Latitude Technologies Corporation of Victoria, B.C. along with Northern Ontario Air Operator, Hicks & Lawrence Limited, were recognized for their support to the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) during the 2009 to 2010 fire season.
The MNR team led by Aerial Officer, Colin McFayden, was able to create and send detailed fire reports during aerial scouting missions using the Latitude Messenger and SkyNode satcom system, thereby bypassing any ground based radio congestion. Fire reports were received and integrated into the Provincial GIS database, so that within minutes, Fire Managers had all support information necessary to decide on the type of resources to dispatch including helicopters, water bombers, etc.
As result of the efforts to implement and coordinate this project the MNR team was presented the Diamond Merit Award by Showcases Ontario September 20th, 2010 in Toronto. The Merit Award honors the MNR team efforts to improve service delivery through field driven innovations and technology.
“I wanted to pass on my thanks to the staff at Latitude Technologies for all the assistance and continued support.” says Tom Ball, Aerial Fire Operations Coordinator for Ontario. For its part, Latitude is proud to have been able to assist MNR’s efforts to innovate a new communication method to help fire fighters.
The Latitude Messenger interface is simple to use program that installs onto tablet computers, laptops and PDA devices and permits two-way chat-style text messaging and data file transfers between aircraft crew and ground stations everywhere. Latitude Messenger can be tailored to any special mission purpose and is supported by all SkyNode® family of satellite communicators and the Web Sentinel service.

About Latitude Technologies

Latitude Technologies Corporation, headquartered in Victoria, British Columbia, is a global supplier of aeronautical voice and data equipment and services. The SkyNode® family of products includes the smallest, lightest, most versatile and economical to operate 2-way data networking and messaging devices in the world. Latitude products are supported by the Web Sentinel™ data reporting, messaging and flight following service. For more information about our voice and data communication solutions and Latitude services, visit www.latitudetech.com or call 1-888-966-5599.