CHANTILLY, VA -- 08/22/08 --
National League of Cities TV (NLC TV,
www.NLCTV.org), the Internet TV channel of the National League of Cities
(NLC) produced on cooperation with TV Worldwide, announced that first
responders have reacted positively to a recent NLC TV webcast featuring a
state-of-the-art technology that can significantly enhance the incident
response survival rates. Known as the Advanced Incident Response System or
AIRS, the IPv6-enabled solution allows incident response personnel from
various agencies to communicate seamlessly while minimizing dependencies on
the fixed infrastructure of the disaster site.
During the June 20 town meeting webcast, personnel from AIRS developer
Command Information actually demonstrated how a customized application of
AIRS empowers an incident commander with real time vital information
ranging from personnel position to biometric data. On-line participation
from emergency response experts in the field during the webcast, including
members of the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC), facilitated
the discussion.
In response, Jim Bartelloni, Vice President of Business Development for
IPv6 6th Sense IT Architecture for Command Information, announced that the
company had developed a special program for NLC member cities and IAFC
members, which will include a 25% discount and free training support
throughout the AIRS implementation process.
"We are pleased to be able to offer the AIRS system at a significant
discount with free training to NLC and IAFC members," commented Bartelloni.
"Based on the interest we generated during the webcast, we want to insure
we make the AIRS system economically accessible to all municipalities and
fire chiefs wishing to deploy AIRS and its life-saving features."
"The AIRS system has the capability to save lives and allow first
responders to more efficiently manage their resources while providing a
level of situational awareness not achieved prior to the use of this
technology," stated Matt Bruskotter, Program Manager for the University of
Findlay's School of Environmental and Emergency Management (SEEM) who
participated remotely during the webcast.
"It is critical that new technologies be applied in the fire service to
help us help our own if they get trapped," said Captain Jeremy McPike of
the Dale City, Va. Volunteer Fire Department. "If you can enable a Rapid
Intervention Team (RIT) with the technology to find a downed firefighter
with precision
-- you have given them a fighting chance at reaching them in time to save one
of their own. There can be nothing more important to a firefighter than
saving one of our own."
"We are pleased to be able make cities aware of this promising new
technology through NLC TV," commented Amy Elsbree, Director of Center for
Communications and Corporate Programs for the National League of Cities.
"City officials are always looking for new solutions to e protect first
responders in the line of duty."
"This technology was originally developed for the US Dept of Defense's
"blue force tracking" systems and it was incredibly expensive," remarked
Dave Green, Vice President & Chief of R&D for Command Information. "Now
that it's being adopted by commercial companies for tracking and monitoring
the status of shipments, the price has dropped dramatically so that it can
be deployed at a reasonable cost. The lives of our first responders are
invaluable, so now that the price is reasonable, we want cities to be able
to take advantage of these advances in networked people trackers and
sensors."
"We had significant traffic for this NLC TV webcast, including viewership
from the first responder community and fire chiefs nationally," remarked
Dave Gardy, CEO of TV Worldwide, NLC's strategic partner in the development
and operation of NLC TV. "The AIRS system is attracting a lot of attention
across the country as we continue to see growing traffic to the video
archive of the webcast over the last several weeks becomes more viral in
the community."
The video of the webcast will be archived for viewing for a full year at
www.NLCTV.org. Participants should have the free Windows Media Video player
installed to view the event.
About the National League of Cities and NLC TV
The National League of Cities, the oldest and largest national organization
representing cities in the U.S., seeks to strengthen and promote cities as
centers of opportunity, leadership and governance.
The goal of NLC TV is to create a customized community-based Internet TV
channel that will facilitate the dissemination of NLC information to the
public and partner cities, foster communication with and feedback from
these partner cities, provide interactive e-mail, chat and collaborative
features that will enhance the utility of the channel and facilitate
educational and public/press awareness. The dedicated NLC Internet TV
channel has been configured with an initial dynamic utility infrastructure
to evolve as the public and city partner users become familiar with the
functionality and request capabilities to accomplish a range of live and
archived presentation functions.
About Command Information
Herndon, VA-based Command Information is the premier provider of
next-generation networking services to Fortune 1000 and government
entities. The company provides the services, training, and tools necessary
to migrate networks, as well as to enhance and enable edge applications to
take advantage of next-generation Internet capabilities. For more
information on Command Information, please visit
www.commandinformation.com.
About TV Worldwide
Founded in 1999, TV Worldwide (www.tvworldwide.com) developed the first
Internet TV network of community-based Internet TV channels, primarily
targeting niche professional communities ranging from the Maritime industry
to the Digital Media sector. Known by many in the industry as "Internet TV
for Smart People", Fortune 500 companies, 15 federal government agencies,
and numerous International associations including the National Association
of Broadcasters, utilize TV Worldwide's live and archived state-of-the art
video streaming content applications and Internet TV channels. In
recognition of the company's unique achievements in new media, TV Worldwide
was selected by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences
(NATAS) to webcast the Daytime Emmy Awards and the 59th Annual Emmy awards
for Technology and Engineering in both 2007 and 2008. CEO Dave Gardy has
been honored by Streaming Media Magazine as one of the 25 Most Influential
People in Streaming Media. Mr. Gardy also currently serves as the President
of the International Webcasting Association (IWA) (www.webcasters.org).
Contact:
Frank Leiter
TVWorldwide.com
Email Contact
www.TVWorldwide.com
(703) 961-9250, ext. 230
Dave Green
Command Information
Email Contact
www.CommandInformation.com
(703) 561-5937
