Samsung demonstrated video calling this week using its LTE-based communications platform for emergency workers and Amazon Web Services (AWS), cloud.
According to a Monday press release, engineers at Samsung’s Korea lab successfully made a video conference while running Samsung’s AWS MCPTX platform. This was an industry first.
MCPTX stands for “mission-critical push-to-tallk/voice/video.” It refers to a communication system that is specifically designed for first responders and public safety personnel. Before MCPTX, first responders communicated using LMR systems such as walkie-talkies and band radios. The MCPTX systems that leverage LTE networks are an evolution of this comparatively analog technology. Unlike LMR systems which are primarily designed for voice transmissions and can only transmit audio, MCPTX systems allow responders to send files, images, and videos to each other.
In this whitepaper 2019, Samsung argued for greater adoption of MCPTX systems than LMR.
[MCPTX] opens up new possibilities for interoperability among devices, services, and networks; greater potential to service growth, iteration, and evolution; and a vastly more efficient use, of available network resources. This ensures that standards-based MCPTX [public safety LTE] and PS-LTE [MCPTX] solutions can provide superior ownership, service, and user experiences compared to proprietary and hybrid solutions, as well as other closed-box, open-source applications that have been on the market in recent times.
According to Samsung, hosting its MCPTX platform in the AWS cloud has many benefits. Samsung stated in a press release that this approach “enables rapid deployment and improves the scalability of public safety networks operators, by reducing time spent on in-house deployment and allowing them adjust the use of resources as necessary.” “The service can seamlessly failover from one part of the cloud to another, increasing overall reliability.”
Samsung’s MCPTX platform includes various software, applications, and hardware. The device used in the video-calling demonstration of Samsung’s Galaxy XCover FieldPro was designed for first responders. It can be deployed on-premises or via AWS.
“This demonstration by Samsung’s MCPTX solution, on Amazon’s cloud platform, brings the latest innovations in the public safety sector. The two companies will continue to cooperate on developing technologies to offer new and reliable services for customers,” stated Amir Rao (AWS’ head global solution portfolio and tech alliances).
