Greater Manchester Fire Brigade

Greater Manchester Fire Brigade needed to improve the speed and accuracy of pin pointing fire sites in order to arrive faster at the sites and provide more information to the firefighters. The GMC encompasses an area of approximately 500 square miles with a population of over 2.7 million, so locating incidents as quickly as possible is vital. The area also boasts an airport which handles over 5 million passengers a year.

There are currently 41 Fire Stations and over 2000 Fire-fighters within the Brigade.

Problem:
Each fire engine was equipped with a lap-top PC on which the site information was displayed. However, as a typical crew is generally 8 firefighters, the information was not visible to them all at the same time. Protecting the PC from too much exposure to heat and moisture during emergency interventions was also extremely difficult.

Solution - 50” Interactive Technologies PlasmaTouch overlay:
The solution proposed to Great Manchester Fire Brigade, in order to solve their problems, was to equip a mobile command unit with a plasma screen with Interactive Technologies PlasmaTouch overlay. The large format, 50” diagonal, Plasma TouchScreen enabled the whole crew to see the information previously displayed on the small screen of the lap-top PC.

Benefits:

• The laptop could be kept inside the fire engine at all times.
• The touchscreen allowed quick and easy access to vital information, simply by touching their location on a map.
• The map could be easily printed out and distributed to all of the fire fighters or, due to the size of the screen, they were able to gather around the screen and easily identify access areas and assess possible risks.
• Water protection was no longer an issue due to the bespoke water resistant solution.
• The robust designs, ensured a long lasting product despite being used outside at numerous locations.

	For more information on the software used by the emergency services with Interactive Technologies products please visit www.blue8.co.uk
Quick and easy access via touchscreen

London Fire Brigade

Greater Manchester Brigade wasn't the only Brigade convinced by the benefits and the variety of applications offered by Interactive Technologies products. The London Fire Brigade decided to use the same 50” diagonal PlasmaTouch overlay as a control panel in their control room.

The plasma screen with PlasmaTouch overlay displays a map showing the locations of all fire engines. By touching a fire engine on the screen and its desired destination, the system estimates the quickest route to the fire. This information is sent directly to the fire crews.