PAR Government rebrands GIS situational awareness solution

Sit(x) running on an iPhone. (Photo: PAR Government))

PAR Government, a provider of geospatial and decision support solutions for 57 years, has rebranded its TeamConnect cloud-based situational awareness suite as Sit(x). The commercial Sit(x) solution is designed for enhanced collaboration among government and civilian public safety organizations. PAR Government Systems Corporation (PGSC) is a wholly owned subsidiary of PAR Technology Corporation.

The Sit(x) solution enables individuals and teams to communicate directly by text or symbology and share real-time full-motion video (FMV), geographic information system (GIS) layers, imagery, GPS-derived locations, raster maps, photos and documents.

To complement the Android and Windows support already available in Sit(x), PAR is offering a free iOS app, giving Apple smartphone users access to the technology.

“The Sit(x) name better reflects the ability to provide effective situational awareness for any situation,” said Mark Kozak, PAR Government vice president of Product Innovation. “This results in faster, more informed decision making at the command level and in the field.”

Sit(x) is a TAK server-as-a-service solution based on the Team Awareness Kit (TAK) situational awareness technology that PAR Government developed for the U.S. defense and intelligence community under contract to the Department of Defense. This technology has been deployed under demanding conditions by every branch of the U.S. armed forces over the past decade.

PAR Government created the Sit(x) TAK server-as-a-Service offering specifically to enable real-time communication and information sharing between non-connected public safety personnel during rapidly evolving multi-jurisdictional situations, both planned and unexpected. These include large public gatherings, such as sports events or concerts, and emergency incidents related to terror attacks or natural disasters.

“Sit(x) can save lives, time, and resources by federating unrelated police and fire departments, U.S. government agencies, volunteer search-and-rescue groups, and even private security firms to collaborate as one coordinated entity during a major event,” Kozak said. “Due to its TAK lineage, Sit(x) opens the lines of communications between civilian public safety and the U.S. military, as well as our allies, with no export restrictions.”

The PAR Government Sit(x) offering is a subscription to the Sit(x) TAK Server-as-a-Service software suite in the cloud. Ready in minutes, Sit(x) scales to handle teams of any size and is protected with end-to-end secure connectivity. The suite provides complete lifecycle management – event preparation, rehearsal, training, dynamic response, post-mission playback and analysis, and new response simulation.

The investment by subscribing agencies is minimal because there is no computer hardware to purchase, and the end-user applications are available from the Google Play Store or Apple App Store for free. All server operations and software maintenance are managed 24/7 in the cloud by PAR.