Surf Life Saving New Zealand (SLSNZ) is the primary agency for beach and coastal safety and its purpose is to prevent drowning and injury in New Zealand. SLSNZ’s 74 clubs patrol 92 beaches across NZ with 19,000 members including 4,500 Surf Lifeguards. SLSNZ is an NGO and members are primarily volunteers. Effective communication between SLSNZ, our members, emergency services, and other SAR agencies is a fundamental requirement for delivering quality services to the community.
SLSNZ has undergone a period of significant development, expanding operational scope, as well as geographical reach to our communities. As with any organisational change, SLSNZ needed a mission-critical ecosystem to support its dynamic operating model, one which would grow and change over time with them. With the support of government funding, SLSNZ has built a world-class mission-critical ecosystem on a shoestring budget. The journey includes integration of disparate digital radio networks, harmonisation of all radios to a national fleet terminal plan, implementation of a national IP backbone, commissioning of a national operations centre, deployment of a Common Operating Picture, and public alerting or notification system.