Case 2:22-cv-00263-JRG-RSP Document 42-7 Filed 01/10/23 Page 1 of 6 PageID #: 1540
`Case 2:22-cv-00263-JRG-RSP Document 42-7 Filed 01/10/23 Page 1 of 6 PagelD #: 1540
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`EXHIBIT 6
`EXHIBIT 6
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`ATAK enhances collaboration and awareness for public safety
`1/10/23, 6:50 PM
`Case 2:22-cv-00263-JRG-RSP Document 42-7 Filed 01/10/23 Page 2 of 6 PageID #: 1541
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`S U B S C R I B E
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`Home / Government / Public Safety
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`Android Team Awareness Kit Enhances Public Safety CollaborationAndroid Team Awareness Kit Enhances Public Safety Collaboration
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`Commissioned Content
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`VIDEO
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`PUBLIC SAFETY
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`ATAK enhances collaboration and awareness for public safety
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`Published Sep 1, 2021 By: Taylor Mallory Holland
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`When first responders are facing a public emergency, they need information quickly. Whether it’s a wildfire, active shooter scenario or a natural disaster,
`they need to know what they’re walking into and where their resources are located. They also need to communicate and collaborate in real-time —
`across teams and often across departments, ideally without too much distracting radio chatter.
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`The Android Team Awareness Kit (ATAK) used with TeamConnect meets all these needs with a flexible, interactive, map-based platform that first
`responders can access on their smartphones and tablets. Today, there are more than 250,000 military and civilian government users. But the solution
`began as a way to improve situational awareness for soldiers.
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`David Tally was an Army special operations operator when he was introduced to ATAK. His unit was looking to develop a situational awareness tool that
`would help soldiers gather and share information in the field, and the Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) was working on a similar solution.
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`“They were in the very early stages but had already met 80 percent of our requirements,” Tally recalls. “We got very tight with that group and helped
`write the requirements. Then we tested it and gave them end-user feedback. In some cases, there was an end user sitting side by side with a developer.
`That’s how the tool was built from the beginning — lots of user feedback and very little bureaucracy getting in the way.”
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`That’s still the case, except today the feedback also comes from firefighters, police and other civilian officers too.
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`Civilianizing situational awareness
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`ATAK lets users layer data from a variety of sources, including terrain maps, weather maps, real-time drone footage, GPS from team member
`smartphones and even legacy computer-aided dispatch (CAD) systems. All this information appears on one easy-to-understand map. Everyone gets the
`same real-time view of the situation, and users can mark up the map with new information, rather than adding to the radio chatter.
`https://insights.samsung.com/2021/09/01/atak-enhances-collaboration-and-awareness-for-public-safety-2/
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`ATAK enhances collaboration and awareness for public safety
`1/10/23, 6:50 PM
`Case 2:22-cv-00263-JRG-RSP Document 42-7 Filed 01/10/23 Page 3 of 6 PageID #: 1542
`It’s advantageous for soldiers, but military leaders aren’t the only ones who need situational awareness to plan successful missions and keep people
`safe. Civilian first responder organizations face similar challenges.
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`“A couple years in, we showed it to some federal law enforcement guys, who were like, ‘Wow, this is amazing. We’ve got to build an app just like it.’ So we
`started asking the DOD, ‘Why would the DOJ or local agencies have to build the same thing? It’s already a government solution.”
`
`AFRL and PAR Government (the lead developer for ATAK) opened the solution up to civilian government agencies in 2013. Tally retired from the Army in
`2015 and joined PAR in 2016 as director of applied technology. “When I came on board, my mission was to figure out how to get this in the hands of folks
`at the state and local levels, who may not have the resourcing and access that federal agencies have.”
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`In addition to the app, civilian agencies would also need sophisticated server capability to integrate data sources and host team collaboration.
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`“The solution needed a robust enterprise backend,” says Tally. “The application and plugins are just a frontend. We created TeamConnect, which pulls all
`the applications together and lets them talk to each other. We built it with the best commercial technology, so we could easily scale up to as many users
`as needed. The security level is as high as possible. And we built it to be very simple, so it wouldn’t be an IT burden for smaller organizations. Our
`catchphrase is, ‘If you can create your own email account, you can manage all of it.'”
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`Mobilizing maps on Android
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`Mobility is important for situational awareness applications, Tally says. “It’s one thing when you’re in an office and you’ve got space to pull out a laptop.
`But in the field you have such limited ability to do that, especially when you’re on foot and already carrying equipment. It’s critical that the device be
`small and lightweight, yet rugged and powerful enough to get the job done.”
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`ATAK’s predecessor — military situational awareness tools known as “moving map applications” — were run on small mobile Windows machines. Then
`smartphones came along.
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`https://insights.samsung.com/2021/09/01/atak-enhances-collaboration-and-awareness-for-public-safety-2/
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`ATAK enhances collaboration and awareness for public safety
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`Case 2:22-cv-00263-JRG-RSP Document 42-7 Filed 01/10/23 Page 4 of 6 PageID #: 1543
`“In 2007 and 2008, smartphones started coming out, and we could clearly see that mobile tech was going to change everything. It took a couple years
`before people knew how to start building the applications we really wanted. Then in 2010 and 2011, the Air Force decided to build something on Android,
`because it’s much more accessible for developers. In a closed ecosystem, it would be harder to do these out-of-the-box, tailored capabilities that we
`want to create.”
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`ATAK works on any Android device, but Tally says most users run it on Samsung smartphones and tablets.
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`“We’ve been very heavy Samsung users since ATAK was first developed, and the device form-factor and capabilities have evolved so much over the years.
`The extra processing and the additional storage space are crucial for some of the stuff we do with maps and imagery, which are real space hogs. Then
`there’s the support that Samsung provides developers. We’re able to say, ‘These are the concerns of our end users,’ or, ‘Here’s what we need to make the
`most out of our application.’ The Samsung team has always been good to work with, and it’s been a solid platform for us.”
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`Getting started With ATAK
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`Civilian agencies can apply for access via tak.gov, using an official government email address. Once approved, the government grants the agency access
`to ATAK and many complementary resources.
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`“Once they have the app, we can step in on the TeamConnect side and set up a backend solution that meet their needs. In most cases, a cloud solution
`works well, and we do it on a per-seat basis. A lot of this can be done very easily and remotely, and requires a short amount of time to get up and
`running.”
`
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`That said, Tally doesn’t recommend running too fast at first. “The crawl-walk-run approach usually ends up being most successful — meaning you get
`the capability and try it on a limited scale at first. We often let organizations take it for a test drive. We set up a free demo account on TeamConnect and
`let them see if it works well for them before they take the next steps and pay for a little managed support. Then once they’ve got their feet under them,
`they’re ready to roll this out. When organizations are all-in right from the start, it’s usually a rough deployment.”
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`ATAK in action
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`One agency using ATAK is the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Department in New Mexico. The department’s Metro Air Unit uses TeamConnect on Galaxy S20
`smartphones for search and rescue to improve information sharing and situational awareness. The unit is often called upon to rescue hikers in the
`Sandia Mountains, and TeamConnect helps them pinpoint and communicate locations that might be under tree cover.
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`As PAR continues to onboard new civilian agencies, they continually update TeamConnect, while ATAK typically releases new capabilities every 120 days.
`Recent updates include a Fire Area Survey tool, overhauled SOS capabilities in TeamConnect that aid in search and rescue, and video management
`solutions that are used with ATAK’s UAS Tool. ATAK’s UAS Tool itself is a very powerful drone tool that is gaining a lot of attention from law enforcement
`and first responders. In the future, they plan to add more industry-specific functionality as well — all based on end-user feedback.
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`“This is a really big idea, and big ideas require a lot of collaboration,” says Tally. “The Samsung platform has been a huge part of making this successful.
`Our partnerships with organizations that provide data and content are crucial — and most importantly, great end-user partnerships. As mature as the
`solution is now, there is a world of potential that we’re going to continue to explore, and more and more tools that we’re going to bring to users. This is
`just the beginning, and it’s an exciting place to be.”
`
`Discover the various mobile solutions that improve situational awareness and communication for first responders. Use our calculator to see how much
`your agency could save by going mobile-first.
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`ATAK enhances collaboration and awareness for public safety
`1/10/23, 6:50 PM
`Case 2:22-cv-00263-JRG-RSP Document 42-7 Filed 01/10/23 Page 5 of 6 PageID #: 1544
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`ATAK enhances collaboration and awareness for public safety
`1/10/23, 6:50 PM
`Case 2:22-cv-00263-JRG-RSP Document 42-7 Filed 01/10/23 Page 6 of 6 PageID #: 1545
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`LMR connectivity improves situational awareness with ATAK
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