What's New?

• Notification Issues and a Solution: Over the past few years, cellular providers (Verizon, AT&T, etc.) have made it increasingly difficult for reputable non-profit volunteer fire and EMS agencies to reliably use their text-to-SMS service to send dispatch messages to first responders. Often, the recipients expecting to receive timely dispatch messages would either never receive the message or it would be significantly delayed. The cellular providers are essentially mistaking your important dispatch text messages for SPAM and purposely discarding or delaying them. Efforts to 'Whitelist' the SMTP servers are short-lived.
  
  FDCMS has found an easy workaround to the issue which involves installing an app on your smartphone called Pushover. Pushover allows ADI or IDEx Web to bypass the cellular carriers and send your dispatch messages directly from your SMTP server to Pushover. The messages are received almost immediately as a push notification as long as your phone has a connection to the Internet (cellular or WiFi). There is a one-time cost of $4.99 to purchase the Pushover app and there are no usage fees for individual users. Pushover is configured in ADI or IDEx Web just like any other Notification Provider. FDCMS highly recommends Pushover for anyone who is experiencing issues getting timely dispatch messaging. See the Pushover app for more details.
  
  
• Madison County, NY has moved to Spillman Technologies CAD and ADI is now fully compatible with the new data format.
  
  
• IMAP functionality is now integrated into ADI. If your department receives incidents via email, IMAP is another method of reception available to you. IMAP is available in ADI version 11 and higher.
  
  
• Montgomery County, PA Drops Over-the-Air Reception Method - Effective March 15, 2021, Montgomery County will no longer support the POCSAG (over-the-air) method of transmitting your station's incident data. Instead, they will be sending data via email only. Rest assured, your Alarm Data Interface can easily be configured to receive emailed incidents. The only additional thing you'll need is a dedicated email account. Let us know if you need one or if you have any setup questions.
  
  
• Alarm Data Interface Will Now be Subscription-based - Effective March 2, 2020, FDCMS will require all agencies using ADI to be subscribed to our Annual Alarm Data Interface Support Agreement. This agreement allows you access to all ADI updates as they become available as well as email and telephone technical support. The basic cost of the support agreement will remain at $289 per year for the foreseeable future. Feel free to contact us at Sales@fdcms.com for additional information.
  
  
• New ADI Integrations - FDCMS is proud to announce some new integrations with other vendors. In addition to Data Demon, FirePrograms and FireHouse Software (both CAD Monitor and legacy), Alarm Data Interface now integrates with Emergency Reporting. Contact FDCMS for additional information.
  
  
• Our Station Control Service is now available. It allows Alarm Data Interface to electrically control devices in your fire station, thus providing the following functions (just to name a few):
  
  
  • Door Unlocking / Relocking - Automatically unlock one or more perimeter doors for a defined time period upon dispatch. Remotely (via MobileLink) unlock your social hall door for three hours, manually relock it prior to the three hour timer expiring. Remotely unlock a perimeter door for a move-up crew when all available members are at an incident.
  • Station Lighting - Automatically turn on interior or exterior ligthing based on unit status or dispatch incident type. Remotely turn on parking lot lights for a pre-defined time period.
  • Turnout Timers - Control LED indicators visible to your in-bay apparatus so that your crews know when they have waited long enough for additional personnel.
  • Unit Status Indicators - Control electrical devices based on whether a particular unit is out on a call or back in quarters.
  • Alerting Devices - Activate bells, klaxons or lights based on dispatch incident type (fire versus EMS, for example) or by dispatched unit.
  
  Relays (sold separately) are interfaced with these devices in your station. Relay outputs are triggered by ADI based on unit status (dispatched or closed) or dispatch incident type. Additionally, outputs can be manually controlled by authorized individuals via MobileLink. Contact sales@fdcms.com for additional details.
  
  
• Our web-based MobileLink Service lets your smartphone-carrying members report their response and availability status. It integrates with ADI so you see all of your dispatches and responding members. MobileLink also features IDEx station announcements, web paging, station control and member availability display.
  
  
• Web Paging Service is our web-based member paging application that allows authorized personnel to send individual or group pages to members of your agency or team.
  
  
• A 30-day evaluation of our Incident Data Exchange (IDEx) application is available. IDEx includes web-based message composition, call stacking (multiple calls displayed at once), additional message capacity, multiple station message management with scheduling along with member availability and response displays. ADI customers can request a no cost - no obligation evaluation version of IDEx by emailing sales@fdcms.com. Click here to get a general idea of how IDEx and ADI could be applied in your station.
  
  
• Our software products are compatible with the CAD systems in the following counties:
     
  - Chester County, PA
  - Cortland County, NY
  - Livingston County, NY
  - Madison County, NY
  - Manatee County, FL
  - Montgomery County, PA
  - Onondaga County, NY
  - Oswego County, NY
  - Rockland County, NY
  - Tompkins County, NY
  - Wayne County, NY
  
  Contact us for information on our software working with your county's CAD system.