The following essay is reproduced in full from Appendix E of the Safer Buildings Coalition’s Complete ERCES Handbook with NICET In-Building Public Safety Communications (IB-PSC) Study Guide. It is a joint statement to the ERCES industry from three of the country’s most experienced public safety radio operators.
What FCC License Holders and Radio System Operators Want the Industry to Understand About ERCES
A Special Essay by:
- Creighton Watley — DAS Coordinator, Puget Sound Emergency Radio Network
- Michelle Geddes — Chief Information Officer, City and County of San Francisco, Department of Emergency Management
- Michael Proscia — ERCES Inspection Program Manager, City and County of San Francisco
You’re a firefighter on Level 1 of a high rise at the Fire Command Center, and you can’t for the life of you talk on your radio to the other firefighters working the incident 20 stories up.
You’re a police officer, and your radio used to work just fine in this neighborhood, but for the past few weeks, the audio quality has been hit or miss, and you can barely hear dispatches.
You’re a building engineer, and the fire marshal is telling you there’s a system in your building you didn’t even know was there, and now it’s time to get the annual certification.
Public safety In-Building Communications Solution, codified in Nationwide Building Code as Emergency Responder Communications Enhancement Systems (ERCES), are central to these stories. They provide crucial communications for our first responder communities when they’re engineered, installed, commissioned, and operating as intended. When ERCES aren’t working properly, it can be worse than if the system wasn’t there at all. As radio operators, we experience the challenges of being service providers to all sides of the radio network. First responders are willing to risk their lives to protect us and our property. To make sure their radios work when they need them, we implore all members of the ERCES industry to heed our advice.
Who belongs to the ERCES industry?
- AHJ / Fire Code inspection officials
- Radio System Operators (FCC Licensee)
- Property owners / developers (subject to Fire Code and FCC)
- Commercial ERCES integrators
Each stakeholder on this list has specific levels of depth. AHJs are the critical driving force in the community as they develop the Fire Codes, which require ERCES and perform inspection and enforcement roles. Likewise, Radio System Operators may have similar functions as the AHJ in setting technical requirements, but they are also responsible to the FCC, especially to the user base of first responders they support. The property owner, manager, and engineer for a building with an ERCES are all members. Finally, it’s not just the commercial DAS integrators selling this product but also the manufacturers of the ERCES equipment and the electrical contractor or GC that hired the integrator. These stakeholders have their own day-to-day goals working toward and sometimes distracting from the overarching ideal of clear in-building communications for first responders.
Viewpoints across the ERCES lifecycle
It can be revealing to consider the various viewpoints among the ERCES stakeholders over the system’s entire lifespan.
Preconstruction
- Radio system operators and AHJs want to be assured that new ERCES are warranted and that new systems will be designed and deployed by qualified, reputable businesses.
- Integrators want sufficient information to capture and bid the correct costs for a new ERCES.
- GCs want an orderly permit and approval process.
Commissioning and Validation
- Integrators want clear expectations to configure and test on their own. They want to be confident of meeting those expectations before it’s time to demonstrate.
- Radio system operators, who are also usually the FCC Licensee, want it understood that their involvement and approval of new ERCES is required. (Even simply turning on the system to configure and test can wreak havoc on the public safety radio system — if not installed correctly.)
- AHJs want verification that ERCES operate as required to improve coverage before permitting new buildings to be occupied.
Day-to-Day Operation
- Property owners, managers, and engineers require a trouble-free system that works as intended.
- First responders want their radios to work, both inside buildings with ERCES and outside without interference from ERCES.
- Radio system operators want ERCES that improve network coverage inside the building without harming the macro network that supports all the public safety users throughout the community.
Service
- Property owners, managers, and engineers want to contract competent and attentive vendors to address their ERCES service needs.
- Integrators want the design drawings, commissioning, and service records of the existing ERCES. They also want to clearly understand current expectations for DAS from both the AHJ and the radio system operator.
- Radio system operators want to know the status and location of every ERCES that could create interference. They need culprit ERCES to be disabled immediately, fixed, and validated as soon as possible.
The team is the point — and communication is the tool
In the various lifecycle phases, the parties involved form a team working together to assist our first responder communities. Balancing individual goals and constraints with that communal goal often presents challenges. There are heavy-handed means of resolution to those challenges that represent a failure of the community. FCC notices, red tags, and lawyers represent the breakdown of communication and collaboration.
Appropriately, for a system designed to foster communication, we as the operator believe the solution to most of our implementation and operational issues is communication. How do we communicate better?
Integrators should be fastidious and early with their communications. Whether it’s shop drawings for review at the beginning of a project or training for the property manager at project closeout, timely, detailed documentation is crucial. Integrators should seek to educate other construction partners and property representatives on the requirements for ERCES throughout the lifecycle. They should build partnerships through shared goals with AHJs and radio system operators.
DAS OEMs need their finger on the distinct pulse of public safety DAS market forces. They must respond to new technologies and requirements necessitating updated hardware and software. As those changes roll out, the OEMs need to produce clear and consistent documentation, regular training, and responsive support to explain how their solutions meet requirements.
Property representatives need to understand, at a high level, the purpose, necessity, and risk of ERCES. They should actively participate in the turnover and training after new construction. They should safeguard their systems’ design and commissioning documentation. As their management and maintenance staff changes, new staff needs training on the same high-level principles of DAS. In particular, they should be aware of the importance and necessity of annual maintenance. The property representatives’ closest relationship will be with their DAS vendor, but they should foster a working relationship with the radio operator, who is their service provider.
AHJs and radio system operators must clearly communicate their requirements. Whether that is a checklist for design documentation, the inspection procedure at system commissioning, providing public safety radios for testing, or making known the terms of their retransmission agreement, the operator must labor to complete the requirements available and precise. They must make themselves available for clarification and have a process for modifying requirements as appropriate.
The Safer Buildings Coalition is fostering communications across all ERCES stakeholders. This industry consortium provides a unique opportunity to hear perspectives from all stakeholders. The organization is pulling together industry leaders to develop best practices and ideals and breaking down communication barriers. We can all do our part to keep the first responders safe by listening and sharing.
About the authors
Michelle Geddes — CIO, City and County of San Francisco, Emergency Management Department. Michelle is a public servant and public safety advocate with experience in both public and private sector. She is passionate about creating and leading teams and working through complex government and technology issues to solve problems — especially those that impact the lives and safety of San Francisco residents. Her team is responsible for ensuring that San Francisco’s 9-1-1 system works at all times, and that its first responders and emergency managers have the tools they need to do their jobs.
Creighton Watley — PSERN DAS Coordinator. Creighton manages the migration of 700+ public safety radio distributed antenna systems (DAS) in King County from the legacy radio network to the new Puget Sound Emergency Radio Network (PSERN). He built and is implementing the migration plan to the stakeholder community of property representatives, fire code officials, and DAS vendors. As DAS subject matter expert for the PSERN project, he is responsible for both the management of technical requirements as well as communication of process and status to all levels of audience.
Michael Proscia — Senior Comm Systems Tech, City and County of San Francisco. For the San Francisco Department of Technology, Michael’s role is to design, monitor, troubleshoot and maintain San Francisco’s public safety radio network infrastructure which includes its new P25 Phase II system infrastructure, the Citywide Emergency Radio System (CERS). As SFDT is also the “FCC Licensee,” his responsibilities include defining the technical requirements for ERCES installations which are designed to ensure compatibility as well as reduce RF noise and the potential for harmful interference to the public safety radio network, as well as the implementation of San Francisco’s ERCES inspection program, which ensures that ERCES meet their regulatory requirements.
Excerpted from Appendix E of the Complete ERCES Handbook with NICET In-Building Public Safety Communications (IB-PSC) Study Guide, by Chief Alan Perdue (ret.), CFO, FM and John S. Foley, with Mike Brownson. © Safer Buildings Coalition. Reproduced with the authors’ permission.