In the technology world, bigger is far from better. If given the chance to carry a cellular telephone developed in the early 1980s or one available today, the choice would be easy.
If your company or agency is using a Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) communications console, or any proprietary central processing components, you can probably appreciate this example. While many of your peers have already migrated to an Internet Protocol (IP) solution and are reaping the benefits, you may be trying to determine how to physically accommodate the next system hardware expansion.
TDM technology was conceived as a first-generation replacement for the point-to-point telegraph standards of the late 1800s. During the next 140 years, the explosive growth of communications technologies necessitated a new, more open-standards approach.
Today, IP-based consoles allow dispatch centers to use commercial, off-the-shelf hardware; facilitate the use of a wide variety of radios, broadband Push to Talk services, IP cameras and shared video; and leverage the benefits of the newest communications tools in a cost-effective and future-proof manner.