CSAA looks for experts to form new tech standards

VIENNA, Va.—CSAA is looking for subject matter experts on a variety of up and coming technologies to join its new Emerging Technologies Committee—a division of its Standards Committee—to help form new standards.

“We have all this new stuff that's coming into the central station world, and much of it the police, emergency responders, and fire departments really don't know anything about yet,” Morgan Hertel, chair of the Emerging Technologies Committee and Rapid Response Monitoring's VP of technology and innovation, told Security Systems News.

The committee is looking for individuals knowledgeable about GPS/mobile services including mPERS, active shooter systems, video technology, telehealth, home automation and mass notification systems. CSAA is seeking experts from PSAPs, fire and medical services, and law enforcement, as well as those in the monitoring industry.

“You can't have a committee made up of only one of the stakeholders, you have to bring in all the stakeholders. If you don't it's not much of a consensus project,” Hertel said. “The overall goal is to get everybody—all the stakeholders—involved in this thing, and really walk through and talk about all the different things that are occurring in the space and write reasonable standards to accommodate the new technologies,” he said.

The committee's first standard will likely be an update of an existing standard that addresses mobile devices, such as mPERS. “I think you'll probably see that come out before the end of the year,” Hertel said.

The committee's standards will apply to manufacturers. “At some point in time, we'll also write some equipment standards that would require various pieces of gear to meet minimum performance requirements, much the same way that fire alarms and burglar alarms � do today,” he said.

Hertel said that subcommittees will be formed to address each technology that CSAA is taking a look at. In all, 30 to 40 subject matter experts will join the project.

The Emerging Technologies Committee was formed at CSAA's long range planning meeting in January, but planning has been underway since August 2015.

Hertel's role as the chair of the new subcommittee has some parallels to his new position at Rapid Response, which he moved to in May. “My job is to be immersed in technology and everything that's about it, so this just falls right in line with everything else I'm doing,” he said.

Hertel chairs two other CSAA standards committees: video verification procedures and CO detectors.