Cooper is connector at Inauguration Cooper Notifications' RSAN system works swimmingly despite cell-phone frenzy
By Martha Entwistle
Updated Sun March 1, 2009
WASHINGTON--On Jan. 20, when close to two million people converged on the National Mall for the inauguration of Barack Obama, “it was, to my knowledge, the largest concentration of people, text messaging and cell-phone usage in U.S. history,” said Ned Ingraham, vice president homeland security services for Cooper Notification. And it was an emergency text-messaging system called AlertDC, provided by Cooper Notification, that kept the massive security operation and the general public connected during the event.
Cooper's Roam Secure Alert Network (RSAN) system connects the DC Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency (HSEMA) with its counterparts in surrounding counties and cities, as well as with the 58 different government and law enforcement agencies involved in security for the inaugural events. It is a two-way system, so the government groups can respond to the alerts. The general public was also able to sign up to receive texts on the system. In addition to texts about emergencies, RSAN also dispenses non-emergency information - about traffic delays, for example.
More than one million alert messages were sent to the public in DC alone, and “internally, 200 different alerts were sent by DC HSEMA to law enforcement personnel. In total something like 50,000 individual messages were sent [to law enforcement personnel].”
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