ADCOMM Engineering Company

ADCOMM Services

• Design
  Successful implementation projects start with design that provides a firm foundation. ADCOMM's staff of engineers have years of experience designing systems for a wide variety of clients ranging from the smallest rural counties to large urban counties. Our design approach is based on our hands-on experience resulting in systems and equipment that not only meet our client's needs but also can be maintained. Our experience covers many different types of communications systems, brands of equipment, and technologies. Our design skills include new dispatch centers, radio systems, telephone systems, microwave systems, radio sites, and system interfaces and interconnections.
• Analysis
  ADCOMM staff includes engineers with experience and capability to perform theoretical analyses as well as analyze problems and systems based on the years of hands-on experience our staff has. Our experience comes from a variety of fields providing us with a variety of analytical skills we can apply to any project or problem.
• Technical System Integration
  ADCOMM's technical staff have experience ranging from actual system operations to circuit design. ADCOMM uses this experience to provide our clients with the ability to design systems from a variety of different vendors. This often includes interfacing new to legacy equipment, developing systems that use "best of breed" equipment instead of using all the equipment from one manufacturer, or allowing a lower cost solution by choosing more cost-effective equipment from different manufacturers and putting it all together. We often work with out client's own technical staff to design and implement complex systems.
• Studies
  ADCOMM's goal is to perform studies that do not just sit on the shelf but are implemented and make our client's lives easier. We tailor studies to our clients rather than to what we have done in the past. Our clients range in size from the very small to the large urban areas. Each of these has a unique set of challenges and constraints when working to improve their communications infrastructure. ADCOMM provides studies that match our clients and provide them with meaningful, cost-effective, and real solutions.
• Engineering
  ADCOMM has invested not only in the best technical staff available but also in ongoing education so our engineers are capable of providing world-class designs and analysis. This includes not only technical training but also exposure to operations so they can truly help our clients "Bridge the Gap Between Operations and Technology."
• FCC Licensing
  ADCOMM's extensive FCC licensing experience includes the successful licensing of public safety and commercial land-mobile radio systems, including VHF, UHF, and 800 MHz conventional and trunked systems, as well as paging, data, and point-to-point microwave systems. Our expertise includes licensing new systems, modifications to existing systems, Special Temporary Authorizations (STA), frequency coordination, international coordination with Canada, developing engineering studies, requesting waivers, filing renewals, and other related tasks.
• Narrowbanding
  January 1, 2013, is the FCC mandated deadline to convert your system to narrowband operation. However, no new wideband systems can be implemented nor can existing systems be modified after January 1, 2011. ADCOMM can help you through the process of narrowband conversion from coverage assessment to site design to project management so your conversion will be done correctly, on time, and on budget. ADCOMM has put together a Narrowbanding Resource Center for more information.
• Simulcast System Engineering
  ADCOMM staff have been doing simulcast system engineering since the early 1970s. Mr. Blaschka is a nationally recognized simulcast engineer with experience with many of the different brands of simulcast equipment and technologies. The ADCOMM team has extensive experience with simulcast system integration, troubleshooting, optimization, design, and implementation.
• Staffing Analysis
  Your agency probably spends more on personnel than any other portion of the budget, so it makes sense to be as efficient and effective with their valuable time as possible. We can help. ADCOMM provides workload and staffing analysis highlighting performance goals, staff mix, schedule, and policy impacts. We employ a binomial factoring method that examines actual on-task time, your agency's policies, your staffing authorization and practice, and other elements to optimize employee time and effort. ADCOMM brings real-world experience, proprietary methodology, and our own research to help you understand and improve scheduling, staffing, policy, recruitment, and retention. ADCOMM participated in developing the APCO RETAINS program, and our experts have been implementing and teaching the fundamentals of good staffing practices in public safety for more than 10 years.
• Project Management
  ADCOMM offers professional project management services, working closely with our customers to plan and execute technical, operational, and construction projects on time and on budget. Tailoring proven ANSI-standard methodologies to each project, ADCOMM's public safety communications experience combines with certified Project Management Professional (copyright, Project Management Institute, www.pmi.org) staff to ensure our customers' success. ADCOMM offers complete project management services for all direct engagements as well as project auditing, project initiation and planning, quality management, status assessment, risk assessment and management, and communications planning and execution as standalone services.
• Vendor Management
  ADCOMM often acts as an extension of our clients' staff, serving as the technical experts and advocates. Managing and coordinating vendors performing work on your systems is often a difficult task for your technical and management staff, who may not have the time or specialized knowledge required to make sure the work is performed correctly. ADCOMM can help. Our project-based and system management services can improve your systems' reliability, increase the effectiveness of vendors, and ensure you have technical experts on your side.
• Site Install Guidance
  ADCOMM Engineering is not a "sit in the office" engineering company. Our staff have extensive experience being on site verifying the installation work and conformance to specification. In addition, our engineering staff have "hands-on" experience actually performing similar work so they know what goes on in the field. We have a great reputation with contractors that know we are strict but also fair and can work with them to provide the best outcomes for our clients.
• Propagation Analysis
  ADCOMM uses state-of-the-art computer analysis to predict radio coverage as well as microwave path engineering. All computer-aided prediction results must be calibrated against real-world experience. ADCOMM staff has decades of in-the-field experience working with a variety of coverage prediction tools. This experience allows realistic designs to be developed that work in the field as expected.
• Dispatch Center

  ADCOMM Engineering has extensive experience in the design of, implementation of, and transition to a new dispatch center. There is no other firm in the Pacific Northwest with the experience, local resources, or the reputation of ADCOMM. Since its inception in 1979, ADCOMM has been involved in over 40 dispatch center projects. These range from a small center in a rural police department to large new centers in metropolitan areas. ADCOMM has a proven and extensive track record of working with a variety of different architects and their subconsultants. In many cases, ADCOMM worked with a client on a remodel of an older center and then again when the same client implemented a new dispatch center.

  ADCOMM's involvement includes not only working with the architect on building issues but bringing all of the technology involved in the building together including new consoles, microwave, data network, 9‑1‑1 telephone equipment, and many other systems.

  ADCOMM Engineering is a systems engineering company with an orientation to detail. We take a "hands-on" role where we provide installation and integration assistance. We are not just stand-off project managers. We know how to get our hands dirty in the details of the project.

• Consolidation
  ADCOMM has performed many dispatch center consolidation studies and has assisted agencies with the resulting consolidation. We are concerned not only with the technical aspects of consolidation but also the "What about me?" aspects of personnel and the first responders who may feel left out of the process. While consolidation generally results in benefits for both sides, some consolidation opportunities are not feasible for a variety of reasons. ADCOMM's job is to provide an independent third party review, considering all aspects of the proposed consolidation.
• System Operations and Management
  You are a professional leader and manager who relies on often obscure and confusing technology to accomplish your organization's mission. You are an expert at getting things done, not knowing how radio frequency propagation works or what the proper operating conditions for a reference oscillator are. You rely on radio technicians for radio problems, HVAC technicians for HVAC problems, microwave technicians for microwave problems ... but you are keenly aware that no one is looking out for your critical systems as a whole. Nobody is coordinating repairs and preventive maintenance, checking that technician work is correct, evaluating overall systems performance, or tracking recurring problems that — if someone were monitoring them — would point to an imminent major crash.

  What you need are qualified experts to be your technology advisor, someone to watch your back on vital technical systems like radio, 9-1-1 telephone, HVAC, backup power, towers, antennas, interference, and FCC licensing. You need a technical systems manager to keep your organization on the air and operational. ADCOMM Engineering Company offers systems operations and management services to fill this need. We will tailor our system management relationship to meet your individual needs; typical agreements cover:

  • System-wide perspective and understanding
  • Your technical representative with service providers: we are your staff technical expert
  • Supervise and coordinate repairs and responses between multiple vendors
  • System troubleshooting and analysis
  • System evaluation for radio, transport, telephone, and other technical systems
  • Service contract negotiation support
  • System expansion and planning services
  • Refresh/replacement life cycle scheduling
  • Need justification and estimating
  • Board/council presentations and reports
  • Equipment inventory and condition survey at all sites
  • Preventive maintenance scheduling and verification
  • Regular system exercise and check outs (generator tests, HVAC monitoring, etc.)
  • Regular reports to management on equipment status and incidents

  
  Systems management agreements can be annual or multiple years and most customers find these services to be more cost effective than hiring additional staff to perform these tasks.
• Management Services
  The best technology in the world is only as good as the people using it, and ADCOMM understands that every organization can be better. To help you achieve your organization's goals, ADCOMM offers management consulting services specifically for public safety communications agencies in the areas of organizational change, administration, and operations.
  
  Organizational change services include:

  • Governance issues
  • Funding responsibility
  • Project and program management

  Administration services include:

  • Personnel process review
  • Assessment centers
  • Retention and training program reviews

  Operations services include:

  • Consolidation/co-location feasibility studies and implementation
  • Workload and workflow evaluation, including impact and feasibility of adding or losing contributing agencies
  • Staffing, scheduling, and overtime issues
  • Physical and information systems security reviews