Airbus DS Communications begins 2016 with Exceptional Growth

Airbus DS Communications, an entity of Airbus Defense and Space, began 2016 with exceptional growth and advancements across its public safety communications offerings. The company serves the communications needs of municipalities, counties and regions through a variety of public safety solutions, including 9-1-1 call taking, land mobile radio (LMR) and emergency notification.

Since its release in December 2012, Airbus DS Communications' latest call handling solution, the VESTA® 9-1-1 system, leads the industry in laying the foundation for Next Generation 9-1-1. Orders for VESTA 9-1-1 have surpassed 10,000 call taking positions, located in 1,800 PSAPs nationwide -- representing more than half of its customers.

To support these installations, 420 Channel Partner technicians and 10,000 Public Safety personnel have been trained by Airbus DS Communications to ensure the highest level of performance and support. When surveyed, the VESTA 9-1-1 users overwhelmingly indicate they would recommend the VESTA solution to their colleagues.

"This means we address our end-user's most critical matters," says Bob Freinberg, CEO of Airbus DS Communications. "It's a credit to the collaboration, persistence and effectiveness between our partners, end-users and employees."

In the U.S., Airbus DS Communications' systems are deployed across 48 states and range in size from two call taking positions to 667 positions. In fact, six out of every ten 9-1-1 calls in the U.S. are answered by an Airbus DS Communications' solution. In addition, the company serves 193 Public Safety Answering Points on Department of Defense federal installations in 12 countries.

"This will be a remarkable year for Airbus DS Communications," says Freinberg. "The migration of our customers to the VESTA 9-1-1 solution is the first step in ensuring they have a clear way to Next Generation 9-1-1. At the home of VESTA®, we will deliver what is most critical to PSAPs -- a strong foundation to build on with a plan to guide them safely and reliably into the future."

Recently, the company had a number of notable VESTA 9-1-1 installations in areas with rapidly growing populations, including Florida and Virginia. For example, within the last six months, Airbus DS Communication was selected by:

• Marion County, Florida to deliver a VESTA 9-1-1 system that will provide 28 call-taking positions to its Sherriff's Office, 10 call-taking positions to the Ocala Police Department and eight back-up positions to ensure redundancy
• Manatee County, Florida to install 45 call taking positions to help process the county's 250,000 emergency calls per year
• Fairfax County, Virginia, to upgrade its call-handling equipment to ensure dependable public safety communications for its 1.1 million residents
• Martinsville-Henry County, Virginia to deliver new IP-based technology to ease the transition to text-to-9-1-1

In addition to equipping PSAPs with the company's latest technology, Airbus DS Communications has continued partnering with other industry leaders to provide the text-to-9-1-1 solutions on the market. This aligns with the company's commitment to a seamless, efficient and end-to-end experience for VESTA users.

In April, Airbus DS Communications announced a new collaboration with West, a leading provider of technology-enabled communications services, to streamline the process for PSAPs to implement text-to-9-1-1, making it easier for PSAPs to coordinate and obtain the infrastructure needed to accept Short Message Service (SMS text) calls. Now, for customers who want the Airbus DS Communications VESTA® SMS application and the West TCC (Text Control Center) TXT2-9-1-1® service, one call to West or Airbus DS Communications links PSAPs to a tailor-built website that unites all information, timelines and processes moving forward.

Shortly after, in June, Airbus DS Communications announced an expanded partnership with NICE. Currently, NICE offers a suite of NG9-1-1 solutions for audio recording, text-to-9-1-1 logging, screen capture as well as NICE Inform, a digital evidence management solution. As NICE's products complements Airbus DS Communications' VESTA solutions, the two have partnered to provide an integrated solution for PSAPs. The two industry leaders demonstrated the integrated solution in action in June at the 2016 National Emergency Number Association (NENA) Conference in Indianapolis, Ind.

Also at the NENA Conference, Airbus DS Communications showcased its new collaboration with RapidSOS. The two companies shared how rich multimedia data, such as live videos and text messaging, originating from the RapidSOS Haven smartphone application can be processed and displayed through the VESTA 9-1-1 system.

"Agencies are looking to quickly become next-generation ready to keep up with today's evolving technology," adds Freinberg. "We are thrilled that so many communities have chosen to take this next step with Airbus DS Communications because of our expertise and partnerships within the industry. We look forward to continuing our work to help more agencies make this transition throughout the year."