(BS) The systematic transmission of communications has been practised for millennia, but the huge amount of data and the required security level of transmission occurred only recently. These requirements apply for the police, the armed forces as well as for private security services. VOXTRONIC is particularly successful in the field of intelligence and security services, although only few of these references are authorised to be made public. The Behörden Spiegel met Mr. Peter Schaumüller, CEO of VOXTRONIC, to find out more about these high-security solutions. Interview held by Dorothee Frank.

Behörden Spiegel: Your solutions comprise the observation, documentation and analysis of communication processes. Can you spell them out?

Schaumüller: Telecommunication is nowadays operated by worldwide communication networks with state-of-the-art technology. Systematic transmission of messages, or more precisely, the contents of communication processes, affords complex and multilevel signalling procedures within the communication networks. Both information domains – signalling data, like call and connection data as well as information about networks and network structures or the contents of messages – have to be automatically registered, analysed and recorded according to the individual requirements. While formerly tape recorders were used, we nowadays work with high-performance systems, which document thousands of voice and data channels simultaneously. Furthermore, different technologies have to be processed at the same time, such as analogue and digital radio, ISDN, Voice over IP (VoIP), GSM / UMTS- mobile radio, services in the Intelligent Network (IN), fibreglass transmission networks, and microwave radio link systems. This requires the use of intelligent systems, which can handle these tasks within a single platform. You see that documentation is only one side of the coin. The next important step is to structure and file the huge amount of data to retrieve selective events whenever needed. In which way the data are eventually analysed and what measures are derived depends on the customer and his operational area. Thus, requirements of the police and those of the armed forces differ considerably.

Behörden Spiegel: In which fields have you already installed such solutions?

Schaumüller: In telecommunication monitoring as well as in the preparation of metadata VOXTRONIC products and solutions are primarily used by authorities like security and intelligence services, the military and telecommunication companies. As to the documentation of calls, our customers comprise emergency services, including police, fire brigade and medical services; railway and air traffic control; financial service providers like banks and insurances; power authorities, call centres, and the industry.

Behörden Spiegel: You also said security services were among your customers. Could you at least roughly describe the countries and what you are doing?

Schaumüller: Due to the high development costs of such systems, they have to be prepared for a correspondingly large market. That is why VOXTRONIC envisages an international market with the emphasis on Europe. Typical orders would be the implementation of a statutory telecommunication monitoring system (TKÜ, Basic Law G10), systems for remote signal monitoring in the framework of the fight against terrorism, money laundering and organised crime as well as for the safety of military operations. The procedures are quite similar: huge amounts of data have to be recorded, evaluated and analysed as far as possible in real-time and certain communication correlations identified. The information content, or better, the conversation content of certain communications is being prepared for concrete operations for the support of relief squads. Of course, I cannot go into any more details about ongoing VOXTRONIC projects.

Behörden Spiegel: The safe operation of alarm conferences is also part of your portfolio. Could you give us a genuine example?

Schaumüller: The demand for a spontaneous activation of certain alarm conferences is a consequence of modern real-time telecommunication monitoring. Events are established by means of gathered and analysed data, and correlated with other data respectively, which initiates alarm conferences according to predefined scenarios. Required persons in charge and relief squads are being backed up, notified via different transmission paths and different types of media like voice, fax, text, e-mail, etc., and linked into teleconferences. The scenarios leading to certain conferences are identified by the customer and deposited in the system. All technical and operational details of such conferences are automatically recorded.

Behörden Spiegel: Thank you for the interview.