A disaster-grade communication platform – designed to keep communities informed when conventional networks fail – is being tested at a La Trobe University campus, in a University of City initiative.
When disasters strike, conventional communication systems are often the first to fail. Mobile networks become congested or damaged, power outages disable infrastructure, and communities are left without clear, trusted information at the very moment it matters most.
For Bruce Esplin AM, Chairman of Broadwick Connect and former Victorian Emergency Services Commissioner, this problem has been visible for decades. Across bushfires, floods, earthquakes, and cyclones, he saw the same critical factor shaping outcomes time and again: whether people received timely information – and whether they knew what to do with it.
For Mr Esplin, the Broadwick platform represents an attempt to turn that long-held belief into something practical – a system designed around how people actually experience emergencies. Working with Innovation Central Melbourne, EWS – trading as Broadwick Connect – is developing a disaster-grade public safety communication platform designed to keep communities informed even when critical infrastructure collapses. The system is being tested in a live university campus environment that mirrors the complexity of modern cities – providing rare, real-world validation of a technology built to operate when everything else goes dark.
Broadwick Connect was established to address a long-recognised gap in emergency management: how to deliver reliable, targeted communication when traditional networks are unavailable. Its purpose-designed platform operates independently of fragile infrastructure, enabling authorities to continue issuing warnings and guidance during and after major emergencies.
“Continuous, uninterrupted communication during times of crisis is vital,” Mr Esplin says. “Not only during the emergency itself, but throughout the recovery phase, when communities need clear, reliable information to rebuild and regain confidence.”
Rather than relying on conventional telecommunications, the Broadwick platform combines a resilient very high frequency (VHF) broadcast layer, specialised Internet of Things (IoT) receivers, and an artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled command system. In practical terms, it creates a separate, disaster-tolerant channel that allows authorities to send precise, location-specific instructions while also gaining insight into how people are responding on the ground.
This reflects a principle Mr Esplin has long argued for – that communication during emergencies should be a two-way process. “We’ve got to push information out,” he says, “but we also need to pull information back from communities about what’s actually happening on the ground.”
The system is designed to scale – from small regional communities to city-wide or even national deployments – without depending on mobile towers, fibre networks, or continuous mains power.
A campus as a proving ground
At La Trobe University, Broadwick Connect found an environment uniquely suited to testing such a system: a campus that functions like a small city.
Through Innovation Central Melbourne and the University City precinct, the platform is being assessed across a complex mix of buildings, population densities, and real-world movement patterns. This allows the system to be tested and refined under realistic conditions while maintaining rigorous governance, safety oversight, and operational discipline.
For Mr Esplin, this kind of setting is critical. Emergency communication systems, he argues, must be shaped by how people behave under pressure – not by idealised assumptions made in isolation.
The intention is for La Trobe University City to procure the solution, act as a lighthouse customer, and leverage the National Industry Innovation Network (NIIN) – a national collaboration linking universities, industry and government to accelerate applied innovation – to help establish a broader university campus market for resilient emergency communications.
“The Living Lab is about applying the learning and research that happens on campus directly into the way we develop and operate our facilities, rather than keeping those worlds separate,” says Jodie Harris, Director of Sustainability, Master Planning and Systems at La Trobe University.
For Gerard Blood, Executive Director of La Trobe University City, the partnership reflects a broader shift in how universities approach safety, resilience, and innovation.
“The launch of this campus-wide system is more than a technological milestone,” Mr Blood says. “It is a commitment to every student and staff member that their safety is our highest priority. Through this program, we are redefining best practice in university safety, ensuring resilience even when traditional infrastructure fails.”
From universities to cities
The collaboration gives Broadwick Connect access to multidisciplinary expertise across engineering, AI, and IoT, while providing La Trobe with an opportunity to trial infrastructure that could set a new benchmark for campus safety.
Importantly, the campus environment mirrors the governance structures, safety protocols, and stakeholder complexity found in municipal settings – a critical factor in translating lessons from a university environment to city-scale deployment.
“Working in a real-world testbed has been invaluable,” says Broadwick Connect CEO Peter Self. “It provides the scale and diversity of data needed to properly validate our AI models, something that simply cannot be replicated in controlled laboratory environments.”
That validation has relevance well beyond Australia. International engagement, particularly in the Philippines, has already confirmed strong interest from local governments and national agencies seeking communication systems that remain operational during extreme events. Early proof-of-concept deployments are scheduled to begin in 2026.
Mr Esplin has long argued that resilience depends on shared responsibility, trust, and collaboration. “The line between government and the private sector should almost disappear in a crisis,” he says.
The value of the ICM partnership is as much about credibility as it is about technical capability. It provides the level of validation and risk reduction required for future municipal and national deployments, giving confidence that the system performs as intended in complex, real-world environments.
As climate-driven disasters become more frequent and more severe, the question facing governments and institutions is no longer whether new technology is possible, but whether it can be trusted to work under pressure. By treating a university campus as a proving ground, Broadwick Connect and ICM are answering that question with evidence rather than assumptions.
