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it-- <br />,. <br />ORANGE COUNTY <br />BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS <br />ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT <br />Meeting Date: June 14, 2001 <br />Action Agen a <br />Item No. <br />SUBJECT: RFP Award -Needs Assessment for Consolidated Communications System <br />and Network Desi n Services <br />DEPARTMENT: Purchasing and Central <br />Services, Emergency <br />Management <br />PUBLIC HEARING: (Y/N) No <br />ATTACHMENT(S): INFORMATION CONTACT: <br />Pam Jones (919) 245-2652 <br />Nick Waters (919) 968-2050 <br />(Continued from June 5, 2001 BOCC <br />Meeting) <br />TELEPHONE NUMBERS: <br />Hillsborough 732-8181 <br />Chapel Hill 9684501 <br />Durham 688-7331 <br />Mebane 336-227-2031 <br />PURPOSE: To consider awarding a Request for Proposal for Needs Assessment for a Consolidated <br />Communications System and Networks Design Services to CTA of Lynchburg, Virginia. <br />BACKGROUND: The Public Safety Communications system is quickly becoming inadequate to handlE <br />the growing demands of the user agencies. A number of issues must be addressed in order to have a <br />coordinated functional system that will best serve Orange County citizens. Among them are: <br />• Replacement of consoles <br />Consoles in the communication center are Heady 10-years old and utilize a technology that went ou <br />of production over five years ago. Because parts are no longer made for the consoles, maintenance <br />is becoming increasingly more difficult. Replacement of these consoles within a relatively short timE <br />period is inevitable. Since consoles must be compatible with radio systems used in the county, <br />decisions to upgrade the communications capabilities in the future is a critical component to <br />determining the type of consoles needed. <br />• Additional demands,of agencies <br />The Emergency Service and Law Enforcement Agencies need more and more radio time to carry <br />out the service demands of the departments. This increase in frequencies leads to a bottleneck in <br />the communications center with more units calling on different channels at the same time. <br />Further complicating the issue is the non-existence of a common radio channel among all user <br />agencies. <br />• Com atibili <br />The needs assessment will lead to standards that ensure compatibility of components among all <br />agencies. The need for compatibility goes beyond equipment. For example, compatibility of record <br />management software used by agencies has been problematic. The software was not compatible <br />with the communications system making data transfer inefficient and very labor intensive. <br />