The Safety Connection: How Nova Communications Created High-Capacity Connectivity in Yellowhead County
Yellowhead County, a municipal district in West Central Alberta was formed when the province of Alberta was in a downsizing phase in the mid-1990’s, encompassing the towns of Edson and Hinton. Yellowhead County is home to almost 11,000 residents and spans over 22,000 square kilometres.
Yellowhead County faced a problem when their primary communications system for emergency services that spanned over the entire county was only providing 45% coverage. The ten-year-old system capacity would not allow for high-capacity communication in the event of an emergency and could not service more than three operations at once. When travelling across the county, emergency service responders had to change talk groups, creating a mobile accessibility issue. Not to mention the system was highly susceptible to weather conditions, leading to a risk in system failure.
In order to increase coverage across the county, Yellowhead County searched for a custom streamlined system in order to meet their needs. This is where Nova Communications and select partners stepped in to provide the county with a solution.
There were three main obstacles that had to be addressed:
- Servicing – Yellowhead County was searching for a streamlined system that could be serviced by a single entity but managing a range of equipment meant a mixture of service personnel for separate components of a large system.
- Expansion – The current system comprised of end-of-life materials and needed expansion capabilities for municipal growth.
- Expense – A new system would be a large financial commitment, which meant the new proposed system had to fulfill high standards for coverage and capacity that was not comprised of end-of-life equipment.
The new system increased mobile coverage from 45% to 95%, and 90% for handheld devices. The new communication system for emergency services also provided Yellowhead County with:
- Improved fleet detection and management.
- The ability to service multiple incidents on the new system without channel interference.
- The option to travel without changing talk groups.
- The ability to patch to anyone direct from consoles.
With detailed planning and coordination, Nova Communications was able to create a unique communication system designed specifically to meet the coverage needs of Yellowhead County’s emergency services. To learn more about how Nova Communications’ solution helped to increase safety and coverage across rural Alberta terrain, download the FREE Yellowhead County Case Study.
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