Guest Editorial by Chris Wall – Director of Sales at Rajant Corporation
Natural disasters have always posed a significant risk, striking anywhere and anytime. These types of disasters are especially prevalent in the United States.
The National Centers for Environmental Information reports that 308 weather climate disasters have occurred in the country since 1980, presenting combined damage costs of $2.085 trillion.
In addition to economic damage, natural disasters can have devastating consequences on capital infrastructure such as housing, schools, and factories, not to mention the significant risk they pose to civilian lives.
In a climate disaster, it is essential that critical communications can be deployed rapidly to ensure a fully coordinated and procedural public safety operation.
By setting up pop-up centers, safety personnel can quickly act in the most critical moments, ensuring a reduction in damage impact and, most importantly, the number of civilian casualties.
Emergency and public safety teams require reliable access and connectivity in the most remote and dangerous situations.
However, natural disasters present a formidable communication challenge for first responders.
Why rapid wireless communication is critical in emergencies
Emergency action is paramount during a public safety operation, but so is time. Every second counts when it comes to a successful area evacuation and safety action plan.
This is particularly the case in natural disasters, such as building collapses or adverse, life-threatening weather conditions.
Recently in December 2021, a major disaster was declared in the Commonwealth of Kentucky with Federal aid ordered to supplement Commonwealth and local recovery efforts in the areas most affected by the severe storms, winds, flooding, and tornadoes.
(FEMA continues to work with federal, state, and local partners to support life-saving and life-sustaining actions in Kentucky and other areas affected by the tornado outbreak. Courtesy of FEMA and YouTube. Posted on Dec 17, 2021.)
To have an efficient critical communications plan in place for any emergency operation, such as the disaster in Kentucky, a fail-proof network must be utilized to ensure a rapid response, and the traditionally used cellular data has a limited signal that often struggles to cover the range that a wireless connection can reach.
This can result in a loss of communications in remote areas, such as rural and isolated environments.
Long-Term Evolution (LTE) technology data rates degrade the other mobile equipment moves from the 4G/5G towers.
It lacks the upstream speeds that operators need to run multiple mission-critical applications, such as CCTV and real-time monitoring of assets.
The demand for a robust and wide-ranging network becomes increasingly essential to cover a host of diverse and unique environments.
In most instances, the strength of a network is only as strong as the infrastructure on which it is built.
Many issues can arise from using wired connections that could pose an increased risk of signal disconnection in the event of an emergency. This can subsequently lead to public safety organizations being unable to receive real-time data.
Notably, a dedicated network that ensures continuous connectivity is essential, as many existing public networks can lack adequate bandwidth for streaming video from remote cameras to recovery personnel.
Not only can teams be presented with limited access to a network, but they may lack the expertise necessary to set up the network optimally.
Rajant has the wireless connectivity solution
Across all-natural disaster incidents, successfully delivering an optimal response relies heavily on accurate real-time situational awareness alongside accessible communications.
This cannot happen without access to a robust, highly secure network that offers fail-safe redundancy and affordability and can deliver the required speed and bandwidth to support all communication systems.
The Rajant Kinetic Mesh® network provides many solutions that ensure optimal support for the critical setup of emergency pop-up sites, offering a rapidly deployable and highly secure solution to connect recovery shelters and other temporary triage centers.
(See how Rajant wireless networks enable an array of advanced public safety and industrial security applications. See technology in action with Vorbeck, Ghost Robotics, Dejero, and xCRAFT. Courtesy of Rajant Corporation and YouTube.)
The innovative capabilities of Rajant’s private wireless network ensure that it can be readily deployed with or even without the existing infrastructure in place.
By utilizing Rajant’s patented BreadCrumb® technology, which consists of a unique network of wirelessly connected nodes, connectivity can be strategically placed directly on assets, providing adaptability and mobility that emergency recovery teams require for optimal performance when performing their life-saving operations.
In a life-threatening natural disaster situation, Rajant’s military-grade encryption makes it the choice for connecting securely and exclusively in a secluded area, making mission-critical and hard-to-reach areas easily accessible for emergency communications.
For example, the reliable connection ensures reception in buildings or places where people may be trapped, allowing rapid and precise rescue missions.
The technology can also be transported seamlessly and deployed quickly by emergency personnel without the need for extensive experience or significant training.
Unique technology that ensures maximum safety
As well as serving as a comprehensive solution for reliable, uninterrupted connectivity, Rajant’s Kinetic Mesh can enhance automated processes, such as robotics and drone technology with built-in Artificial Intelligence (AI).
For example, in one single mission, the nodes can be distributed on more than 200 drones at once, allowing internal communications to be sent and received anywhere in the vicinity.
In a disaster scenario, drones are crucial for getting to and identifying people quickly, helping to prevent and reduce the risk of casualties.
Drones can also facilitate surveillance by transmitting full-frame, high-resolution video to a security operations center to be viewed and managed. This, in turn, helps to inform decision-making considerably.
Rajant is the only network for drones and robotics communications that enables continuous mobile connectivity for machine-to-machine (M2M) communications.
The BreadCrumb nodes can be deployed directly on all mobile assets.
As autonomous systems and robotics become essential in public safety and recovery operations, their ability to move and communicate is network-dependent.
Rajant’s redundant network capabilities allow for resilient and dynamic connectivity in the most mission-critical environments.
As a result, emergency personnel can utilize drone swarms, robots, and unmanned ground vehicles when a disaster occurs.
By using Rajant Kinetic Mesh networking, they can communicate peer-to-peer to identify victims, pinpoint locations, program movements, and clear processes, all without worrying about temperamental connectivity.
Rajant Corporation, the pioneer of the Kinetic Mesh® network, BreadCrumb® wireless nodes, and InstaMesh® networking software, provide industrial customers with full mobility, allowing them to take their private network applications and data anywhere.
With Rajant, customers can rapidly deploy a highly adaptable and scalable network that leverages the power of real-time data to deliver on-demand, mission-critical business intelligence.
A low-latency, high-throughput, and secure solution for a variety of data, voice, video, and autonomous applications, Rajant’s Kinetic Mesh networks are deployed in more than 70 countries for customers in military, mining, ports, rail, oil & gas, petrochemical plants, municipalities, and agriculture.
Rajant is headquartered in Malvern, Pennsylvania, with additional facilities and offices in Arizona and Kentucky. To Learn More, please visit Rajant.com
Rajant Corporation Takes Top Platinum in 2021 ‘ASTORS’ Awards
American Security Today’s Annual ‘ASTORS’ Awards is the preeminent U.S. Homeland Security Awards Program, and now in its Sixth Year, continues to recognize industry leaders of Physical and Border Security, Cybersecurity, Emergency Preparedness – Management and Response, Law Enforcement, First Responders, as well as federal, state and municipal government agencies in the acknowledgment of their outstanding efforts to Keep our Nation Secure.
Rajant Corporation
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Best Wireless Video Surveillance Network
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Rajant BreadCrumb Hawk
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The Rajant Hawk is a high-performance, dual-radio industrial-grade, wireless Kinetic Mesh BreadCrumb.
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Infused with Rajant’s patented InstaMesh protocol, the Hawk offers higher throughput with enhanced security performance using 256QAM, 80 MHz channels, and hardware acceleration.
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The Hawk is reliable in extreme environmental conditions and has several mounting options, and contains two transceivers delivering MIMO operation over multiple frequencies for reliable and resilient connections.
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The platform combines high-speed, highly flexible mobile connectivity to reliably power new applications at the edge with unlimited coverage through a Layer-2 multi-radio mesh fabric extended across the deployment.
(Introducing the Hawk, one of Rajant’s newest industrial-grade high-performance BreadCrumb platforms that offer dual MIMO transceivers, up to 1.7Gbps aggregated data rate, higher throughput, and enhanced security performance. Courtesy of Rajant and YouTube.)
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*Rajant was also recognized in the 2020 ‘ASTORS’ Awards Program.
The Annual ‘ASTORS’ Awards highlight the most cutting-edge and forward-thinking security solutions coming onto the market today, to ensure our readers have the information they need to stay ahead of the competition and keep our Nation safe – one facility, street, and city at a time.
AST Honors Thomas Richardson, FDNY Chief of Department; Dr. Kathleen Kiernan, President of NEC National Security Systems; and Richard Blatus, FDNY Assistant Chief of Operations, at the 2021 ‘ASTORS’ Awards Luncheon at ISC East.
The United States was forever changed 20 years ago on September 11th, and we were fortunate to have many of those who responded to those horrific tragedies join us at the 2021 ‘ASTORS’ Awards Luncheon.
In the days that followed 9/11, the critical needs of protecting our country catapulted us into new and innovative ways to secure our homeland – which is how many of the agencies and enterprise organizations that are today ‘ASTORS’ Awards Champions, came into being.
Our 2021 keynote speaker featured a moving and informative address from TSA Administrator and Vice-Admiral of the United States Coast Guard (Ret), David Pekoske; to our attendees who traveled from across the United States and abroad, on the strategic priorities of the 64,000 member TSA workforce in securing the transportation system, enabling safe, and in many cases, contactless travel.
Legendary Police Commissioner William Bratton of the New York Police Department, the Boston Police Department, and former Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department was also live at the event, meeting with attendees and signing copies of his latest work ‘The Profession: A Memoir of Community, Race, and the Arc of Policing in America,’ courtesy of the generosity of our 2021 ‘ASTORS’ Awards Premier Sponsors.
The 2021 ‘ASTORS’ Awards Program was Proudly Sponsored by AMAROK, Fortior Solutions and SIMS Software, along with Returning Premier Sponsors ATI Systems, Attivo Networks, Automatic Systems, and Reed Exhibitions.
Nominations are currently being accepted for the 2022 ‘ASTORS’ Homeland Security Awards at https://americansecuritytoday.com/ast-awards/.
Comprehensive List of Categories Include:
| Access Control/ Identification | Personal/Protective Equipment | Law Enforcement Counter Terrorism |
| Perimeter Barrier/ Deterrent System | Interagency Interdiction Operation | Cloud Computing/Storage Solution |
| Facial/IRIS Recognition | Body Worn Video Product | Cyber Security |
| Video Surveillance/VMS | Mobile Technology | Anti-Malware |
| Audio Analytics | Disaster Preparedness | ID Management |
| Thermal/Infrared Camera | Mass Notification System | Fire & Safety |
| Metal/Weapon Detection | Rescue Operations | Critical Infrastructure |
| License Plate Recognition | Detection Products | COVID Innovations |
| Workforce Management | Government Security Programs | And Many Others to Choose From! |
Don’t see a Direct Hit for your Product, Agency or Organization?
Submit your category recommendation for consideration to Michael Madsen, AST Publisher at: mmadsen@americansecuritytoday.com.
In 2021 over 200 distinguished guests representing Federal, State and Local Governments, and Industry Leading Corporate Firms gathered from across North America, Europe and the Middle East to be honored among their peers in their respective fields which included:
- The Transportation Security Administration (TSA)
- ICE Homeland Security Investigations (ICE HSI)
- Customs & Border Protection (CBP)
- The Federal Protective Service (FPS)
- Argonne National Laboratory (ANL)
- DHS Science & Technology (S&T)
- The National Center for Disaster Medicine & Public Health (NCDMPH)
- The American Red Cross
- The InfraGard National Alliance
- The Metropolitan Police (MPD)
- The U.S. Fire Administration (USFA)
- Naval Postgraduate School Center for Homeland Defense and Security (CHDS)
- The Federal Air Marshals Service
- The San Diego Harbor Police Foundation, and Many More!
Corporate firms, the majority of which return year to year to build upon their record of accomplishment include:
AlertMedia, Allied Universal, AMAROK, ATI Systems, Attivo Networks, Axis Communications, Automatic Systems of America, BriefCam, Canon U.S.A., Fortior Solutions, guardDog.ai, Hanwha Techwin of America, HID Global, Mark43, IPVideo Corporation, Konica Minolta Business Solutions, Lumina Analytics, NEC National Security Systems, NICE Public Safety, OnSolve, PureTech Systems, Quantum Corporation, Rave Mobile Safety, Regroup Mass Notification, Robotic Assistance Devices, Rajant Corporation, SafeLogic, Senstar Corporation, ShotSpotter, Singlewire Software, SolarWinds Worldwide, Teledyne FLIR, Valor Systems, and Wiresecure, just to name a few!
Why American Security Today?
The traditional security marketplace has long been covered by a host of publications putting forward the old school basics to what is Today – a fast-changing security landscape.
American Security Today is uniquely focused on the broader Homeland Security & Public Safety marketplace with over 75,000 readers at the Federal, State, and local levels of government as well as firms allied to the government.
American Security Today brings forward a fresh compelling look and read with our customized digital publications that hold readers’ eyes throughout the story with cutting-edge editorial that provides solutions to their challenges.
Harness the Power of the Web – with our 100% Mobile Friendly Publications
AST Digital Publications are distributed to over 75,000 qualified government and homeland security professionals, in federal, state, local, and private security sectors.
‘PROTECTING OUR NATION, ONE CITY AT A TIME’
AST Reaches both Private & Public Experts, essential to meeting these new challenges.
Today’s new generation of public safety and security experts need real-time knowledge to deal with domestic and international terrorism, lone wolf attacks, unprecedented urban violence, shifts in society, culture, and media bias – making it increasingly difficult for Homeland Security, Law Enforcement, First Responders, Military and Private Security Professionals to implement coordinated security measures to ensure national security and improve public safety.
These experts are from Government at the federal, state, and local level as well as from private firms allied to the government.
AST provides a full plate of topics in our AST Monthly Magazine Editions, AST Website, and AST Daily News Alerts, covering 23 Vital Sectors such as Access Control, Perimeter Protection, Video Surveillance/Analytics, Airport Security, Border Security, CBRNE Detection, Border Security, Ports, Cybersecurity, Networking Security, Encryption, Law Enforcement, First Responders, Campus Security, Security Services, Corporate Facilities, and Emergency Response among others.
AST has Expanded readership into integral Critical Infrastructure audiences such as Protection of Nuclear Facilities, Water Plants & Dams, Bridges & Tunnels, and other potential targets of terrorism.
Other areas of concern include Transportation Hubs, Public Assemblies, Government Facilities, Sporting & Concert Stadiums, our Nation’s Schools & Universities, and Commercial Business Destinations – all enticing targets due to the large number of persons and resources clustered together.
(See just a few highlights of American Security Today’s 2021 ‘ASTORS’ Awards Presentation Luncheon at ISC East. Courtesy of My Pristine Images and Vimeo.)
To learn more about ‘ASTORS’ Homeland Security Award Winners solutions, please see the 2021 ‘ASTORS’ CHAMPIONS Edition Fully Interactive Magazine – the Best Products of 2021 ‘A Year in Review’.
The Annual CHAMPIONS edition includes a review of Annual ‘ASTORS’ Award Winning products and programs, highlighting key details on many of the winning firm’s products and services, including video interviews and more.
It serves as your Go-To Source throughout the year for ‘The Best of 2021 Products and Services‘ endorsed by American Security Today, and can satisfy your agency’s and/or organization’s most pressing Homeland Security and Public Safety needs.
From Physical Security (Access Control, Critical Infrastructure, Perimeter Protection, and Video Surveillance Cameras and Video Management Systems), to IT Security (Cybersecurity, Encryption, Data Storage, Anti-Malware and Networking Security – Just to name a few), the 2021 ‘ASTORS’ CHAMPIONS EDITION has what you need to Detect, Delay, Respond to, and Mitigate today’s real-time threats in our constantly evolving security landscape.
It also includes featured guest editorial pieces from some of the security industry’s most respected leaders, and recognized firms in the 2021 ‘ASTORS’ Awards Program.
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For a complete list of 2021 ‘ASTORS’ Award Winners, begin HERE.
For more information on All Things American Security Today, as well as the 2021 ‘ASTORS’ Awards Program, please contact Michael Madsen, AST Publisher at mmadsen@americansecuritytoday.com.
AST strives to meet a 3 STAR trustworthiness rating, based on the following criteria:
- Provides named sources
- Reported by more than one notable outlet
- Includes supporting video, direct statements, or photos
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Alice DiSanto Named SIA 2022 Committee Chair of the Year Winner
