During a crisis or emergency situation getting information out to the public as well as internal and inter-agency communication is crucial to a proper response. Rapid, accurate, and complete information can not only save lives and it can minimize all potential losses. In such situations every second counts and the old way of simply alerting decision makers is no longer adequate. XOP Networks Multi-modal Mass Notification application allows City and County governments to quickly inform their citizens about weather changes, fire related evacuations or terrorist activity etc. via telephone calls, SMS text messages or emails blasts.

There are several situations where audio conferencing becomes ‘mission critical’. For example, during a Satellite launch, multiple people from around the globe get involved in monitoring the progress of a mission. One or more mission directors may need to communicate with their multiple team heads, other mission directors, personel from satellite manufacturers, personnel from satellite launch service provider, the end customer and other stake holders instantaneously. Such communication is typically provided by using Hoot and Holler networks that are built using traditional leased lines terminating into a conference bridge. Each site is equipped with CPE that allows personnel to join different ‘conference nets’ by pressing mechanical ‘push’ buttons. XOP Networks’ IP based Hoot-n-holler application changes all that. With XOP approach remote locations can be equipped with TDM to IP media gateways or with IP phones directly. All of these devices from around the world then home into XOP Networks’ USN running the IP based Hoot-n-Holler Conferencing application. The Mission Directors are provided with web portals that can be accessed over the Internet for monitoring multiple individual H-n-H conferences. Via these portals individual Mission Directors can either simply ‘monitor’ or can have ‘talk and listen’ access to any of the conference nets with a simple mouse click. The use of VoIP minimizes the cost of mission critical conferencing, and the use of web portals for conference net selection makes the application accessible to larger number of people and free from any mechanical failures – a constant headache with the legacy approach.

Town hall meetings are used by lawmakers to get perpective of a large number of people on topics of interest. XOP Networks Virtual Town Hall Meeting is a custom application that allows the law makers and fellow citizens to communicate with each other in a virtual meeting room. The application is built based on ‘group alerting’ and ‘conferencing’ capabilities of the GACS platform. At the designated time, the GACS launches a large number of calls with an outbound IVR (Press 1 to join the town hall meeting, press 2 to talk to an operator etc.). Then based on the DTMF digits entered, the recipeint is placed in a conference room where he/she can listen to the lawmaker and ask questions.