (HDMI) switching andtouchscreen GUI interfaces to be speci-fied, resulting in a smooth and highlyflexible installation.

Within 60 days, all bids wereawarded, all contracts signed, allequipment ordered. Within 90 days offunds released, all equipment was onsite and being installed. The county’semergency services IT departmenthandled the activation of the county ITnetwork infrastructure and phone sys-tems. In addition, Delaware Countymaintenance personnel provided reno-vation construction required within thefacility.

Larry Bak, deputy emergency man-agement coordinator, acted as liaisonbetween system contractors and countypersonnel to ensure that day-to-daycoordination issues arising during theinstallation were resolved. The projectbudget was fixed and couldn’t beincreased; this required that the formaldesign, construction and implementa-

tion be accomplished with no changeorders and within a three-month time-frame. Meeting both the tight scheduleand fixed budget were accomplishedwith both a last-minute push and greatdiplomacy.

TechnologyTechnology requirements of EOCs

pre-9/11 have changed dramaticallycompared with post-9/11. Previously,phones, faxes, tables and radio com-munications were sufficient. In thepost-9/11 era, officials can see what ishappening instantaneously via stream-ing video feeds and have informationdelivered to EOCs in real time thanksto new information technologies. Pre-viously, the tendency of overleveragingresources left the county spread thin.With the new management capabilitiesavailable through the EOC, criticalresources can be properly used. Inaddition, new knowledge-centeredsoftware and communications technologies allow the five-county area through the Southeastern Pennsyl-vania Regional Task Force to shareinformation simultaneously. This elim-inates decision-making based on inval-idated information. Elected officialscan make informed decisions in a fullyoutfitted and connected conferenceroom, allowing for the separation ofthe EOC and public official spaces.

The system uses the latest audiovisual technology, enabling the distri-

bution and display of multimedia datafrom multiple sources across multipleoutput devices including PCs, laptopcomputers, file servers, eight videoprojectors, 12 47-inch LCD flat-screenmonitors and DVD recorder/players.Two rack-mounted 32 by 32 multi-media ultra-high-speed HDMI version1.3 switches were installed andenabled all of the elements of theaudio, video cable, conference and datasystems to be fed into each of the fiverooms of the new EOC, including the9-1-1 dispatch center.

An existing video feed from thePennsylvania Department of Trans-portation (DOT) highway camera system was also integrated into themultimedia presentation capability.Five touchscreen control panels pro-vide system operators with the abilityto switch any information source toany of the output devices installed inthe multiple rooms across the EOCenterprise. Wireless command infra-structure was also placed throughoutthe facility.

Four wireless laptop carts with lap-tops were deployed in several rooms.Fixed and portable video conferencingsystems and a public address systemwere also integrated into the system.Each room within the EOC wasequipped with both wired and encrypt-ed Wi-Fi Ethernet. Information dis-played on any desktop computerworkstation can be switched to largescreen displays for common viewingby EOC staff. County personnel in the9-1-1 emergency communications/network incident command structureroom can monitor events through theaddition of four new 46-inch flat-screen monitors installed on the wallsaround the room to provide a clearview from operator stations.

The 48 wireless laptops, portableWi-Fi, portable private branchexchange (PBX) phone system andother equipment allow for an alternateEOC command location if the centercan’t accommodate its mission. Thiswas one of the tenets met with thegrant request.

Power was a priority for emergencyevents. A new 30KVA APC UPS was

This project presented challenges of spaceconstraints withinthe existing facility, limited budget, anda short timeframefor renovation construction andinstallation of thenew technology.

Edwin Truitt is the director of DelawareCounty (Pa.) Emergency Services.


installed to provide transitional powerfor the newly installed technology,bridging the time between a power failevent and the facility emergency gen-erator picking up the load. The newUPS was installed by the electricalcontractor and commissioned by themanufacturer Feb. 11. During thistime, the A/V contractor installed thedisplay monitors, projectors andprewired the facility for the arrival of

the A/V control equipment racks.The 9-1-1 center was upgraded a

few years ago with new consoles andradio equipment. New large-formatflat-screen multimedia monitors wereadded to the 9-1-1 facility under thisdesign to keep the call center operatorsapprised of developments during EOCactivation to help them respond appro-priately to calls received in the center.

On March 18, the consultant wit-nessed the final test and operation ofthe completed system. Completion ofdesign and issuance of the equipmentsuppliers’ notice to proceed to final testand commissioning took 111 days, andthe EOC was up and running — onbudget.

Facilitation of this approach inretrofitting Delaware County EOC wasinnovative, allowing a fixed budgetrequested two years earlier to stillreflect the most advanced technologyavailable to the EOC, while avoidingchange orders. In this economy of ris-ing equipment costs, the ability to pro-cure more than originally requestedusing newer technology was a reflec-tion of innovative engineering match-ing EOC needs to appropriate productselection. ■

Edwin J. Truitt is a certified emergency

manager who has been director of

Delaware County (Pa.) Emergency Services

since 1976. Since 1991, Truitt has led the

9-1-1 mission and worked with former

Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge

and many jurisdictions throughout the

United States.

William Wright is a certified protection pro-

fessional (CPP) by the American Society

of Industrial Security (ASIS), a certified

security consultant (CSC) and is board

certified in Homeland Security Level III

(CHS-III) by the American College of Foren-

sic Examiners. Email comments to

[email protected].

MC_FIRE_ADclassicSWAT_OL.ai 1 6/27/2011 9:41:28 PM

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Mission%20critical%20 %20wright