AtHoc IWSAlerts Now Integrated with Cisco IPICS to Trigger Emergency Alerts

  • Jun 18, 2009

AtHoc, Inc., which specializes network-centric emergency notification systems, today announced the company has fully tested interoperability between AtHoc IWSAlerts™ and Cisco’s Internet Protocol Interoperability and Collaboration System (IPICS). This integration allows the AtHoc system to trigger emergency notifications through the Cisco platform to quickly reach people on land mobile radios, IP phones, landline telephones and mobile telephones.

This integration expands the number of devices and systems AtHoc can notify through its unified console for emergency alerting, which already supports notification to computers, telephones, sirens, public address systems, AM/FM radios, television and other emergency alert systems.

The integrated solution allows customers to extend their physical security, public safety and emergency response networks through desktop and mass-notification capabilities while also speeding the dissemination of incidents detected by Cisco’s physical security products, which include video surveillance, access control, and incident response and notification. With the new integration, a single notification, or system alert from an access control violation, video surveillance camera or an IP network integrated sensor, can be sent through the network to all network-connected channels simultaneously.

By integrating AtHoc IWSAlerts with Cisco IPICS, the AtHoc solution can also send “blast” multi-cast phone alerts to Cisco IP phones. The telephony alerts support text-to-speech messaging, and the alerts do not require the user to pick up the phone to get the audio message.

The AtHoc solution can help quickly alert people who are impacted by an emergency situation, and it can also aid in first response processes. Cisco IPICS is used widely in the emergency response community due to the fact that push-to-talk devices, including phones and radios, provide first responders with a fast and effective way to communicate critical information. The integration with AtHoc IWSAlerts means that first responders will also have quick access to emergency alerts being sent out by emergency operations centers.

“Reaching people during an emergency requires a multi-pronged communication strategy. No single device can reach everyone, especially when time is of the essence. That’s why we’ve been aggressively building the portfolio of devices AtHoc IWSAlerts can trigger,” said Tsachi Samocha, director of product management for AtHoc. “The integration with Cisco IPICS extends IWSAlerts’ reach to activate land mobile radios and push-to-talk devices.”

In addition to providing outbound emergency communications, the AtHoc IWSAlerts solution also provides a tracking mechanism whereby recipients of alerts can respond to acknowledge receipt of the message and/or to report their status (hurt/ok/etc.). This two-way communication capability will be available through Cisco IPICS to make sure that responses are tracked and reported.

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