A brief on the G8 & G20 Summits

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) provides federal policing services, contributing to efforts to ensure safe homes and safe communities throughout Canada, including the Province of Ontario. Ontario’s “O” Division employs 1,537 members and employees committed to the enforcement of federal statutes, providing investigational assistance and security to other departments of the Federal Government and law enforcement agencies. Formed in 1920, the RCMP is the national police force of Canada, unique for its service as a national, federal, provincial and municipal policing body. In addition, the RCMP is responsible for the protection of VIPs, including the Prime Minister and foreign dignitaries.

In June of 2010, Canada hosted two such groups of dignitaries: the Group of Eight (or G8), held in Huntsville and the G20 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. To protect the high profile leaders and attendees of these summits in the face of potential protests, the RCMP understood that state-of-the-art digital radio communications would be a critical necessity and selected the EADS CORP25 system.

A two phase rollout was planned, with the first phase being accomplished in under seven months. Phase 1 created the CORP25 radio communication network in time to protect the G8/G20 Summits, securing a 360 kilometer corridor in Ontario and in the city of Toronto. The second, larger, phase will extend the network to cover the entire province, replacing the existing Central Region Operation Communication System and providing secure communications for the area.

During the G8 and G20 Summits, more than 2,500 terminals were used with security operations processed more than 58,000 radio transmissions per day. Total transmissions exceeded 264,000 before, during and after the events. This deployment for the G8 and G20 summits was another example of the way in which the open, standards-compliant nature of CORP25 enables Public Safety Agencies, like the RCMP, to select components from multiple vendors to create a network tailored to the specific needs of the agency at the lowest cost of ownership as well as extending the life of the network.

To provide the most current equipment available, EADS worked with Zetron and EXACOM. EXACOM supplied its Hindsight- G2 Multi-Media P25 Logging Recorder System. This recording system incorporates the latest in public safety recording initiatives with integrations to address both Next-Generation 9-1-1 (NG9-1-1) technology and P25 IP radio systems.

Zetron provided their Advanced Communication (Acom) dispatch console system -- a fully digital switching and multiplexing system that represents the state of the art in dispatch console technology for mission-critical applications. The Acom system for this project includes functionality that was optimized specifically for this application.

“EADS is proud to have been a part of this historic event. Not only did we meet the stringent timetable necessitated by the summits, the system performed above expectations,” said Chuck Sackley, VP and GM for Land Mobile Radio Solutions. “Our system met every deadline, passed the interoperable tests and gained system acceptance in record time.”