Call for help: for first responders, high-tech communications still out of reach.

Another S&T directorate pilot program being developed by Reality Mobile of Herndon, Va., can send real-time video between handheld phones, They allow multiple users--for example undercover officers keeping a suspect under surveillance--to link images so they can see what is on each other's screens, The videos can also be sent back to a headquarters or command and control vehicles. Researchers have initially targeted the program for air marshals who may want to covertly track a suspect through an airport.

These are rudimentary videos--basically a series of digital images taken at three to four frames per second intervals. "You're not going to win any Academy Awards for the film coming out of this," noted Brian Geoghegan, chief product officer at Reality Mobile.

When and if these new devices proliferate through the first responder communities, the data will need to move through the airwaves.

Deaton said WiFi and WiMax provide faster data rates and can tie directly into the Internet. However with WiFi, there are "significant security concerns," he said. It also has limited range and mobility. WiMax has a longer range, provides better security and allows for seamless transitions if first responders are moving from one communication tower's coverage area to another. WiMax is not as developed, though, and there are few networks currently available, he noted.

The Federal Communications Commission will also open up to public safety agencies segments of the 700-megahertz frequency band, which will become vacant when television stations stop broadcasting analog signals in February 2009.

"Who's going to be that service provider" to the first responder community? Deaton asked. There are companies selling networking equipment and companies selling airtime, but no one selling both on a nationwide basis.

"We may see somebody coming out with a mobile virtual network that may offer that entire package who will sign a contract with a cellular operator to provide these kinds of services to first responders," he said. It could be a nonprofit or an organization spun out of the federal government, he added.

Meanwhile, as the new world of first responder communications approaches, officials said they don't want to be sold a bill of goods on new devices that don't work as advertised.

"We do not want to rely on manufacturers' sales pitches for our equipment," said Chief Robert Ingram, branch chief for weapons of mass destruction at the New York City Fire Department and chairman of the InterAgency Board for Equipment Standardization. New communications technology needs to be field tested by third parties, he added.

Klein-Bernrdt agreed. "We want to see how this works in the field. A lot of this stuff works great in the lab but when you start kicking tires, you find some of these claims don't live up," he said.

The office has released two reports to give communities guidelines and case studies on how to improve interoperable communications. The reports have concluded that all these fancy new devices won't be successful if the first responders using them don't know how to operate them.

Leadership that can affect change, and who has control of the purse strings, must be in place to push reform through to those resistant to new technology. And training is key. A police officer should spend as much time training on communication gear as he does on the shooting range, he said.

"If it's not a solution you're using day to day, then it might not work when you need it," Klein-Berndt said.