Deborah D. McAdams / 08.20.2012 12:58AM
Mobile DTV EAS Being Demoed for First Responders
Minneapolis event to include new LG prototypes
MINNEAPOLIS: First responders attending the annual conference of
the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials this week will get a
chance to see how the new Mobile Emergency Alert System could be
deployed. The APCO conference is focused on public safety communications,
data security challenges, and emerging technologies. Around 5,000 people
attend. The live M-EAS demonstration is taking place Aug. 21 at noon in the
Presentation Theater at the Minneapolis Convention Center.
The new M-EAS is delivered via mobile broadcast DTV for delivery of rich-media
alerts to mobile and handheld devices. Prototype LG mobile phones being demonstrated
offer not only audio and visual indications of emergency alerts, but also
include a vibrating mode to notify all users (including those who might be
visually impaired) about an emergency. Tuesday’s demonstration will show how
easy it will be for local TV stations to transmit mobile DTV signals with rich
media emergency alert content for simulated national and local emergency
scenarios, including a “suspicious package threat,” an “approaching tornado,”
an “AMBER Alert” and “impending tsunami.”
The demonstration is being conducted with the support of the Public Broadcasting
Service, LG, Zenith and Harris. LG Electronics developed the receivers; Zenith
provided technical support and funding; and Harris Broadcast provided the
signal exciters for TV stations to transmit the format.
“M-EAS easily overlays an entire metropolitan area
with a signal that is not dependent on mobile wireless network infrastructure,”
said John Lawson, executive director of the Mobile500 Alliance group of
broadcasters. “It effectively bypasses bottlenecks caused by congestion and
will deliver rich-media content to mobile phones, tablets, and APCO-25
standardized emergency responder radios.”
Using conventional TV broadcasts enhanced with data and mobile DTV transmissions,
the M-EAS project will illustrate how the system delivers multimedia alerts to
mobile DTV-equipped cellphones, tablets, laptops, netbooks, and in-car
navigation systems, free of the type of congestion that can overcome cellular
systems during emergencies.
PBS Chief Technology Office John McCoskey said the M-EAS system would be
complementary with the current cellular-based system that transmits 90-character
texts to mobile phones.
The Minneapolis demonstration follows a year-long successful M-EAS pilot
project where enhanced emergency alerts were transmitted and received through
prototype equipment deployed in Massachusetts, Alabama and Nevada. Fisher
Communications-owned KOMO-TV in Seattle also supported the pilot project to
create a tsunami alert simulation.
“Our field trials effectively demonstrated that M-EAS can play an integral role
in the future of public safety communications, and work is now under way to
finalize the industry standard for M-EAS through the ATSC,” McCoskey
said. “This life-saving enhancement to the ATSC Mobile DTV standard is expected
to be standardized by early next year.”
The new alerting application developed during the pilot project capitalizes on
existing standards for implementation. The U.S. broadcast standard for mobile
television, ATSC A/153, uses Internet Protocol at its core. The use of IP
allows the new application to be flexible and extensible. Data delivery,
non-real-time delivery, and electronic service guides are all included. M-EAS
is compliant with the international Common Alerting Protocol and designed for
full incorporation into the U.S. Integrated Public Alert and Warning System.
Jay Adrick, vice president of broadcast technologies for Harris Broadcast noted
that a similar system “saved thousands of lives when alerts went out during the
Japan earthquake and subsequent tsunami last year.”
~ Deborah D. McAdams