Loud Rodeo Challenges FirstNet Test in Texas
Communicating in noisy and active environments was a key challenge during a test of an LTE public safety network at a rodeo in Houston, said a FirstNet blog post Tuesday. The test was done by Texas and Harris County, one…
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of five “early builder” public safety LTE network projects. FirstNet has a spectrum manager lease agreement with each project to provide early access the public safety spectrum in the 700 MHz band. Public safety officials did the test at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo at NRG Stadium. The March 1-20 event had about 2.48 million visitors, with 75,508 on the most-attended day. Festival noise was a challenge, said Lynn Bashaw, FirstNet director-network operations. “For example, voice communications were severely impacted during the concerts and in the carnival ride areas,” he said. “In addition, when responders are working an incident, they must be able to communicate without holding a device and selecting features. Much work remains to optimize the performance, usability, and reliability of these mobile devices and accessories for use in a noisy and active public safety environment.” For the test, multiple vendors provided more than 90 handheld mobile devices to about 60 users out of about 600 public safety staff, Bashaw said. Public safety used push-to-talk and situational awareness applications, as well as tethering to laptops, he said. Harris County hasn’t finished its Band 14 LTE network for public safety, so the team rolled out a cell on wheels with a 100-foot mast, and installed three Band 14 LTE nodes at key locations around the venue and two low-power nodes for in-building coverage inside the facility hosting the command center, he said.