Public TV Digital Emergency Alert System Set to Roll Out
Public TV’s digital emergency alert system (DEAS) is poised for a national rollout, with the “success” of the 2nd phase of a joint pilot by the Assn. of Public TV Stations and the Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS), officials said. After first-phase testing of a national EAS, the pilot is testing how public TV stations can provide “support and enhancement to state and local activations of the alert and warning system,” APTS said. APTS has provided DHS with a national rollout plan that includes cost and schedule estimates and technical options for implementation, an APTS spokeswoman said.
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“We are wrapping up the second phase as we speak. We are planning a national [rollout] announcement… at the end of May,” the spokeswoman said. The first 2 phases have funding from DHS. The spokeswoman declined to estimate costs or DHS funding expected for the national rollout. “We are waiting for the scope of work from their [DHS] end,” she said. The first phase involved the Washington metro area; the 2nd, 17 stations in Ala., Mich., Wash., Ky., Nev., Miss., N.H. and other states. National deployment will get the technology to 28 stations, the spokeswoman said. The list of stations has not been finalized. Criteria will be based partly on region, to “ensure the best coverage of U.S. territory,” she said.
In an FCC filing, APTS said it would like to demonstrate DEAS to the Commission panel studying Hurricane Katrina’s impact on communications. The panel would “greatly benefit” from the demonstration, it said. “We haven’t heard from the FCC,” the spokeswoman said when asked if one is set. The DEAS technology involves datacasting, with data originating from a public safety agency received by a public TV station, which encrypts and inserts it into a DTV signal. The data then go to personal computers or local area networks equipped with an “inexpensive” DTV tuner card and a small antenna. Datacasting is based on an IP-based open architecture system, so the data can be video, text, audio, graphs and maps, APTS said.
APTs said datacasting’s advantages to public safety agencies include: (1) Transmission over digital signal is “nearly instantaneous,” compressing minutes of alert time and information lags into seconds. (2) DEAS infrastructure can bypass congestion common to the Internet, phone and cellular services, wireline or wireless. (3) The system is “addressable” so public service agencies can pinpoint recipients. And because public TV stations reach most households, DEAS could provide nationwide and local warnings and alerts. Other participants in the APTS-DHS trials include Cingular, Verizon, Nextel, T- Mobile and Sprint, CTIA, FCC, Federal Emergency Management Agency, XM, Comcast and NCTA.