STEVENSVILLE, MD. – The City of Laurel (MD) Emergency Services has taken delivery of a brand new Mobile Command Vehicle, built by PEAKE. The MCV will provide the City of Laurel with an advanced communications resource when on-scene of a community crisis or event.PEAKE received the command vehicle from Laurel with just a chassis and empty, unfinished box. The initial stage included building and manufacturing the structure of the vehicle. The second stage included the fabrication and customization of the interior of the vehicle to provide the agency with functional workspace. The final stage of the project was to integrate all of the communication and electronic equipment into the MCV to provide the functionality of an advanced communication vehicle.The MCV will provide the City of Laurel with multiple uplinks when deployed at an event or emergency. In addition to a cellular uplink, a 1-meter auto-acquire satellite antenna was installed on the vehicle providing a VSAT uplink. The VSAT uplink ensures communication throughout a deployment even as other forms of communication (cellular, landlines, etc) are unavailable or overloaded. Utilizing Tactical-IP™ VSAT service, the MCV can be set-up in moments and can achieve connectivity speeds up to 5Mb/s download and 2Mb/s upload anywhere in the continental United States.The rear area of the MCV features a custom-made command table with seating for seven. The back wall has a large flat screen TV surrounded by four TV monitors that will allow the command staff to view multiple video feeds at the same time, all controlled by one remote. Additional monitors are installed throughout each workstation on the MCV giving users access to video feeds and computer use.The mid-section of the mobile command vehicle has two areas of operation: workstations and communications racks. The mid-section street side of the MCV features two workstations each with two monitors, a DVD player, IP-Phone, radios, and storage compartments.The curb side of the MCV features the communication equipment racks, radio racks, and a large document printer. The communication equipment that establishes the backbone of the MCV function include an iDirect satellite modem, Cobham VSAT controller, a Cisco router, a video switcher, A/V equipment, and many other networking components. A third rack is dedicated to radio communications and has several different frequency radios and patch panels. The communications capability of the City of Laurel MCV is state-of-the-art and extensive and will provide the agencies who use the vehicle with great capability when on-scene.The City of Laurel MCV will be a mutual aid resource for the City Police Department, Fire Department and Rescue Squad. The City's Emergency Operations Center addresses the need to respond to various crises that can occur in our community. Weather-related events that have affected the City have magnified the need for a centralized Emergency Response Center and thus a Mobile Command Vehicle. The population of the City of Laurel is around 60,000.[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id="59" gal_title="8-12-2013"]