Picture Messaging Solution

Sepura has launched a new upgraded version of its IMAGE application, which allows users to transfer pictures from a control room to the mobile devices of field personnel.

The application, launched this week at the Critical Communications Middle East event in Dubai, can send images to a wide variety of devices including, notably and uniquely, TETRA radios, widely used by mission-critical organisations globally.

Jonathan Hamill, Sepura’s vice-president for applications, commented, "IMAGE 3.0 provides a major boost to public safety and other organisations that have the need to push key visual and associated textual information to field personnel, providing them with a clear and concise set of information on which to act. Mission-critical organisations that rely on narrow-band bearers such as TETRA for voice and data communications benefit as the server optimises band-width usage, and compresses the data in an appropriate manner for the network and devices of users in the field.

"IMAGE 3.0’s many uses include, delivering a photo of a missing person to police officers; sending still pictures from CCTV or video surveillance footage to security forces to apprehend suspects; dispatching a picture of suspected drugs smugglers to customs authorities; or disseminating a building floorplan or hazardous material information to fire and rescue personnel."

The application is scalable for use in any sized network, and can be accessed simultaneously by multiple client applications and multiple users in different geographic locations, therefore supporting either multi-agency or organisation use. It can be used from a client application provided by Sepura, or integrated into existing command and control systems via an API.

Sepura’s head of technology and innovation Peter Hudson said: "IMAGE 3.0’s new modern interface is intuitive to use and includes drag-and-drop functionality, reducing training time and, crucially, increasing the speed at which an operator can react in an emergency situation. The application also supports a wide range of languages via a custom import process, which can be easily managed by the user.

Jonathan Hamill concluded: "IMAGE 3.0 is an application with many unique features designed to increase the efficiency of organisations where fast, clear and accurate information transfer is vital for their mission and business critical communications."