Fire and rescue service refreshes mobile data terminals with Panasonic tech

Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service has equipped 50 of its fire appliances with Panasonic rugged tablets for use as mobile data terminals.

According to the company, the FRS is using 13-inch Toughpad CF-D1s to source information on the way to a call-out, including routing, as well as locating nearby fire hydrants. Smaller and lighter devices – ten-inch FZ-G1 Toughpads - will also be used meanwhile, situated at the back of appliances during incidents.

Speaking of the deployment, Cambridgeshire FRS communications project manager John Barlow said: “We have invested to change all the existing MDTs to a more agile device to allow the crews to work more efficiently and smartly. Feedback from the fire crews has been overwhelmingly positive, and that’s partly because they were very involved in choosing the device.”

Prior to installation across the service, a six-month field test was carried out involving a single appliance.