By Donny Jackson
Somewear Labs recently announced a collaboration with 3AM Innovations, integrating data from Somewear Labs’ network-flexible hardware to be shown on 3AM’s FLORIAN platform that provide a common operating picture (COP) to responders, particularly wildland firefighters.
Somewear Labs CEO and co-founder James Kubik said officials from his company decided ensuring integration between Somewear Labs software and the 3AM FLORIAN platform was a “no-brainer” after hearing interest from the California firefighting community.
“All of the partnerships that we pursue are going to be pushed by user demand,” Kubik said during an interview with IWCE’s Urgent Communications. “We met them [3AM officials], because we had folks from the California wildland-fire community saying, ‘This is something we’re interested in using, but for this to be really mission-effective, we need data coming from our off-grid sources. We’d love to see data from [Somewear Labs] show up in FLORIAN.’
“So, it really was that end-user demand from folks in the state of California that made this really interesting for both parties.”
Kubik described the integration between the FLORIAN platform from 3AM and Somewear Labs’ products, including its hardware offerings that are designed to leverage multiple type of network connectivity, choosing the best connection—a scheme that is particularly helpful in difficult communications environments.
“It’s a software integration,” Kubik said. They [3AM Innovations] are primarily a web-based common operating picture, so it’s an integration between our software system and their software system.
“What that gives them the ability to do is, when our hardware is in the field, data from that hardware will flow into their system.”
3AM Innovations President and co-founder Patrick O’Connor said such technology collaborations are important to the public-safety sector.
“With the increasing threat of wildland fires encroaching on urban environments, the need for collaboration in the public-safety tech space is greater than ever,” O’Connor said in a prepared statement. “This partnership with Somewear Labs is a testament to that, combining our strengths to provide firefighters with every possible advantage on the fireground.”
In addition to California, Kubik said the firefighting communities in Arizona and Alaska also have indicated interest in an integrated Somewear-3AM solution.
This collaboration with 3AM is just the latest example of Somewear Labs demonstrating the flexibility of its solutions and the ability to integrate its data into platforms from other vendors, according to Kubik.
“What we’re starting to see is that Somewear can really act as the glue between all of these disparate systems,” he said. “The commonality between all of them is that they need reliable tracking, situational awareness, and communications—no matter what COP [common operating picture]or software you’re using, you absolutely need that.
“And they’re going into environments where software doesn’t solve 100 per cent of the equation. You need the combination of hardware and software. We’re integrating with third-party COPs, we’re integrating with third-party hardware. We’re trying to become this glue, because we understand the integration of hardware and software in a way that we haven’t seen from a lot of other partners in the ecosystem.”
This collaboration between 3AM and Somewear Labs can bolster firefighter connectivity and functionality, but it can also help agencies meet some key requirements in the Dingell Act—a law enacted in 2019 that is designed to enhance wildfire management via better tracking of personnel and resources, Kubik said.
“This is a great example of a partnership that helps fulfill the needs of the Dingell Act,” Kubik said. “It gives some optionality to the end users, saying, ‘As long as I’m bringing Somewear with me, I can use TAK or 3AM or some other system. Or, if I’m using 3AM and need resilience, now I can bring in Somewear and use the systems that I want.”
