Innovative Force wins TETRA award
The Force won the Most Innovative TETRA Service Award at the TETRA World Congress 2001 held in Nice, France last December for its innovative approach to develop the automatic vessel location (AVL) and messaging (MSG) system for the Marine Police.
Many of you may ask: "What is TETRA?" TETRA (TErrestrial Trunked RAdio) is an open digital trunked radio communication standard defined by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute in the 1990s.
TETRA World Congress, the world's largest TETRA conference and exhibition, is an annual meeting which attracts speakers, manufacturers and exhibitors to share their experience on the latest TETRA technological development and applications.
One of the highlights of the conference was the World Congress Awards in which the Hong Kong Police Force beated five other strong competitors including the police forces of Western Australia and the United Kingdom to win the Most Innovative TETRA Service Award.
Communications Branch (COMMS) Senior Telecom Engineer Jolly Wong Chun-kau, who was attending the Congress, received the Award on behalf of the Force at a dinner on December 12.
COMMS Senior Telecom Engineer Ronald Chan Hon-kwong, who is in-charge of the implementation of the Marine Police communications system project, told OffBeat that the most innovative part of our system, which was believed to be the most advanced AVL and MSG system in the world so far, was the application of IP (Internet Protocol), a tool for transmitting data, on the TETRA system.
Mr Chan explained: "TETRA system primarily handles voice transmission. However, we manage to make use of the TETRA wireless radio network to transmit IP data so that our system can handle both data and voice transmission.
"This new approach allows our system to provide continuous and accurate position updates of Marine Police launches. We can also send word documents and photographs via the radio network.
"The project, launched in late 1999, is rather complicated. The system is being tested and is expected to be operational soon."
Mr Chan said: "As for the award competition, I have spent nearly two months to compile the paper for submission to the Congress. My colleagues at COMMS and the Information Technology Branch (ITB) had also made a lot of input. I'm also grateful to Mr Peter Halliday (Assistant Commissioner Information Systems) for editing the paper.
"It was our first attempt to enter such a prestigious competition and it was really an unforgettable experience and rewarding as well."
Mr Halliday was proud of the achievement of his staff, saying: "I am extremely happy for the project team, comprising staff from COMMS and ITB, and I am also most grateful to the various Marine Police officers who supported us so unstintingly. Ronald, ITB Senior Information Technology Officer Janet Yiu and Marine Region Superintendent Operations Alasdair Watson have done a great job."
Innovative AVL and MSG system provides continuous and accurate position updates of launches