摩托罗拉解决方案公司今天发布了APX NEXT，这是该公司首个P25无线电，它还通过FirstNet LTE连接和虚拟助手技术实现了按键通话功能，用户可以通过语音命令管理无线电设置和进行数据库查询
. 摩托罗拉解决方案公司负责技术的高级副总裁保罗斯坦伯格表示，随着APX NEXT中所有与宽带相关的新功能，用户应该明白，该设备与P25无线电的APX线路具有相同的功能。他说，这是基于50多个公共安全机构开发APX NEXT时提供的设计
摩托罗拉解决方案公司今天发布了APX NEXT，这是该公司首个P25无线电，它还通过FirstNet LTE连接和虚拟助手技术实现了按键通话功能，用户可以通过语音命令管理无线电设置和进行数据库查询
摩托罗拉解决方案公司（motorolasolutions）负责技术的高级副总裁保罗?斯坦伯格（paulsteinberg）表示，随着APX NEXT中所有与宽带相关的新功能，用户应该明白，该设备与P25无线电的APX线路具有相同的功能。他说，这是基于50多个公共安全机构开发APX NEXT时提供的设计
斯坦伯格接受IWCE紧急通讯部的采访时说：“这是第一次广播。”。“[公共安全]反馈的开头是‘太好了，我们喜欢你做的一些事情，但要确保你不要改变它的核心功能，那就是它首先是一个收音机，它对我们的一切都有影响，因为我们依赖它。’我们把这一点放心上。”
除了该LMR基金会之外，APX的第一个版本还包括硬触摸屏、语音命令接口和LTE与AT＆AMT构建的FLASTNET连接，虽然斯坦伯格与未来其他无线运营商的连接是可能的。他说：“我们已经能够让LTE协议栈与P25无线电同时工作。“无线电可以安装两个网络上，并且可以同时两个网络上发射和接收。这一点非常重要，因为这为许多其他事情打开了大门。”
其中一项功能是SmartConnect，它允许APX NEXT根据特定时刻的可用覆盖范围，P25网络或LTE网络上提供P25按键通话语音
“[智能连接是]设备能够同时位于两个网络上，…监控两个网络的质量，自行动态决定使用哪一个网络进行关键任务推送通话。因此，如果由于某种原因，P25覆盖不足，而FirstNet覆盖，它将透明地FirstNet上切换和传输语音，而用户并不知道这一点。用户得到相同的特性集，而且对他们来说绝对透明
“当然，它更倾向于P25，因为一般来说，对于用户来说，这是更高质量、更高层次的覆盖解决方案。但是，如果用户碰巧全国不同的地区拥有收音机，他们实际上可以与自己的家庭无线网络通信，如果他们愿意的话……这就为您提供了非常可靠的语音路径，因为它提供了两个网络的功能。”
Steinberg指出，从APX NEXT传输的按键通话语音是LTE上的P25，而不是像Kodiak、WAVE或3GPP开发的备受期待的关键任务推送通话（MCPTT）标准那样的宽带推送通话解决方案
他说：“我们基本上是把P25通过LTE隧道传输回区域控制器。“它不是3G标准中的关键任务PTT
“LTE是LMR推送通话。我们所做的是，我们基本上已经将一条网络路径直接连接到区域控制器。这不是通过关键连接之类的。把它看作是区域控制器之外的另一个无线电接口。它刚好飞过AT T。”
斯坦伯格说，摩托罗拉解决方案公司将提供LTE连接，作为智能连接服务每月订阅的一部分
“订阅基本上都是摩托罗拉付费和管理的，所以用户根本不用处理订阅。“如果他们想单独订购智能手机、平板电脑或数据调制解调器，那当然是他们身上。但我们基本上已经将这一切都纳入了服务项目中，并将其放引擎盖下的服务中。”
拥有APX NEXT无线电的用户还可以从另一项新服务SmartLocate中获益
斯坦伯格说：“实际上，我们可以使用LTE管道同时向上或向下发送数据，而不会影响设备的语音功能。”。“一个名为SmartLocate的功能将以高度的保真度和频率从第一响应者的设备发送位置数据。它的带宽非常低，所以我们可以通过LTE管道发送它，独立于P25，所以它将一直存。这将整合到我们的指挥中心。”
第三个新特性是SmartProgramming，它旨简化与P25无线电相关的供应过程。斯坦伯格说：“再一次，APX-NEXT的LTE连接至关重要
“现，我们可以通过LTE后台管道将软件代码插头随意插入设备，而不会影响或损害无线电的其他功能。因此，如果我们想任何时间点升级设备，我们可以使用宽带将内容推送到设备中。如果我们需要修补设备，或者我们想设备上部署新功能，我们可以非常增量和高效地完成这项工作
“通过门户网站，用户可以按照他们希望的方式配置他们的无线电。当无线电发射时，他们打开它，它实际上拉入配置软件并激活。没有复杂的无线电管理器，没有复杂的物理连接来为每台收音机编程，也没有您想重新刷新时将收音机带回商店的复杂性，这一切都可以通过无线方式实现，就像您和我日常生活中所期望的那样（使用商用设备）。”
此外，APXnext无线电还包括ViQi Virtual Partner，这是摩托罗拉解决方案公司为公共安全用户开发的语音助手技术。ViQi（prounounced“Vicki”）支持语音命令来更改无线电功能，例如，调整APX NEXT上的音量设置，并对云中支持的数据库进行口头查询，以获取车牌数据等信息
摩托罗拉解决方案公司（MotorolaSolutions）负责记录和证据系统的副总裁阿拉姆?阿里（Alam Ali）表示，ViQi被设计成能理解公共安全行话，比如警察10号代码，预计使用起来会更好
ViQi“能够云端使用机器学习，从而使ViQi不断变得越来越聪明，”Ali接受IWCE紧急通信部采访时说。“最初，我们训练ViQi做最常见的事情，……比如车牌查找、驾照信息和车辆识别号
“这是ViQi马上就能知道的三种类型的查询。随着我们的不断发展，我们将用越来越多的能力来训练ViQi。”
当被问及ViQi是否能够查询非摩托罗拉解决方案数据库时，阿里说这是未来的可能性
阿里说：“我们正设计这样的系统，我们可以查询其他系统。”。“这将取决于另一个系统；该系统有什么样的api或接口？我们能否获得适当数量的数据来训练我们所拥有的自然语言模型
“这些都是将来可以做的事情。有了这个平台，我们将来可以与其他系统集成，但现还不知道这些集成将哪里。”
摩托罗拉解决方案公司负责公共安全设备的全球产品营销经理本?安塞尔（Ben Ansell）表示，ViQi专注于公共安全的设计体现虚拟助手对查询提供响应的方式上
“当（维琪）回来带着结果回来时，她不会只是脱口而出，以防你当时嫌犯面前。她会给你一个警告的语气，并说，'结果可用，'安塞尔说，一个采访IWCE的紧急通信。“那么，作为一名警官，你可以选择是回到车上，还是（听结果之前）走开
“实际编码‘结果发现’警报中是衡量严重性的一个指标。有一种语气是这样说的，“这个人一点问题都没有。”另一种语气是说，“我们发现了一些东西，但没什么大不了的。”或者，有一种热辣的语气说，“有逮捕此人的逮捕令。”警官可以没有听到完整结果的情况下采取行动，或者，他们可以知道离开这种情况，到一个私人的地方去是多么重要。所以，所有这些都是为了公共安全，从头开始。”
根据安塞尔的说法，APX下一步就是“智能无线电”
他说：“这里的模式转变就像从功能手机到智能手机，这是一种新的模式。”。“它你与它互动的方式上很聪明，你管理它的方式上很聪明，你可以它上面建立功能的方式上也很聪明。”
安塞尔说，APX NEXT无线电马上就可以使用了。没有具体的定价为APX下一个无线电提供，但安塞尔提供了一些有关P25无线电的成本
安塞尔说：“这将是我们APX产品组合中新的顶级收音机……它将位于（APX）8000型号收音机之上。”。“所以，我们有全波段功能收音机，我们有全波段智能收音机，它只是下一层。”
安塞尔称，除了购买APX NEXT收音机，用户还需要每月付费才能访问与该设备相关的一些关键功能
“智能连接、智能定位和ViQi这些都是服务功能，因为它们是基于云的，而且需要我们管理的LTE订阅，所以这是一个持续的成本，”Ansell说。“这是我们每月为客户提供服务的功能
“我们希望转向这种模式，这种模式下，客户有更大的灵活性，他们可以需要时关闭和打开设备，并且可以 times. We think as-a-service [offerings] serve our customer base better.”
Motorola Solutions today unveiled APX NEXT, the company’s first P25 radio that also enables push-to-talk functionality via FirstNet LTE connectivity and virtual-assistant technology that allows users to manage radio setting and make database queries with voice commands.
With all of the new broadband-dependent features in APX NEXT, users should understand that the device has the same functionality as the APX line of P25 radios, according to Paul Steinberg, Motorola Solutions’ senior vice president of technology. That is by design, based on input from more than 50 public-safety agencies as the APX NEXT was being developed, he said.
“It’s a radio first,” Steinberg said during an interview with . “The [public-safety] feedback started with, ‘Great, we love some of the things that you’re doing, but make sure you don’t change its core functionality, which is that it’s a radio first and it has to everything as well as it always has done for us, because we rely on it.’ We took that to heart.”
In addition to that LMR foundation, the first version of the APX NEXT includes a hardened touchscreen, voice-command interfaces and LTE connectivity with FirstNet built by AT T, although connectivity with other wireless carriers is possible in the future, according to Steinberg.
“We’ve been able to allow that LTE stack to operate concurrently with the P25 radio,” he said. “The radio can be sitting on both networks and can be transmitting and receiving on both networks concurrently. That’s super important, because that opens the door to a lot of other things.”
One of those capabilities is SmartConnect, which allows the APX NEXT to deliver P25 push-to-talk voice over the P25 network or an LTE network, based on the available coverage at a particular moment.
“[Smart Connect is] the ability for the device to sit on both networks, … monitor the quality of both networks, make a dynamic decision on its own which network to use to actually communicate for mission-critical push to talk. So, if for some reason we’re in a P25 coverage dearth and there’s FirstNet coverage, it will transparently switch and tunnel the voice over FirstNet, and the user doesn’t know that. The user gets the same feature set, and it’s absolutely transparent to them.
“It will, of course, prefer P25, because, in general, that’s the higher quality, higher-tier coverage solution for a user. But, if the user happens to have the radio in a different part of the country, they can actually communicate with their home radio network, if they choose to … That gives you a very reliable voice path, because it gives you the power of two networks.”
Steinberg noted that the push-to-talk voice transmitted from the APX NEXT is P25 over LTE, not broadband push-to-talk solutions like Kodiak, WAVE or the much-anticipated mission-critical-push-to-talk (MCPTT) standard developed by 3GPP.
“We’re essentially tunneling P25 over LTE back to the zone controller,” he said. “It’s not mission-critical PTT in the 3G standards.
“It is LMR push to talk over LTE. What we’ve done is that we’ve basically brokered a network path straight into the zone controller. This doesn’t go through Critical Connect or anything like that. Think of this as just another radio interface off of the zone controller. It just happens to fly through AT T.”
Motorola Solutions will provide the LTE connectivity as part of a monthly subscription for the Smart Connect service, Steinberg said.
“The subscription is basically paid for and managed by Motorola, so the user doesn’t have to deal with the subscription at all,” he said. “If there is a separate subscription that they want for a smartphone, a tablet or a data modem, that—of course—would be on them. But we’ve basically taken that whole thing and placed it into the service offerings underneath the hood.”
Users with an APX NEXT radio also will be able to benefit from another new service, SmartLocate.
“We can actually use the LTE pipe to send data concurrently—up or down—without impeding upon the voice function of the device,” Steinberg said. “A feature called SmartLocate will send up location data from the first responder’s device with a high degree of fidelity and frequency. It’s very low bandwidth, so we can send it over the LTE pipe, independent of P25, so that will always be there. And that will integrate into our command center.”
A third new feature is SmartProgramming, which is designed to simplify the provisioning process associated with P25 radios. Once again, the LTE connectivity in the APX NEXT is critical, Steinberg said.
“Now, we can push software code plugs into the device—pretty much at will—over the LTE background pipe, without the rest of the radio’s functionality being affected or compromised. So, if we want to upgrade the device at any point in time, we can push the content into the device using the broadband. If we need to patch the device or we want to deploy new features on the device, we can do that very incrementally and efficiently.
“With the portal, users can configure their radio exactly the way they want it to be configured. When the radio’s delivered, they turn it on, it actually pulls in the configuration software and activates. There’s no complex radio manager, no complex physical connections to program each radio, no complexities of bringing the radio back to the shop when you want to reflash it—that’s all doable over the air, just like you and I expect in our daily lives [with commercial devices].”
In addition, the APX NEXT radio includes the ViQi Virtual Partner, a voice-assistant technology developed by Motorola Solutions for public-safety users. ViQi (prounounced “Vicki”) supports voice commands to make changes in radio functions—for instance, adjusting the volume setting on the APX NEXT—and to make verbal queries to supported databases in the cloud to get information like license-plate data.
Alam Ali, Motorola Solutions’ vice president for records and evidence systems, said that ViQi has been designed to understand public-safety jargon—for instance, police 10 codes—and is expected to get better with usage.
ViQi is “able to use machine learning in the cloud, so that ViQi continually gets smarter and smarter,” Ali said during an interview with . “Initially, we’ve trained ViQi to do the most common things, … for things like license-plate lookup, driver’s license information and vehicle identification numbers.
“These are the three types of queries that ViQi will know right off the bat. As we keep going, we’ll train ViQi with more and more capabilities over time.”
When asked whether ViQi would be able to query non-Motorola Solutions databases, Ali said that is a future possibility.
“We’re designing it such that we can query other systems,” Ali said. “It will depend on that other system; what kind of APIs or interfaces does that system have? Can we get the right amount of data to be able to train the natural-language model that we have.
“Those are things that could be done in the future. With this platform, we can integrate with other systems in the future, but it’s unknown right now where those integrations will be.”
Ben Ansell, Motorola Solutions’ global product marketing manager for public-safety devices, said that ViQi’s public-safety-focused design is reflected in the way the virtual assistant provide responses to queries.
“When [ViQi] comes back with results, she doesn’t just blurt them out, in case you’re in front of the suspect at the time. She’ll give you a warning tone and say, ‘Results available,’” Ansell said during an interview with IWCE’s Urgent Communications. “Then it’s your choice, as an officer, whether you want to go back to the car or step away [before listening to the results].
“Actually encoded in the ‘results found’ alert is a measure of the severity. There’s a certain tone that say, ‘There’s no problem with this person at all.’ There’s a different tone that say, ‘We’ve found something, but it’s no big deal.’ Or, there’s a hot-hit tone that says, ‘There’s a warrant out for this person’s arrest.’ The officer can act on that without hearing the complete results, or they can know how important it is to step away from the situation and go somewhere private. So, all of this is built for public safety, from the ground up.”
The APX NEXT as a “smart radio,” according to Ansell.
“The paradigm shift here is almost like from feature phones to smartphones—this is the new paradigm,” he said. “It’s smart in the way that you interact with it, it’s smart in the way that you manage it, and it’s smart in the way that you can build features on it.”
APX NEXT radios are available immediately, Ansell said. No specific pricing for the APX NEXT radio was provided, but Ansell provided some context about the P25 radio’s cost.
“This is going to be the new top radio of our APX portfolio … this will sit just above the [APX] 8000 model radio,” Ansell said. “So, we’ve got the all-band feature radio, and the we’ve got the all-band smart radio—it’s just the next tier up.”
In addition to purchasing the APX NEXT radio, users will need to pay monthly fees to access some of the key features associated with the device, according to Ansell.
“Smart Connect, Smart Locate and ViQi—those are all as-a-service features, because they’re cloud-based and because they require an LTE subscription that we’re managing, so that’s an ongoing cost,” Ansell said. “In order to help our customers manage that, we’re delivering that as a monthly charge feature.
“We want to move to that model, where customers have more flexibility—they can turn things off and on, when they need them, and they can deploy them to different radios at times. We think as-a-service [offerings] serve our customer base better.” |
