Q&A with Dan Brooks – a Tait Project Manager based in Houston, Texas

Dan_brooksWhat’s your background?

“From 1974 through 1994 I was a Peace Officer with the Metro Police in Houston Texas. After two decades, I retired at the rank of Captain. Until 2008 when I joined Tait, my wife and I had a Two Way company – Bliss Communications. We were system integrators and I was responsible for deploying the different systems we sold and maintained:  In Building, Trunk (EDACS) Systems, Earth Link, Wireless Point to Point and Point to Multi Point, Internet. I’ve been with Tait three years.”

What is your current role at Tait?

“I’m a Project Manager for Tait North America Region, based in Houston. Project Managers are responsible for ensuring that all terms and conditions for a new radio system are met, and the deployment is completed on time and under budget. Once a customer contract is signed, a Project Manager is assigned to that customer’s project. Because of my background, I primarily work on Public Safety projects, although I’ve also worked on three Utility engagements. I have experience with P25, QS2, MPT and P25 Simulcast.”

What is the greatest thing about your work? 

“I enjoy the interaction with the customers because my background gives me an intimate understanding of the value of our product and services to what they do as a public service. I work hard to leverage my Law Enforcement experience to develop our approach to that market.”

What unique customer challenges do you see that Tait can resolve?

“Tait Design Services provide a lot of support to our projects. The customization team has developed some great industry-specific functionality for our customers. For an example, they developed a Steered Voting solution, which allows Public Safety dispatch systems with multiple sites operating on the same frequencies a means of selecting and directing transmission to the site with the strongest signal.”

What trends do you see in Public Safety radio?

“Finding funds to purchase new technology has always been a problem for Law Enforcement.  I’m glad to see the amount of grants being secured by agencies, to purchase these systems.  I’m also pleased to see that system managers are recognizing the value in having more features that help their officers in the field do their job more efficiently.”

What is Public Safety looking for?

“Interoperability is the buzz word in Law enforcement these days and some headway has been made but there’s still a lot of room for improvement.  To compete in the marketplace I think we have to place more development on P25 Trunk Systems with a focus on forward compatibility, to allow the system to grow along with the agencies’ needs.”

How do you see the market changing?

“Law Enforcement appreciates Tait as a serious player in the marketplace. Our equipment is as good as any in the industry and when everything else is equal it comes down to how you support it. What really sets us apart from the rest is how we handle our back of the house business.”

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