Cecil County deploys Airbus’ VESTA(R) 9-1-1 solution

The Cecil County Department of Emergency Services in the US has selected Airbus DS Communications to upgrade the Maryland County emergency call-taking system.

The Airbus Defense and Space entity will now install its VESTA 9-1-1 solution to help enhance the county’s operational capabilities, ensuring reliability and fast response times.

The new VESTA 9-1-1 solution is expected to enable the Cecil County’s two call centres, namely the command centre and the back-up location, which were previously operating on different systems, to offer the same high-quality user experience.

Airbus DS Communications CEO Bob Freinberg said: "The County now has access to both a user-friendly solution and one designed with the flexibility and reliability they need to handle emergencies on any scale."

The new system is geodiverse, which increases its resilience during disaster by maintaining operations at full capacity through second call server if the first goes down for any reason.

Cecil County Department of Emergency Services 9-1-1 Communications assistant chief Jim Alfree said: "Throughout the years, Airbus DS Communications has provided reliable public safety communications technology and tremendous expertise and support to our team.

"By transitioning to the VESTA 9-1-1 solution, we are assuring dependability continues while also meeting Next Generation 9-1-1 standards."

Cecil County also deployed the VESTA mobile CommandPOST solution to expand its call-taking abilities in the event of a severe emergency.

In addition, the county uses VESTA Analytics solution to monitor and track call centre performance such as how fast calls are received and average response times.

Claimed to be serving a population of more than 102,000 residents and answering more than 175,000 emergency calls each year, the Cecil County Department of Emergency Services increased its total call taking positions from 18 to 29 to match the region’s growing population.