The Safer Buildings Coalition’s (SBC) two main initiatives right now are aimed at raising the competency of installed in-building systems and eliminating harmful interference from those systems.

Over the past year, the SBC’s two main initiatives have been the No Noise Task Force and a collaboration with the National Institute for Certification in Engineering Technologies (NICET) on an in-building public-safety communications certification program.

The No Noise Task Force is focused on addressing interference to public-safety radio communications caused by improperly deployed in-building signal boosters. Meanwhile, prior to the NICET program, there was not an educational certification program focused on teaching in-building installation specifically for public safety.

Right now, there are more than 6 million buildings in the U.S., and there have been 10s of thousands of in-building systems installed in the country, said SBC Board President Dennis Burns, director of public safety for Advanced RF Systems.

The increasing number of in-building systems being installed across the country means that there are larger issues if those new systems are not properly installed. This can cause interference and issues for public safety personnel responding to emergency incidents in buildings.

“That could be a catastrophic situation,” Burns said.

Because first responder have so many things to worry about on the scene of an emergency, the SBC wants to use efforts like the No Noise Task Force and the NICET education to prevent potential in-building communications issues from even happening at emergencies instead of those responders having to deal with them at the scene, Burns said.

It is impossible for one organization to ensure that all of those systems are properly installed, which is where partnerships with organizations like NICET are important, Burns said. The program can be scaled up as more partners become involved to reach more in-building system installers and make sure they know how to properly install in-building systems, raising the overall competence of installations, Burns said.

“It’s all about raising awareness and competency,” Burns said.

For the NICET program, the first three levels of the certification have been released and a new module focused on how to design bidirectional amplifiers (BDAs) is expected to release in the fourth quarter of this year.

Additionally, the SBC is working with industry partners on releasing a guide to help study for the certification program. That guide is expected to be released by the end of the year.

The Enterprise Wireless Alliance (EWA), which is part of the No Noise Task Force, is currently conducting an online survey to understand the current environment for in-building wireless deployment. Find that survey here. 

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