Broadcasters Work With Emergency Responders To Test Mobile DTV Devices in Hurricane Season
NAB and the Florida Association of Broadcasters partnered with the Florida Division of Emergency Management to test mobile DTV devices to help first responders in the state during this year’s hurricane season. TV stations in the Miami, Tampa, Orlando, Palm Beach and Tampa markets have already signed on to participate, said FAB President Patrick Roberts in an interview. The pilot program started last week and may continue beyond hurricane season to support preparation and relief efforts during other emergency situations, like floods and tropical storms, he said.
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"Now with mobile TV coming over a terrestrial signal to personal communication devices, the technology will make the broadcast available where you can get both radio and TV,” said Roberts. Mobile DTV and an FM chip on smartphones are crucial to broadcasters’ future, he said. “We need to make sure they're available on all of these devices that everybody has now."
FAB plans to loan mobile DTV receivers to FDEM, which the agency will deploy to its staff, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Red Cross and non-profit groups, Roberts said. “We'll put the equipment in the hands of our folks out in the field,” who are conducting damage assessment, working in shelters and engaging the public, said Bryan Koon, FDEM director. This will allow them to turn to the local broadcast and see what’s happening around them so they can better respond more quickly, he told us.
There’s potential for an information gap in the aftermath of a hurricane or a natural disaster, said Koon. “You lose cell coverage and other modes of communication,” he said. “The ability to tap into what broadcasters are putting out over the air makes perfect sense.” Regional coordinators can carry the device and “use it to either validate what they're working on or see that they may need to shift the focus of what they're doing based on what’s happening in the news,” he added.
State and local emergency officials are looking for all the tools they can get, so responders are completely informed at all times, said Anne Schelle, who heads the NAB mobile DTV membership and used to run the Open Mobile Video Coalition before the association absorbed it. Now that mobile DTV has been on the market and commercially available, emergency officials “are interested in using it and providing it for their first responders who are physically out there so they can always know what’s going on,” she said. Univision, Telemundo and NBC and CBS affiliates in Miami are among the stations that have the ability to send the signal, Roberts said. He also said he expects noncommercial stations to participate. The test will work with the Dyle TV mobile DTV service that carries local broadcast affiliates of national networks and with them local information, Roberts said.
The receivers from Dyle TV use broadcast spectrum to deliver live TV to mobile devices, said Salil Dalvi, a general manager at Dyle. “We've heard a lot over the past year about limitations of the cellphone networks when it comes to emergency situations,” he said. Broadcast TV is an important part of information delivery during those disaster moments, he said: By participating in the test, “we want to see whether mobile TV is in fact a useful addition to the consumers’ information sources.” The test “is geared toward helping us understand that more fully,” he added.
FDEM plans to get feedback from first responders in the field on the applicability and benefits of the devices when the pilot is complete, Koon said. “After the hurricane season, we'll probably see other opportunities to engage the technology with the public.”