Blueforce Announces Support for Tactical PTT Networks

Zello PTT Launches as First Tactical PTT Plugin for BlueforceTACTICAL and BlueforceCOMMAND

Land mobile radio (LMR) systems, featuring public safety-grade radios and infrastructure, have been the historical “go-to” technology for military and first responders for mission-critical voice and “push to talk” (PTT) communications. For decades, PTT in the military and first responder sectors was provided exclusively by agency-owned LMR systems. All of that is changing. Mature and highly available broadband networks combined with the advancement of interoperable quality of service (QoS) for voice over internet protocol (VoIP) is causing agencies to take a second look at the true cost and vendor lock-in challenges of LMR. Even more promising is the array of VoIP PTT systems that provide a means to interface with an agency’s public safety LMR system in order to exchange two-way traffic between the user’s smartphone or tablet device and the LMR system.

Agencies select Blueforce Development for a whole host of reasons. While our ability to enable immediate interoperable human, sensor, and services “swarms” (confederations of people and sensors can be created in seconds) is unparalleled in industry, our underlying sensor fusion and rapid adaptation plugin layer is emerging is a core value proposition. The Blueforce platform was built on three guiding principles:

• Enable the rapid formation, small unit swarming, and shared situational awareness amongst people, sensors, and information services (i.e., AI, ML, cognitive services) using any available network (i.e., MIMO/MANET, IP/LMR, WIFI/Mesh, 3G/4G/LTE/5G, satcom).
• Enable horizontal fusion amongst the swarm. That is, create shared understanding of what is happening across the swarm through rules, machine learning, hyper-local notifications, and collaboration services.
• Enable rapid adaptation. Blueforce is built on the premise of loosely coupled systems and a system of systems approach. As opposed to 18 month product release cycles, Blueforce provides a software plugin layer which allows support for new sensors and services to be built and released in as short as three (3) days.

Our software plugin framework is built on a rapidly extensible set of plugin “types”. While we have been shipping physiological, PPE, multi-gas, radiological, and other device plugin types for years, the last twelve months alone have seen new Blueforce plugin types emerge which have included cognitive services, rules, unattended ground sensors (UGS), autonomous, video streaming, and others. We are proud to announce the addition of the “PTT” device type and first commercial PTT plugin built and now delivered for Zello.

Zello provides a secure cell phone walkie talkie SDK for mobile devices, iPhone and Android, and/or PCs. The Zello plugins for BlueforceCOMMAND and BlueforceTACTICAL (Android) were created and fielded in less than four business days. The Blueforce plugins allow full access to the Zello capabilities without leaving BlueforceTACTICAL or BlueforceCOMMAND environment. As well, Zello provides several solutions to bridge Blueforce/Zello to your LMR environment. Blueforce will be announcing support for other PTT providers in the coming months.

For more information or to request a live demo, call us at 866-960-0204 or email us at info@blueforcedev.com.