Demonstrated at: #FDIC2023

Face-to-face fireground communications in an environment that is Immediately Dangerous to Life and Health (IDLH) is complicated by facemasks that stifle speech. The latest generation of facemasks from MSA and 3M Scott reduce the problem by relaying the user's voice over a Bluetooth connection to the user's portable radio. The radio's Remote Speaker Microphone (RSM) then plays out the received audio. With this combination, voice speech is effectively amplified without distortion. Past solutions for the challenge utilized bulky battery-powered voice amplifiers clipped to the side of masks.

Thanks to L3Harris XL-series guru Don Griffis for donning the mask and showing how face-to-face fireground communications are changing with SCBA and radio innovations.