Ventura County Partners again with ISS to Introduce Portable Radio Station

Spring 2011

Ventura's New Voice
Radio + Digital Sign = Powerful New Communication Tool

Early in 2008, Ventura County Health's emergency preparedness specialist Steve Johnston approached Information Station Specialists (ISS) with a set of needs that ultimately led to the birth of a new means of reaching the public with health and safety information during a crisis. The RadioSTAT Portable Emergency Advisory Radio Station was designed through this public/private collaboration to be used in conjunction with portable road signs that instruct motorists to tune to a special AM radio frequency for critical information at PODs, incidents, disasters, evacuations and events. Later that year, ISS assisted Mr. Johnston in debuting this new capability at 'Operation Sunrise,' a special training event the County hosts for volunteer Citizen Emergency Response Teams (CERTs), first responders and other emergency professionals to help hone their skills.

Skip ahead to 2011 and the just-completed 'Operation Medical Shelter' event. ISS and County health/safety officials again teamed up to debut an innovative technology: this time VoiceStar - a communication solution that includes the visual component as well as the aural.

VoiceStar Portable Advisory Radio Systems, manufactured by ISS partner American Signal Company, are composed of towable, all-weather trailers with information radio stations onboard. The versions displayed at the event included 6-by-11-foot changeable message signs to alert incoming traffic to the special radio signal. (Both the radio messages and sign text may be programmed remotely as well as in the field at the units themselves.) See more on VoiceStar here.

Two VoiceStar systems were utilized during 'Operation Medical Shelter' – one on the approach road and one positioned near parking areas. Broadcast messages informed participants about directions, parking, hours of operation and schedule of events during the exercise. In an actual emergency, FCC rules give government officials wide latitude in how they may use information broadcast stations to protect the public. The Ventura County Sheriff's Office recently procured the two VoiceStar units, which were in operation during the event.

Johnston describes the stations' purpose this way, "The RadioSTAT (and now VoiceStar) Portable Emergency Advisory Radio Stations are constantly being utilized by a variety of county agencies for a variety of missions. While its utility in disaster response is self-evident, it provides a valuable component to exercises, vaccine clinics and whenever we need to communicate information to a continuous stream of community members. Our Auxiliary Communications Volunteers have created a process to create messaging and respond whenever the equipment is activated."

VoiceStar systems are in use nationally, obtained recently by Pierce, King & Snohomish Counties (WA), Washoe County (NV), the Veterans Administration, the US Army Corps of Engineers and various State Departments of Transportation.