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National Interop, Inc. unveiled its Mobile Command/Communications Vehicle (MCCV) at the Northwest Fire and Rescue Expo that took place in Oregon, May 18-19.

In the event of a major emergency or search and rescue operation, this MCCV contains interoperable technology that can provide critical communications capabilities for emergency personnel and search and rescue teams. In addition, the vehicle is able to serve as a temporary replacement for a 911 center for the purposes of dispatching radio calls on multiple frequencies simultaneously. The Tillamook County Sheriff's Office and Tillamook 911 purchased an MCCV with funds obtained through federal and county grants.

The Tillamook MCCV was designed to use Radio Over IP (ROIP), a technology that is fast becoming the standard for state-of-the-art interoperability. It is also one of the first mobile ROIP systems deployed for a public safety agency in the U.S., and will provide backup to a 9-1-1 center as well as provide incident dispatchers a familiar radio console at an incident scene.

The MCCV has the capability to be operational within 10 minutes of arriving on-scene and does not require that land-based infrastructure be operational. This reflects the reality that at the start of a deployment there is limited personnel to operate the vehicle, yet the first hour of the incident is demanding. The trailer's design also lends itself to organizing rescue teams with a room partitioned off to allow a team to talk about the operation without distracting dispatch. The vehicle can also cooperate with other mobile command vehicles, which is common at most larger incidents.

Designed with an unusually large battery bank, all systems in the MCCV can operate for at least an hour without a generator or shore power. This new vehicle can also operate either automatically and/or intuitively, without requiring in-depth and unique training. Also, its environment is one that is familiar to incident dispatchers.