BURLINGAME, CA--(Marketwire - August 8, 2008) - AtHoc, Inc., the pioneer and leader in
network-centric emergency notification systems, today announced that
emergency managers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
campus successfully used AtHoc IWSAlerts™ to notify and inform its
campus population during the 5.4 magnitude earthquake that occurred on July
29, 2008. UCLA officials reported that there were no injuries and no major
damage as a result of the quake.
Within minutes of the earthquake, the first alerts were sent to over 48,000
individuals who received desktop pop-up alerts, emails or SMS text
messages. Students were informed that an earthquake took place and were
warned about the possibility of aftershocks following the main quake. They
were also requested to tune into the campus AM radio station for additional
instructions.
This alert is the first real-life emergency use of the AtHoc system since
it was deployed by UCLA in November of 2007. With a reach of over 97% of
the campus population, the system successfully notified individuals within
minutes.
"First and foremost we were relieved to hear the UCLA community suffered no
injuries as a result of the earthquake," said Dubhe Beinhorn, vice
president of public sector operations for AtHoc. "The alerts sent with our
system proved to be an effective and reliable method to notify the UCLA
population about what was happening. This event clearly demonstrated the
value of a unified, network-centric mass notification system for rapidly
reaching large and dispersed populations."
UCLA deployed AtHoc IWSAlerts' network-centric emergency notification
solution on-site to provide a comprehensive integrated system that manages
alert dissemination across multiple communication channels and physical
security devices. The unified Web-based notification management system
incorporates:
-- Network alerting via the university's IP network to connected desktops
-- Telephony alerting to land and mobile phones
-- Email and SMS text messaging
-- Campus radio broadcast
-- Siren activation
-- Campus cable TV broadcast
By integrating and synchronizing with the university's personnel and
student directory, recipients' contact information and user groups are
managed within the system to ensure the highest possible reach in times of
emergency. The system also incorporates an off-site automatic failover
capability, assuring access to the alerting system even in case of severe
campus emergencies.
About AtHoc
AtHoc is the pioneer and recognized leader in providing enterprise-class,
network-centric emergency notification systems to military, government and
commercial organizations for physical security, force protection and
personnel accountability. Millions of end users worldwide, in organizations
such as the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, Hawaii State Civil
Defense, NASA, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Boeing,
PricewaterhouseCoopers and eBay, rely on AtHoc's unified management systems
for their emergency alerting and critical communication needs. AtHoc has
partnered with market leaders including Microsoft, Cisco, Harris, Siemens,
Avaya, Lockheed Martin, Unisys and others to bring these notification
solutions to the public and commercial markets.
For more information on AtHoc, please visit
http://www.athoc.com.
Contact Information: Contact:
Ivy Eckerman
Spire Communications
(540) 373-2963