The genesis for Sofcoast is that after spending over half a century of combined experience with the DoD, Special Operations Forces and Law Enforcement our team formed after collectively identifying real needs that existed that were not being addressed in the space of critical information delivery. I have received the lion's share of credit as the visionary and inventor for our business. I appreciate this, however without the rest of the Sofcoast founding team I would still be in my garage saying "can't you see?!". (Picture a bearded nomad, worn down, alone standing on a mountain top yelling at the sky...).
In the very early, pre-formation period for Sofcoast, Inc., and while I was operating my first consulting company (Sofcoast Group, LLC), the founders came together and agree'd that we could and should attempt to offer to solve what we observed to be very clear disconnects in how people think about tools and communications and human behavior. We essentially shared the same philosophy about people and tools with a relentless obsession for exceedingly satisfying our customer's when it comes to shattering self-imposed restrictions and limitations people seem have about what "is possible". Especially in rural communities.
So what "voids" is Sofcoast really filling?
Fundamentally, our company approach is based on a very simple philosophy. Identify the most constrained environments with the most pressing unmet Life Safety needs. Design, build and deliver targeted life safety systems to meet these needs. Over time expand and widen the people we can help to include those life safety needs that exist and occur in less constrained marketspaces delivering cost savings and efficiencies to more and more people in how they are protected and kept safe.
In a recent businessweek article titled "Innovation Trickles in a New Direction" several diagnostic tool manufacturer's describe an "emerging" different "trickle up" way of thinking.
"..that may be
ideally suited to dealing with the widening recession: creating
entry-level goods for emerging markets and then quickly and cheaply
repackaging them for sale in rich nations, where customers are
increasingly hungry for bargains. The term for this new approach is
trickle-up innovation. The process turns conventional product development on its head. Over
the years, multinationals have prospered by turning out premium-priced
products for the world's affluent. Rather than also designing products
for poorer people elsewhere, many businesses found they could simply
pass yesteryear's models down, as if they were unloading fleets of used
cars. Lately, big companies such as Microsoft (MSFT), Nokia (NOK), and Procter & Gamble (PG)
are discovering that they can profit by targeting the world's masses
first. And they can score again by selling these low-priced products
elsewhere.."
So, let's dig a little deeper and start with the "first need".
There's a recently published document by the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs, National Institute of Justice called "High-Priority Criminal Justice Technology Needs".
On page 14, the second bulleted paragraph states. "Safer, more cost-effective aerial surveillance solutions to identify, locate and track illicit activities and to locate missing persons, particularly for application with small and rural agencies. Solutions must consider regulatory requirements."
As discussed in my "Critical Decisions and "aha moments" post, we spoke with the NIJ (National Institute for Justice (NIJ), RULETC (Rural Law Enforcement Technology Center) and some other Law Enforcement professionals and what we heard from them was a real need for a lightweight tethered airborne platform could carry a variety of payloads in the 8-15 lb range to an altitude of 500 feet above ground level for a period of time. The
platform should be easily hand carried, maintained and deployed by two people in less than 30
minutes.
According to validated requirements by Public
Safety and infrastructure support organizations such as the NIJ, organizations in rural and urban communities need
a low-cost airborne platform that allows responders to claim the high ground
they need to rapidly complete life saving communication or surveillance tasks.
So, what are the existing challenges people have today for rural Life Safety?
Public Safety organizations and personnel in rural areas often feel forgotten, left out and underappreciated by regional, state and federal agencies. Most major equipment that is purchased or leased is refurbished or used. If they want modern communications systems and technologies, they have to pay for access to a regional, statewide or an adjoining urban area's communication system. While standards based communications should provide greater coverage and interoperability, they often fail because system administrators fail to grant access to shared interoperable talk groups and the systems were designed to provide coverage to geographic area's and regions with the highest population densities (as well as largest concentrations of political constituencies). Alternatives include paying fees to operate on a public utility's communications system, taking the community farther outside of normal public safety operating frequencies. Communications systems are difficult to pay for, making it necessary for communities to "get by" with their existing systems. Systems adminstrator's routinely check ebay other secondary markets to locate and acquire used radio equipment so they can provide for the maintenance spares to keep their systems operating.
While communications are a critical infrastructure item, the ability to provide surveillance and information gathering to first responders is also critical. Small airfields and the cost of operating fixed wing or rotary wing aircraft are well documented. Operating costs are usually high. Finding a platform capable of carrying the desired payloads is a time consuming and expensive process, as depicted in another program requirement identified by the NIJ, through RULETC (the Rural Law Enforcement Technology Center), called the Law Enforcement Aviation Technology Program.
So, what makes these systems so expensive?
Most aviation platforms and associated payloads were designed for the military market or commercial aviation market which require these platforms meet or exceed strict regulatory requirements and standards. Additionally, the technologies are often highly specialized, if not exotic. Payloads are developed to operate in the harshest combat environments and usually have a narrowly, albeit predefined set of criteria that restricts and limits their applicability for public safety.
Disaster response needs a highly flexible and mobile capability that will provide responders with the ability to accomplish a broad range of tasks, usually within hours of an incident. Expensive platforms designed for combat missions are usually very complex and require a large "footprint" for support and logistics as well as training and maintenance "backside" support, otherwise known as "the tail" in DoD circles.
The problem historically has been that even in the United States "trickle down"effects are felt in the domain of Life Safety. But why?
Government seeks to put money “where it will do the most good…” This means several things, but for rural communities, it means that grants and other government spending goes where the largest populations are. Who can forget the fuss over 9/11 spending when some states had higher per capita spending than more populated states? In short, rural areas are usually left to fend for themselves.
While rural areas could wait for outside support from FEMA and similar state agencies, (which we've seen as recently as the 2005 Hurricane Katrina has it's own consequences), most strive to prepare themselves to meet their own local needs. They work closely with vendors, local industry, and non-government organizations to meet local response and recovery needs. An affordable platform capable of performing a variety of missions is a tool rural communities need in order to meet the life safety needs of their citizens.
Below is a graphic depiction of existing potential Life Safety critical information platforms. This is a placeholder, John Monteith is working on putting together a graphic that will better depict the needs and gaps in the marketplace.
Figure 1. Existing system capabilities in the marketplace, with an eye on the future. (author unknown)
Ideal Solutions
Disaster Situations Rural Communities May Face
The following scenarios are based on common incidents, possible incident response,and incident recovery.
- Person Lost in Remote or Wilderness
Areas. Even the best communications infrastructure has limitations
when operating in the vicinity of canyons, valleys, or other terrain features.
Volunteers are called out and air platforms are requested to begin the search.
Working dogs are brought in to find and follow a scent trail. More agencies and
people arrive to help search, but the lack of communications coverage create
problems for incident commanders and responders as well. In some cases,
obtaining air assets to aid in the search takes time, increasing the search
area. Air search capabilities may also be limited by lack of communications
coverage and terrain.
- Tornadoes or Other High Wind Events. Tornado
warning sirens sound, emergency alert messages are transmitted via radio and
television, people take cover, and then the tornado rips through a field,
mobile home park, or small city with devastating results. Communication towers
are destroyed, power is cut off, and access is hindered by debris. Incident
commanders have difficulty requesting and coordinating the necessary assets
needed to assure live and safety.
- Large Earthquake Occurs Near a
Populated Area. Whether a rural community, small town,
or urban center, earthquakes create catastrophic situations. Infrastructure
(electric power, gas lines, water lines, sewage systems, telecommunications,
etc.) is damaged or destroyed. Access for local responders is limited by debris
in streets. Communications may be limited to line of sight radio systems and
shared channels. Access to the incident may be limited by the inability of
responders to coordinate with outside resources or blocked and damaged roads.
Participation of air assets with surveillance and information gathering
capabilities is limited because the noise they create may cause further
structural collapse, endangering responders.
- Floods or Tsunamis Destroy Property and Infrastructure. Communication towers that
have backup power fail because the generators were connected to gas pipelines
(turned off by the gas company) instead of tanks. Towers are built in flood
prone areas, causing loss of the transmitters, receivers, amplifiers, and other
equipment necessary to provide communications. Emergency operations centers are
destroyed or compromised, disabling the response and recovery tools people
planned on using. Roads and other infrastructure are destroyed, making access
to the devastated area time consuming and difficult. People are forced to
relocate, often to areas without communications infrastructure, making it
difficult for response agencies (government and non government) to provide
coordinated, efficient, and effective refugee support. Infrastructure (power
and communications) needed by local industry is destroyed, making it difficult
for prepared companies and facilities to restart the jobs that provide
devastated employees a variety of reasons to stay and participate in the
response and recovery.
- Ice Storms and Other Severe Weather
Conditions Disrupt Communications. The power goes out, communications are
severed, and service providers and emergency responders do not know the extent
or severity of the situation and cannot access the region to provide support.
Communities want to take care of their own, but emergency managers and leaders
are unable to coordinate an effective response due to the lack of critical
infrastructure.
- Wildfires Prompt Evacuations and
Disrupt Regional Communications. Emergency managers direct evacuees to
stadiums, fair grounds, schools, and other preplanned evacuation sights that
are hopefully out of harms way. In the process, facilities and capabilities are
overwhelmed. Medical, pharmaceutical, and veterinary care is often needed to
meet basic, but critical life safety needs. Telecommunication infrastructure
may be limited due to the increased demand or because infrastructure was
damaged or destroyed in the fire. People, trying to stay informed or trying to
find or notify relatives overwhelm infrastructure designed to support a
population with limited communication needs. Failures in the communications
system have the potential to negatively impact life safety of the refugees.
During recovery phases, temporary infrastructure may be needed to facilitate
communications, information gathering, surveillance, and coordination.
- Release of Chemical or Biological
Hazards. Whether accidental or intentional, natural or man made,
response to these hazards requires expensive equipment and complex computer
modeling to provide basic response information to emergency managers and
response personnel. Most small communities cannot afford this equipment, making
analysis and response difficult.
Infrastructure Enhancement, Development, and Deployment for Rural
Communities
Most
small communities do not have the budget to pay for multimillion-dollar public
safety infrastructure improvement projects. Assuming they had the funds for one
improvement, would it be a new communications system and towers or a manned
airborne platform that provides surveillance and information gathering
capabilities but provides limited communications support? Once the money is
obtained to purchase or lease these infrastructure improvements, where will the
funds to operate them come from? While some rural areas have a vibrant and
growing tax base, many do not.
A
tethered, easy to maintain and deploy, lighter than air platform capable of
carrying a variety of communications, surveillance, or information gathering
payloads will allow rural communities to fill infrastructure and capability gaps
without having to pay millions to obtain and maintain capabilities they may use
infrequently. Consider how an affordable air platform meeting these criteria
could be used in our various incident response scenarios.
- Person Lost in Remote or Wilderness
Areas. Even the best communications infrastructure has limitations
when operating in the vicinity of canyons, valleys, or other terrain features. As
incident command is established, the lack of communications is discovered. A
tethered air platform with a light weight communications gateway or repeater can
be raised to an altitude of 500 feet, providing responders from various
agencies the capability to communicate throughout the search area. Depending on
weight constraints, a camera and streaming video equipment could be an added or
alternative payload, allowing searchers to identify potential search areas. In
some cases, the platform could provide a link to the existing communications
system, allowing coordination of additional incident response assets.
- Tornadoes or Other High Wind Events. Tornado
warning sirens sound, emergency alert messages are transmitted via radio and
television, people take cover, and then the tornado rips through a field,
mobile home park, or small city with devastating results.
First
responders arrive and begin life saving activities. A tethered airborne
platform could be used to provide surveillance or information gathering
capabilities without causing damaged structures to collapse or making it
difficult to hear survivors calling for help. Depending on altitude and
visibility, the surveillance capabilities could improve the ability to discover
casualties and direct life saving efforts to the locations that need them. If
needed, the platform could provide communications repeater and gateway
services. During recovery phases, public works and insurance adjustors could
use information gathering capabilities and combine the data with graphic
information systems data to support their recovery efforts.
- Large Earthquake Occurs Near a
Populated Area. Whether a rural community, small town,
or urban center, earthquakes create catastrophic situations. Infrastructure
(electric power, gas lines, water lines, sewage systems, telecommunications,
etc.) is damaged or destroyed. Access for local responders is limited by debris
in streets.
As
first responders begin to establish incident, unified, or area commands, they
will know whether communications have been adversely affected. A tethered lighter
than air platform could be pulled out of SUVs, trucks, or other pre deployment
locations to fill any communications gaps. If communications infrastructure is
not the an issue, various surveillance payloads could be placed on the platform
and deployed to assist in identifying clear response routes, broken gas, water,
or sewage lines, and fires. All of this information can be used to help direct
the necessary actions. As response becomes recovery, lighter than air platforms
could be used to help provide essential communication clouds to refugee areas
and the various organizations that are helping them recover.
- Floods
or Tsunamis Destroy Property and Infrastructure.
Floods occur seasonally due to snow and ice melt. High levels of rainfall occur
as various weather systems move through a region or linger in areas that seldom
see large volumes of precipitation. In some parts of the country, high tides,
storm surges, or pump failures also contribute to flooding.
Prior
to disaster, a tethered air platform with a ranging system, GPS, and
communications link could easily be used to monitor water levels in areas not
accessible during inclement weather or extreme conditions. With an imaging
payload, damaged or breaking dikes, dams, or levees could be detected in near
real-time. After the disaster, the same platform could be used to gather
information about the damage and resulting situations that need to be addressed
or plug gaps caused by a compromised communications infrastructure. The lighter
than air platforms could be used to help provide essential communication clouds
to refugee areas and the various organizations that are helping them recover.
- Ice Storms and Other Severe Weather
Conditions Disrupt Communications. The power goes out, communications are
severed, and service providers and emergency responders do not know the extent
or severity of the situation and cannot access the region to provide support.
A
deployable, tethered airborne platform could easily fill gaps in existing or
damaged communications infrastructure.
- Wildfires Prompt Evacuations and
Disrupt Regional Communications. Emergency managers direct evacuees to
stadiums, fair grounds, schools, and other preplanned evacuation sights that
are hopefully out of harms way. In the process, facilities and capabilities are
overwhelmed. The lighter than air platforms could be used to help provide
essential communication clouds to refugee areas and the various organizations
that are helping them recover. During recovery phases, the surveillance and
information gathering capabilities could be used to monitor burnt areas for mudslides,
support infrastructure recovery, and fill communication gaps.
- Release of Chemical or Biological
Hazards. Whether accidental or intentional, natural or manmade, contamination
and leaks require quick and accurate response.
A
lighter than air platform with a payload capable of measuring the chemical or
biological hazard, or even radiation levels, could be used to provide low cost plum
monitoring. Depending on payload size, instruments to measure wind,
temperature, and so on, could be used to gather data to update various plume
models when such equipment is not deployed or available in the area.
The Ideal Platform
After
reviewing the above scenarios and considering other information, the ideal
solution is an affordable airborne platform that has low operating costs and
provides first responders the flexibility to use a variety of payloads designed
to meet their needs. This solution would be easily transported, lightweight,
require little maintenance, deploy rapidly with trained or untrained personnel,
and fly at altitudes high enough to meet communications, surveillance, and
information gathering needs.
The
affordable aerial platform can be deployed in 30 minutes or less, carry a 15-pound
payload at an altitude of 500 feet above ground level for a period of 24 hours,
and be configured to carry a variety of payloads. The following are possible payloads:
- Communications repeaters or gateways
- Cameras and other imaging devices
- Wi-Fi or WiMax access points
- Cellular amplifiers
- Various combinations, limited only by
weight and power constraints
The
Department of Justice and the Rural Law Enforcement Office identified the need
for a tethered lighter than air system after years of frustration of not being
able to deliver critical information to first responders in rural areas. The
need for communications during the first hour of emergency response is a matter
of life and death.
While
meeting the demand for an affordable lightweight platform capable for filling
communication gaps is impressive, additional cross-discipline opportunities
make it a tool every public safety agency and private industry should consider.
Here are some of the possible uses for a tethered lighter than air platform:
- Accident Investigation
- Aerial Surveillance
- Construction Site Monitoring
- First Responder Events
- Roof Inspections
- Traffic Management
- Aerial Photography
- Mobile Communications relay and repeating systems
- Crowd Control / Public Safety Monitoring
- Land Planning and Development
- Search and Rescue
Sofcoast
evolved to meet a need in the public safety and military communities, which
need access to affordable products for better information sharing and
collaboration. The company is built on management’s experience in Defense, Federal,
and Local Law Enforcement, giving the company first-hand insight into their
needs.
Our company approach is based on a very simple
philosophy. Identify the most constrained environments with the most
pressing unmet Life Safety needs. Design, build and deliver targeted
life safety systems to meet these needs. Over time expand and widen
the people we can help to include those life safety needs that exist
and occur in less constrained marketspaces delivering cost savings and
efficiencies to more and more people in how they are protected and kept
safe.
We think this is a noble endeavor and further believe it is a privilege to have the opportunity to continue our tradition and history of service to humanity.
Cheers,
John Surmont, founder & CEO
Sofcoast, Inc.
uma, Arizona. (Note the yellow jumpsuit and yellow helmet indicates student in training).
