Leverage Every Device
We’re often asked about how InformaCast can integrate with different kinds of devices. We’ve covered that topic in multiple ways on this blog in the past, but one area of interest is two-way radios. Organizations like schools, hospitals, warehouses, and other large organizations often employ these tools to aid communication when covering large areas. Having an emergency notification system that can tie into two-way radios minimizes the need to use multiple systems to share information about a potential emergency.
In this blog post, we’ll cover how organizations can connect their two-way radios to InformaCast to facilitate emergency notification and situation management.
How Two-Way Radio Integration Works
InformaCast can integrate with two-way radio stations in a similar fashion to how it delivers analog paging integration. Using the Legacy Paging Interface (LPI), InformaCast can dial the base station of two-way radio and send a broadcast to a specific radio channel (this depends on the vendor and how the base station is configured). In other words, if it is possible to dial the base station from an IP Phone, it can integrate with InformaCast. If it is not possible to dial the base station, InformaCast integration may still be available with the help of an IP zone controller. Since IP zone controllers have Power Over Ethernet (POE) on one side and line-level audio output on the other, the line out connects to the base station, and the POE side connects to the network. InformaCast finds the IP Zone controller and recognizes it as a single IP speaker. So when paged to, it’s broadcasting to every channel on the base station (again, this depends on the vendor and how the base station is configured).
It’s important to note that InformaCast Advanced can only facilitate page-to-talk (PTT) with Cisco wireless handsets. InformaCast will only work if the PBX has been integrated with the radio system or an IP zone controller.
InformaCast cannot currently send a static multicast broadcast to an IP port. Instead, the port must be registered to CUCM, and then InformaCast can dial the port via LPI. In that respect, the radio functions as another third-party paging system.
More Channels, Less Time
The goal of this integration is to minimize the need to trigger alerts from multiple systems to reach the right people with critical information. When an emergency occurs, the speed and reach of the message can make the difference between safety and harm. A versatile emergency notification system, like InformaCast, can tie disparate tools together, so a message can be sent simultaneously with the push of a button. This drastically reduces the amount of time it takes to get a message out and helps ensure that every channel is being used to no one misses important announcements.