Archive for the ‘In The News’ Category

Ouachita Baptist Alerts Students and Staff About an Emergency Situation Involving an Armed Robbery with InformaCast

Excerpt from the Ouachita Baptist Website

“The alert system operated effectively and we were able to clear the outside areas of campus very quickly.” – Dr. Keldon Henley, vice president for student services at Ouachita Baptist University

August 24, 2010

Ouachita Baptist University officials activated the university’s emergency notification system in response to a police search for a possible armed robbery suspect near campus.

An initial alert was issued at 10:29 a.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 24, with an all-clear message issued at 12:18 p.m.

The initial alert notified students, faculty and staff that “police are searching for a possible armed robbery suspect in the area behind OC Bailey and Anthony Halls” and instructed individuals to “go inside until further notice.” Follow-up alerts instructed recipients to “please go inside the nearest building until further notice.”

Following notification by Arkadelphia police that the suspect had been apprehended, university officials issued a message noting that “the emergency situation has now ended. You may continue normal activities.”

Ouachita’s extensive campus emergency notification system, launched in 2007, includes e-mail, text messages, outdoor loudspeakers, campus phone messages and computer pop-up alerts.

According to Ouachita President Rex Horne, “An emergency situation in Arkadelphia this morning resulted in our securing the campus and bringing all students and employees indoors.  A bank robbery was reported and Arkadelphia police advised us to issue an alert. We did so promptly.” He added that everyone on campus was safe and “taking every precaution” throughout the emergency alert.

Dr. Keldon Henley, vice president for student services, noted, “We were tremendously pleased by the response of our students and others on campus when the alert was announced. The alert system operated effectively and we were able to clear the outside areas of campus very quickly.”

Read More – Excerpt from the Ouachita Baptist Website

Colgate University uses Singlewire InformaCast to alert faculty, staff and students about an incident on campus.

Excerpt from the Colgate University News Blog – Click to Read Full Story

We would like to provide you with more information about the emergency situation that occurred on campus earlier today. An individual inside a car near the Oak Drive entrance to campus attempted to harm himself, which made it necessary for local law enforcement officials to surround the car in order to contain the situation. The individual was not a member of the Colgate community, and the situation was resolved peacefully.

Though law enforcement officials expected the emergency to be contained to Oak Drive, as a precaution we advised faculty, staff, and students to remain in their buildings until the situation was resolved. In addition, all entrances to campus were closed.

The university’s emergency response plan includes a number of communications tools to inform the campus community quickly and effectively prior to, during, and following an emergency. Today, we utilized the Campus Alert email system, as well as the Informacast recorded message system over campus telephones.

Click to read full article

Appearing in the Colgate University Blog

Colgate has installed a new campus emergency public address system, which is part of the university’s comprehensive emergency notification plan. The new public address system is intended to provide timely warnings to the campus community in the event of a life-threatening emergency that requires immediate and widespread notification. It is important to note that it is highly unlikely the public address system will ever have to be used.

INFORMACAST is a component of the campus VOIP (voice over Internet protocol) telephone system installed in 2009. INFORMACAST allows prerecorded and live voice messages to be distributed to campus VOIP telephones, which include those in staff and faculty offices. While Colgate Alert is the primary tool for notifying the campus community in the event of a major emergency, INFORMACAST provides an additional layer of communication.

Read the full story on the Colgate University Blog at – http://blogs.colgate.edu/2010/08/colgate-installs-new-outdoor-e.html

Cisco says that applications from Singlewire Software now run on the ISR’s Application Extension Platform (AXP) services module. Singlewire’s InformaCast package simultaneously sends an audio stream or text message to multiple IP phones, IP speakers, desktop notification systems and overhead paging systems.

Cisco is extending its branch routers and LAN switches in an effort to improve the collaboration capabilities of enterprise customers and enhancing its Integrated Services Routers (ISR) and Catalyst 4500 and 6500 switches with new models, line cards and software to address mobility, sustainability and unified communications (UC) requirements.

Cisco is also now supporting High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA) on the ISR’s 3G Wireless Wide Area Network module. HSPA boosts bandwidth and performance for the module in backup or disaster-recovery applications.

Read more about InformaCast and Cisco AXP

School districts deploy IP-based products that support everything from voice to texting and even social media.

Excerpt from Ed Tech Magazine E-Newsletter by Dan Tynan

There’s a security threat at an elementary school. A water main has broken, flooding the high school’s basement. A tornado is speeding toward the main administration building. A suspicious package just arrived in the mail room of a middle school. The police have cordoned off the vocational school’s neighborhood, and traffic is backed up for miles.

No matter what the emergency, you need to notify a lot of people in a hurry. How do you do it?

As the April 2007 shootings at Virginia Tech tragically proved, yesterday’s technologies — sirens, calling trees and the emergency broadcast network — are no longer sufficient.

That’s why school districts large and small are adopting IP-based systems that integrate a wide range of communications technologies, from voice to texting to Twitter.

When San Ramon Valley Unified School District (SRVUSD) began modernizing its facilities a few years ago, it cast aside its aging phone and retooled its public address system and its outdated Emergency Notification System (ENS) and tied nine of its 31 schools together with a single IP-based system.

Using Singlewire Software’s InformaCast, the Northern California district connected its loudspeakers, bells and ENS to an IP-based phone system from Cisco. The reason? More bang for the buck, says Jon Threshie, former director of technology for SRVUSD.

“We captured substantial construction cost savings by going with a single solution,” Threshie says. “By eliminating conduit and cable infrastructure, for the same money we could end up not only with a significantly superior telephone system for the school, but also a districtwide system as well.”

Because the public address speakers can be accessed individually, administrators can make specific announcements to, say, all first-grade classrooms or students on the playground, as well as issue campuswide alerts, by choosing from prefab templates.

Click to read full story

Emergency Notification Systems Get the Word Out

Federal agencies deploy IP-based products that support everything from voice to texting and even social media.

Excerpt from Ed Tech Magazine E-Newsletter by Dan Tynan

After a hostage crisis at Johnson Space Center in April 2007, NASA knew it needed a better way to inform its people during an emergency.

This fall the space agency implemented Singlewire Software’s InformaCast at its Washington, D.C., headquarters, integrating the ENS with the agency’s Cisco IP phone and data networks.

“If we’re in a hostage situation, we don’t want the floor where the hostage taker is to know what’s going on, but we still need to inform the rest of the building,” says Mike Barrett, telecommunications manager at NASA headquarters.

“With InformaCast, we can selectively send messages to all floors, specific floors or all floors but one. We can also send on-screen pop ups to specific PCs and Macs.”

InformaCast’s versatility is what sold them on the system, adds Danny Gear, IT support contract telecommunications supervisor. It lets them send text or audio to random individuals scattered throughout a building.

Click to read full story

By Scott Campbell, ChannelWeb

Four former executives from Berbee Information Networks and CDW have joined together to start a new company, Singlewire Software.

Singlewire, based in Madison, Wis., will be led by Paul Shain, former CEO of Berbee and senior vice president at CDW, as president and CEO. The company will focus on building applications for the unified communications and physical security spaces.

In addition to Shain, Ken Bywaters, current practice manager for Berbee Software, will become executive vice president of product management at Singlewire. Greg Sliwicki, former president of Berbee and vice president of sales at CDW, is Singlewire’s executive vice president of sales and marketing. Brett Rimkus, former CFO at Berbee and vice president of business development at CDW, has been named CFO of Singlewire.

Berbee Information Networks was purchased by CDW in October 2006 for $175 million. Singlewire purchased the assets of Berbee Software, which includes the InformaCast family of IP notification applications, back from CDW and intends to enhance the InformaCast platform to include the integration of its notification technology into the physical security space.

Click to read the entire article at CRN.com – http://www.crn.com/software/216402706

By Kathleen Gallagher of the Journal Sentinel

Singlewire forms to focus on mass notification and physical security systems

MADISON - Singlewire Software announced its formation to build applications for the unified communications and physical security markets. Singlewire bought the assets of Berbee Software, including the InformaCast family of IP notification applications, from CDW Corporation. Singlewire Software will continue to enhance the InformaCast platform to include the integration of its notification technology into the physical security market. The company will be headquartered in Madison.

Read the full story – http://wistechnology.com/articles/5822/