On-Scene Xplorer

Congratulations to Greg Swanson from Bordentown, NJ. Greg attended one of our On-Scene Xplorer 2.6 Demonstration webinars in March and won a netbook computer.

Stay tuned as we plan to run more promotions like this.

Our business needs a little more elbow room so we are “moving on up, to the east side!” We will be relocating our office within Liberty Place; moving from suite 117 to suite 239. Please note that tomorrow Friday March 26 our phone system will be down for a brief period while the lines are switch to the new office.

Effective Monday March 30th our new address will be:

313 W Liberty St

Suite 239

Lancaster, PA 17603

“The larger space will give us room to grow while continuing to serve our existing customers” explained John Fix, president of Iron Compass. “We’re excited about the new space and the staff is getting a jump on the move today, so I gotta go get some pizza!”

Iron Compass has developed new technology called “Dispatch Monitor” to bridge the communication between emergency dispatch centers and the in-vehicle mapping and pre-incident planning solution On-Scene Xplorer 2.6.

The “Dispatch Monitor” technology is built to provide flexibility to accomodate the large variety of emergency dispatch systems on the market. On-Scene Xplorer 2.6 with Dispatch Monitor will allow emergency responders to receive, display, and automatically locate calls from within OSX.

“Our customers have been asking for this interface,” noted John Fix, President of Iron Compass. “So we developed the technology for the OSX 2.6 release. It is customizable so we can put it in place in many situation where direct access to dispatch data is not available.”

One example of limited access to dispatch data is being tested in the final beta at several local fire departments. In this case, the emergency dispatch center provides a “rip-n-run” station printer application. Dispatch Monitor is configured to intercept the dispatch data from the application to the printer. Dispatch Monitor parses the data and sends it to each apparatus that is listed on the dispatch.

“When a responder climbs into the rig, the call information is displayed in OSX 2.6 and they click “go” to draw the location on the map. This saves time and eliminates any potential memory lapses that may occur,” added Fix.

Once the beta program is completed, the technology will be rolled out to existing On-Scene Xplorer 2.6 customers.

On-Scene Xplorer 2.6, Iron Compass’s in-vehicle tactical mapping and pre-incident planning system for emergency responders is now in final beta testing. On-Scene Xplorer 2.6 improves on the On-Scene Xplorer 2.5 release with significant enhancements to keep pre-incident plans and mapping data syncronized within an organization. Receiving calls from CAD (dispatching) has also been enabled.

“Departments want to receive calls thru OSX from PSAPs, so we have enabled this functionality. If call centers are able to provide digital call data, we can use that within OSX and dispatched locations can be mapped automatically” said John Fix, president of Iron Compass. “Also, with the new data replication functionality, it will be very easy to keep mapping data and pre-plans up to date in all the apparatus within a department without going from vehicle to vehicle.”

On-Scene Xplorer 2.6 is a tactical mapping and pre-incident planning software solution designed by Iron Compass for use by emergency responders. On-Scene Xplorer enables emergency responders to quickly find and navigate to dispatched locations and plan emergency response strategies before arriving on the scene.

Night-mode for the map display and software interface was added to On-Scene Xplorer 2.6 to reduce the light coming off the displays in the vehicles. Plus many enhancements and improvements have been made based on the feedback from the user community.

On-Scene Xplorer 2.6 beta program should wrap up before the end of October and will then be released to current users and included with new installations.

The Lancaster City Bureau of Fire, Lancaster, Pa and local business leaders have formed the Lancaster City Fire Foundation to raise funds to purchase On-Scene Xplorer fire mapping and preplan software for the Lancaster City Bureau of Fire. Read the Sunday News newspaper article by clicking here.

Would you ever just blow up your computer to see if it would still work? A journalist in the U.K. decided to blow up a Panasonic Toughbook to see if it would take the abuse. Well, it came through just fine.

Don’t believe us? Just watch the video by clicking here

Chester Heights Fire Company in Chester Heights, Delaware County, PA applied for and won a federal AFG (Assistance to Firefighters Grant) Grant for in-vehicle mapping and pre-planning systems. Chester Heights, the lead for the four departments that includes Bethel Fire Company, Concordville Fire Company, and Edgmont Fire Company will be implementing OSX on the fully rugged Panasonic Toughbook CF-30s.

Along with the installation of the Panasonic Toughbooks in the apparatus and the OSX software, Iron Compass will be providing pre-incident planning services for the four departments. Additional services include development of building footprints from air photography for six townships.

The implementation will also include GPS enabled Windows PocketPCs from Pharos loaded with On-Scene Capture software to facilitate fire hydrant collection in the field.

The four departments serve approximately 37,000 residents covering an area of more than 45 square miles.

Visit the Chester Heights Fire Company web site