VESTA 9-1-1, a call handling technology developed by Airbus DS Communications, was recently adopted by Martinsville-Henry County’s 911 Center. The Southern Virginia county, host of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race, is now better prepared than ever before.
Martinsville-Henry County is home to the Martinsville Speedway. The track hosts the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race every spring. Home to nearly 70,000 residents, the populations nearly doubles during race season. In the event of a 9-1-1 system overload, public safety officials can now guarantee service through system redundancy between the primary and back-up centers that are now linked with VESTA 9-1-1.
The county has been a customer of Airbus DS Communications for the past decade. The county’s public safety communication officials migrated to the new platform to integrate new IP-based technology and to ease the transition to text-to-9-1-1. There are a total of nine call taking positions, including seven located at the primarycenter and two are at the back-up center. Martinsville-Henry County receives close to 184,000 emergency calls a year.
“We are honored Martinsville-Henry County has selected Airbus DS Communications’ VESTA 9-1-1 solution,” said Bob Freinberg, CEO of Airbus DS Communications. “This installation demonstrates the flexibility of the VESTA 9-1-1 solution—it is equally effective in the nation’s largest PSAPs as it is in smaller PSAPs, particularly those with unique demands like Martinsville-Henry County, which experiences huge population influxes each year.”
Wireless Communications led the installation and programmed the switches to develop a true geodiverse network.
“During my 21 years here at Martinsville-Henry County, I’ve never experienced an installation as seamless as our VESTA 9-1-1 system upgrade,” said JR Powell, director of the Martinsville-Henry County 911 Center. “The Wireless Communications and Airbus DS Communications teams worked tirelessly to implement the new system. Our call takers now have the flexibility and efficiency needed to respond to 911 calls even more swiftly.”
In choosing VESTA 9-1-1, the county has saved a significant amount of money by repurposing existing hardware and refreshing the call system’s software licenses, avoiding an entire overhaul that would include the purchase of new software licenses.
“With the new geodiverse system, we now have the ability to easily adjust our staffing at the primary center as well as the backup center to handle the increase in emergency calls that occur during race weekends,” said Tierra Dillard, administrative communications supervisor for Martinsville-Henry County 911 Center. “Since implementation, the VESTA 9-1-1 system has operated flawlessly during every race weekend. Each call-taking position has been staffed accordingly and calls were easily transitioned between each location without any incidents.”
Martinsville-Henry County is prepared to launch VESTA SMS, Airbus DS Communications’ integrated text-to-9-1-1 solution within the next few months.
