Morcom International, Inc. has assisted Arlington County in defining the standards that the county could use to ensure that new buildings comply with the RF coverage for Public Safety and First Responders inside the new buildings that are quickly populating the busy streets of the county. In the past Arlington used to specify the traditional "RF Booster" solution in order for buildings to comply with the Fire and Occupancy Code of the county. This solution consisted on a simple bi-directional repeater/amplifier which would take the RF public safety signal that exists outdoors and rebroadcasts it indoors using a network of small indoor antennas. This was an acceptable solution up until a few years ago but the architectural sophistication of today’s buildings coupled with the need for building owners and management companies to provide their tenants with high quality indoor coverage for mobile wireless devices (smart-phones, tablets, etc.) has resulted in the convergence of the need to be able to propagate both the public safety signal and the wireless carriers’ signals inside buildings. Thus the Distributed Antenna System (DAS) has become the most viable alternative to achieve this convergence. The Neutral-Host DAS capable of carrying both the Public Safety and the Cellular signals inside a venue can solve this dilemma.
Morcom engineers worked hand-in-hand with officials from the various government branches of Arlington County (fire officials, police, IT specialists, attorneys, etc.) to assist them in drafting a new code that would contemplate the minimum requirements that new building owners would have to comply with in order to bring their buildings up to speed in this 21st century environment. The result was one of the most advanced codes that exists in the country. Starting in 2013 all new construction buildings as well as schools, government buildings, and other public venues have to comply with the new technical specifications. In addition, the company has the capability of centrally monitoring the status of all Public Safety DAS installed in the county.
In January 2015 Arlington County invited Mr. Manuel A. Ojeda –president of Morcom – to a small ceremony of recognition of Morcom’s contribution in achieving the new standard. Mr. Jack Belcher (Arlington County’s CIO) awarded a commemorative plaque to Mr. Manuel A. Ojeda. Morcom International, Inc. is honored to have received a special recognition from Arlington County for the services provided in defining the new in-building coverage wireless standards.
