Deborah D. McAdams / 09.12.2012 12:39PM
WRAL-TV to Demo Mobile EAS
Receiver penetration still sketchy
RALEIGH, N.C.—WRAL will
demonstrate mobile EAS tomorrow, making it the first commercial station to
light up the service. M-EAS will be able to transmit multimedia emergency
messages to receivers that decode mobile DTV signals. WRAL will demo the
technology this Thursday at 6 p.m. Eastern Time, “during an event attended by
emergency management personnel and public officials in Raleigh,” the station
said.
M-EAS differs from the 90-character text alerts available to cellphones in that
it enables the transmission of video, audio, photos and graphics in addition to
text.
“The potential of the system includes mobile digital television devices, cellphones,
tablet computers and other devices,” WRAL’s announcement said. “This innovative
technology requires no cell towers, no cellphone data plans, and no Internet
access since it uses broadcast TV transmissions to reach millions of potential
viewers with a single broadcast.”
However, it requires a receiver that decodes mobile DTV signals transmitted in
the ATSC-M/H format. Deployment and market penetration of such receivers is
limited.
LG introduced a laptop-like device two years ago. (Pictured right.) The LG DP570MH was offered
though online retailers for around $250. RCA came out with a receiver last year
that resembled a smartphone, but lacking in smartphone features. Transmission
expert Doug Lung reviewed
it for TV Technology. The most
recently released device is a smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy S Lightray 4G,
rolled out by MetroPCS last month. (See “Dyle
Phone Hits the Market”)
The $460 Lightray will work specifically with Dyle mobile DTV—the programming
brand created by the Mobile Content Venture consortium of TV stations and
networks—in a limited number of markets around the country. Dyle announced
yesterday that it’s developing a new rear-seat vehicle receiver system with
Audiovox. Elgato makes an iPad receiver dongle for mobile DTV in Europe, but
the U.S. version does not appear to be commercially available.
M-EAS has been demonstrated in the past by Public Broadcasting Service member
stations KLVX-DT in Las Vegas and WGBH-TV in Boston. Both are part of
a M-EAS pilot program announced last January at the Consumer Electronics Show. The
service also was demonstrated for first responders at the annual Association of
Public-Safety Communications Officials conference in Minneapolis last month.
M-EAS is being standardized by the Advanced Television Systems Committee as
part of ATSC-M/H, which WRAL says it’s been “using for the past three years.”
The event will be lived
streamed at the station’s website, WRAL.com. And tweeted live at www.wral.com/11477194
using #WRALMEAS #MDTV.
~ Deborah D. McAdams