Advertorial: CCW sponsor focus

Motorola Solutions corporate vice president, Michael Kaae discusses the company’s presence at Critical Communications World 2023

Why is Critical Communications World important to attend for your organisation?

As the Platinum Sponsor of CCW, Motorola Solutions is proud to have a large presence at the event. CCW allows us to connect with both existing and prospective customers and provides us with a platform to start meaningful dialogues with those in the public safety and enterprise security communities.

CCW is also a forum for different types of conversation, including technical discussions. Indeed, through these conversations, we are able to devise innovative solutions which address the dynamic challenges encountered by those in public safety and security.

What specific products or services will you be showcasing this year? Are these new to the market?

This year we’re proud to showcase our ‘Connected Environments’. We’ll be demonstrating the ways in which secure interconnectivity enables safer, efficient, futureproof public safety solutions, from the control room to those working in the field.

We’ll be showing our new ‘Connected Officer,’ incorporating the latest body-worn camera technology. We’ll also be encouraging visitors to explore our ‘Connected Vehicle,’ in which we demonstrate how the integration of video and advanced analytics into the vehicle environment is transforming the effectiveness of field teams.

As part of the ‘Connected Control Room’ experience meanwhile, we will be showing how to reliably interconnect LMR and broadband networks, to build resilient solutions in the field that allow cross-border and inter-agency communications.

What are the key messages that you would like attendees to take away after visiting your booth?

I believe that we are on the brink of a new era in mission-critical communications. Thanks to advanced enabling technologies, such as AI, video analytics, cloud computing and mobile broadband we are much better equipped to tackle many of the most pressing public safety issues.

It is an exciting time to be involved in this field, and I would encourage attendees to engage with the possibilities afforded by our unified solutions.

Attendees will garner an understanding of the ways in which our connected technologies help mitigate threats and enable a streamlined, unified response, especially during mutual aid situations.

What do you see as being the big issues and challenges for the sector over the next five years?

It’s common that the opportunities within the sector are also accompanied by some of the biggest challenges. One example are the challenges associated with the deployment of 3GPP MCX mission-critical broadband services.

However, the opportunity which arises from this is our ability to provide a unified experience during the extended period of co-existence, ensuring seamless, robust and secure communications across multiple communication technologies, be that LMR or MCX.

We’re also seeing the way in which citizens interact with public safety services evolving, due to the ever-growing use and acceptance of smartphones and smart devices. While this opens up huge opportunities for communication - other than via voice -, it isn't without its challenges.

Our purpose-built mission-critical ecosystem addresses the challenges of this new context – specifically. It helps government and enterprise organisations collect, store, manage and operationalise the data captured across multiple channels.

And of course, thoughtful, responsible, ethical use of technology within the boundaries of regulations, - especially in applications of AI - remains pertinent. Although AI supports efficient and high-quality decision making, the prevention of bias is a key area of focus.

What will be the most transformative development over the next five years in terms of the technology? What will that mean for user operations, as well as the broader market?

There are a number of technology developments whose impact, I believe, will be transformative in the next five years. A key area is natural language processing and the integration of AI into existing workflows.

With regards to natural language processing, in the context of Connected Environments, we’re excited about the potential of bridging the vision and language domains. For example, using natural language when looking for a person of interest or a vehicle during a post-incident investigation. This has the overall benefit of providing users with quick access to critical information and enabling safer operational outcomes.

A growing acceptance of AI will inevitably lead to more stable and reliable data, positively impacting decision-making and recommendations. Over time, I believe that the sophistication of these systems will improve, resulting in more personalised AI, learning an individual's preferences and requirements.