The two companies highlight the fact that AEDs are becoming increasingly commonplace and that access/inspection chamber monitoring can be used to prevent tampering and theft. Low cost, low power wireless sensor devices from MAC Ltd (which use the Sigfox low power wide area network protocol) are used to detect a range of different events (such as the opening of an access chamber cover or the removal of an AED removed from a cabinet) and these are reported and recorded as incidents within Capita’s ControlWorks. This approach allows public safety organisations to deal with such incidents using their normal software solutions and operating procedures, rather than having to use a new, dedicated monitoring system, with the associated costs in deployment and training.
“A sensor activation is presented to the control room operator in the same, familiar way that they are presented with any other method of contact, for example a phone call, and with the additional information, such as location, points of contact and sensor history that are provided, this will allow them to decide on the actions to be taken,” said Capita’s business development manager, Duncan Askew. “They will also be able to view the incident in the context of other incidents that may have been reported within the area, for example, an AED removal may be tied in with a call for an ambulance.”
“MAC Ltd is one of the pioneers of the Internet of Things through its work on the Floodnet environmental monitoring project more than 15 years ago,” said MAC Ltd’s consulting services director, Peter Gould. “We have also been serving the public safety communications community with innovative products and solutions for a similar period of time and we are excited to be bringing these two areas of expertise together in our collaboration with Capita to deliver real benefits to the public safety user community".
The two companies will present the AED monitoring system next month at the Home Office Security and Policing Event (5-7 March 2019) and the British APCO Annual Conference and Exhibition (12-13 March 2019).
