Harris County is currently using a utility-based shared communications system for their day-to-day public safety communications needs. Today, the users experience numerous coverage gaps and the system does not support interoperability with neighboring agencies or many modern public safety features. As a result, the County decided to transition to a standards based P25 system that provides countywide coverage.
The County engaged Televate to develop the system RFP and assist them through the procurement and implementation process.
Project Tasks
Televate began the process by meeting with the County leadership, the current system service provider, and by holding in-depth discovery sessions with each of the County user agencies. Televate compiled the data gathered from the discovery sessions and developed a system needs assessment summary. Following concurrence on the needs of the public safety users, Televate developed a concept design and cost estimate for a countywide simulcast P25 system that would meet the needs of the user community. The concept design incorporated:
- The use of existing sites to ensure a baseline level of current coverage
- Incorporation of several new sites for improved coverage and to address known coverage gaps
- A redundant public safety grade backhaul design, and
- The capability to support interoperability with their neighbors, as well as modern public safety features such as encryption and location services.
Having established the feasibility of the countywide simulcast system, Televate developed a detailed requirements-based RFP for interested vendors to propose their competitive solutions. Multiple responses to the RFP were received and after a thorough evaluation and comparison facilitated by Televate, Harris County entered into a contract with their preferred vendor.
The system implementation has now begun and Televate is assisting the County by performing or overseeing all critical activities regarding the implementation, including:
- Detailed design review
- Construction oversight
- Quality assurance
- Functional acceptance testing
- Coverage acceptance testing
- Punch list item resolution, and
- Project close-out.