WASHINGTON—The Advanced Warning and Response Network (AWARN) Alliance made the rounds at the Federal Communications Commission last week to underscore the importance of removing the ATSC 1.0-3.0 simulcast requirement, establishing a date certain for the shutoff of legacy DTV and setting a date by which broadcasters must transmit 3.0 to facilitate a successful transition and support continued technological innovation in broadcasting.

AWARN Alliance executive director Dave Arland and Ed Czarnecki, AWARN steering committee member and vice president of government and international affairs at Digital Alert Systems, met July 25 with FCC Media Bureau and Public Safety Bureau staff, as well as legal and policy advisers to Commissioners Anna Gomez and Olivia Trusty, to discuss how realizing all of the benefits of advanced emergency warnings depends on shutting down ATSC 1.0 and fully transitioning to 3.0, along with other issues, according to notices of ex parte communication sent to the agency.

Arland and Czarnecki told Media Bureau staff that “the full capabilities of the ATSC 3.0 standard require that each broadcaster have at its disposal an entire 6Mhz channel, as is done today with ATSC 1.0 transmissions, in order to have the certainty of knowing what technology will be utilized in the future before committing to more extensive deployment of ATSC 3.0’s full range of capabilities,” according to one of the ex parte notices.

Certainty of a date for the full transition to 3.0 will enable local stations to plan for “necessary technical upgrades and staff training to more fully deploy the capabilities of ATSC 3.0 such as advanced emergency alerting and information messaging,” the pair told the Media Bureau staff.

During the Media Bureau meeting, the AWARN Alliance representatives discussed A331, the ATSC standard on signaling, delivery, synchronization and error protection. Media Bureau staff inquired about the “wake-up bit” that can bring an ATSC 3.0 receiver out of sleep mode during an emergency, the notice about the meeting said.

The meeting with Public Safety Bureau staff covered the same material with additional discussion about advanced emergency alerting and information demonstrations. Noting that there have been some demos and real-world examples of how 3.0 has enhanced emergency alerting, Arland and Czarnecki added, “it’s very much a ‘chicken-and-egg’ situation” as broadcasters wait for the ability to devote all of their assigned spectrum to 3.0 and for more of their audience to have NextGen TVs and receiving devices.

The meeting with Gomez’s staff covered much of the same territory. Deena Shelter, legal adviser to Gomez, noted that the FCC does not want to leave any consumer behind during the transition and that there is no coupon program, as there was during the analog-to-digital transition. The AWARN pair said the transition would not succeed without certainty from the FCC regarding 1.0 shutoff.

Arland and Czarnecki told Shelter that “[i]naction could threaten the important technological innovations that ATSC 3.0 is designed to deliver,” the ex parte communication notice of the meeting with Gomez’s staff said.

During the meeting with Trusty’s staff, ATSC 3.0 digital rights management (DRM) was discussed in addition to the topics addressed at the other meetings. Broadcasters are using DRM to ensure free over-the-air transmission of high-value content is available, the communications notice for the Trusty meeting said.

“Arland noted that consumers have already purchased more than 15,000,000 ATSC 3.0 NextGen TV sets that work seamlessly with DRM technology and that only a small relative number of consumers are impacted by a set-top box product sold with a banned chipset that cannot be authorized to decode protected content,” the notice said, referring to the SiliconDust HDHomeRun 4K Flex and the HiSilicon SoC (system on a chip) that it uses.

The AWARN Alliance last month appointed Dave Arland as its new executive director, succeeding longtime leader and ATSC 3.0 advocate John Lawson.

Much like ATSC 3.0, the alliance has had its share of ebbs and flows as NextGen TV continues its slow, steady march in terms of markets covered and sets sold—especially with a tipping point in NextGen TV sales anticipated to be at hand.

Arland comes to the alliance at a crucial time for NextGen TV generally and advanced emergency alerting and information in particular. Nearly 80% of U.S. households are now covered by an ATSC 3.0 signal. But like most everything else 3.0, advanced alerting can’t reach its full potential until a workable 1.0 sunset becomes reality.

The new executive director has a full plate of AWARN priorities to tackle—from shoring up alliance membership and advising the incoming administration on the benefits of 3.0-based emergency alerting to demonstrating to policymakers and citizens the benefits of NextGen TV-based warnings with real-world implementations and educating newsrooms about how they can leverage advanced alerting to better serve the public.

Arland opens up about these and other important issues in this Q&A. An edited transcript follows.

TVT: What are your top priorities for the AWARN Alliance as its incoming executive director?

Dave Arland: I think there are probably three things we need to do. The first is to recognize that, as with any transition, something of this magnitude takes time. For those of us involved in ATSC 3.0, it feels like it’s been a long time. But I’m old enough to remember the first digital TV transition that took many times longer than this, and we didn't have the capability to do new things. So, I think the first step is to position advanced emergency alerting and information as something that can ride the second wave of ATSC 3.0—if you view the first wave as just getting on air.

We’re almost at 80%. Right now, 76% of households in America can see at least one ATSC 3.0 signal. There are lots of numbers in this transition, but that’s an important one. So, the first step is just to understand that we’re up next, from a batter-up perspective. You can’t do any of this without being on the air.

So, at least stations are on the air, and they’re starting to add new functionality like high dynamic range and Dolby Atmos. The AWARN capability, generically, is tied to the fact that ATSC 3.0 broadcasts are such that they are also connected to the internet, so you’ve got over the top and over the air. One of the advantages of being connected is that you can know where your receiver is, so you can deliver alerts and information to an individual set or receiver based on where it is.

The second step is to find a way to better demonstrate what we're talking about here. It’s been a lot of concepts up to this point, and I know that there are some broadcasters who are pretty close to being able to deploy some of this technology. Being able to demonstrate this is a key ingredient for the future—almost like Hansel and Gretel and the breadcrumbs. I think broadcasters have to be shown this is a new capability.

Once we are able to demonstrate advanced emergency alerting and information, the third thing is to show broadcasters that this can be another way to enhance their public-service mission. One of the things we’re given as broadcasters is spectrum with the trade-off being that we have to serve the public. Providing an enhanced way to do that generically, under the umbrella term of AWARN, is certainly one key benefit that can be added. So, ATSC 3.0 has better picture quality, better audio and also enhanced capabilities, particularly for stations with news departments to reach people with additional, relevant information.

All of us know emergencies are going to continue to happen. Whether it’s the fires in Hawaii, the floods in North Carolina, the hurricanes that strike the coasts—where I live the tornados we’re always on the lookout for—those things are going to continue to happen. Alerting can be better from a television perspective, and that’s what we hope to demonstrate, especially because there are more people buying sets that have the ability to receive ATSC 3.0 signals.

TVT: While you mentioned the importance of the internet connectivity of NextGen TVs with respect to delivering geo-targeted emergency alerts and information, there is also an important over-the-air component to 3.0. Before the OTA aspects of 3.0 can be fully leveraged, the 1.0 logjam needs to be cleared somehow. Do you expect resolution to this issue anytime soon?

DA: I’m hopeful that a change in leadership at the FCC will mean a focus on the future for over-the-air broadcasting. It’s the sort of thing that requires some important decisions from the FCC in concert, obviously, with broadcasters.

We have done what we pledged to do, which was to collaborate and to make it work as best we can. But that only goes so far. You can't get to 100% in terms of household reach with the current setup—not while also transmitting 1.0. So, there’s got to be a way forward.

I think that’s part of the mission the Future of Television Task Force was working on. I know that report hasn’t come out yet. Hopefully it will come out soon, and then there will be a way forward with the new commission so that broadcasters see some certainty [regarding a 1.0 sunset].

All of these things are interconnected. There is an order of business in the sense that you have to be transmitting to make this work. You have to have receivers that people are actually using and buying and tuning, and you have to have antennas that are connected to those receivers in order for it to be optimal.

Even with all of those things, it is a medium that requires electricity. If the power is out everywhere, the real benefit is warning people in advance that something is coming. The more specific the warnings going out, the more people are likely to pay attention. I look at advanced emergency alerts and information as a way for stations to put modern technology to use in a manner that enhances what they’re already doing.

TVT: President-elect Donald Trump regularly stated when concluding his rallies that one of his goals is “to make America safe again.” Will you, as the new leader of the AWARN Alliance, reach out to the incoming administration to bring it up to speed on advanced emergency alerting and how it fits into that stated goal?

DA: Yes, I will, and I think that story needs to be told, but it has to be something where I can pull an arrow out of the quiver. We have to be able to show policymakers something beyond the concept. The concept is a good concept, and it’s what the standard is built upon. But it’s got to be more than conceptual.

People have to understand how this is going to help their local communities, or, if I’m a broadcaster, how it’s going to help me retain viewers.

TVT: You bring up demonstrations. A few years back, News-Press & Gazette demonstrated at NAB how 3.0 advanced alerting could be used. In that case, it was a demo related to the mudslides in Santa Barbara, California. Is that the type of thing you have in mind?

DA: That’s part of it. The approach should be two-pronged. That was demonstrating the concept, but it’s also necessary to demonstrate the actual implementation. I think we’re close to being able to implement advanced emergency alerting and information. At least that’s my hope based on the people who’ve been working on this for some time. That’s where the rubber meets the road.

It will also have to involve people in TV-station newsrooms, the people who are actually going to hit the button and let the public know of an emergency—whether that’s the meteorologist, the weather team, an assignment editor or whomever. They need to warm up to this idea, and we need to let them know it exists and what’s possible.

TVT: How healthy is AWARN Alliance membership? I think the alliance lost some broadcaster group members a little more than a year ago.

DA: That’s one of our challenges, to try to bolster the membership and get people involved—some of whom never left, some of whom left for whatever reason.

Maybe they just weren’t seeing the progress they hoped for. Maybe they had other priorities. I don’t know.

But, you know, I'm actually very bullish on it, because I think it is logical now that we have so many stations transmitting NextGen TV. Most of those are connected in some way to a newsroom that would be monitoring and making people aware of emergencies.

TVT: Why did you take on the AWARN Alliance leadership role?

DA: I was asked if I would consider it. I'm sort of a human Venn diagram in the sense that I represent—and I’m going to continue to represent—the Indiana Broadcasters Association. I work for Pearl TV, and I work for ATSC itself.

So, I already have a pretty good working relationship with many of the people who have been plugged into AWARN, as well as the people who set the standards and the broadcasters who implement them—all the way down to the local level.

I’m also co-chair of the EAS committee of the National Alliance of State Broadcasters Associations. I’ve been in front of the FCC, talking about making sure our state EAS plans are understood, and working through their process. I also work with the National Weather Service locally.

There’s a lot of potential benefit from having somebody who speaks the lingo, is involved with the transition and came out of an electronics background. That’s why I was interested and the AWARN steering committee agreed—hence the offer and the acceptance.

BOISE, Idaho—Evoca TV, the NextGen TV-based OTA-OTT hybrid pay-TV service, has announced it will be bringing its service to Twin Falls, Idaho, over the next few months.

Todd Achilles, company CEO, also announced the launch of a 24/7 Basque-language channel for the sizable Basque community in Boise and Evoca Learn, a new  free-to-air ATSC 3.0 programming service to address the educational needs of children and adults. This was all shared during the virtual ATSC 3.0 Summit presented by Next|TV, Broadcasting & Cable, Multichannel News, TV Tech and TVB Europe.

“We’re going to be moving next door into the Twin Falls DMA, which is a small DMA in south central Idaho,” he said. “There’s a similar sort of dynamic ... [in Twin Falls as in] Boise, a TV desert,” he said, adding his company will be announcing Evoca TV rollouts in other markets over the next couple of months.

Interviewed during the session by Dave Arland, president of Arland Communications, Achilles said the Basque channel is a natural fit for Boise. “You know the Basque community is a big part of … what makes the Boise area special,” he said. Some 15,000 people of Basque descent live in Boise. 

Programming will come directly from a broadcaster in the Basque autonomous region of northern Spain, he added. 

The Evoca Learn initiative was prompted by a desire to assist communities in educating children and the public at large during a time when educators are looking for solutions to reach students who have been asked to learn from home, he said. 

The steady decline in the ability of schools to organize student field trips, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, has left a vacuum in the education of K-12 students, said Achilles. 

Evoca Learn for kids will draw on a rich library of content—much of which has been developed during the pandemic in the absence of patrons—by cultural institutions like museums. “There’s a ton of data that shows field trips are just phenomenal learning opportunities,” he explained.

The educational service for kids will have an element of interactivity. Students will be presented with quizzes following the field trips to gauge what they’ve learned and keep them engaged, he added.

Evoca Learn for adults will help people upgrade their job skills as the economies in their communities transition, he said. 

“You know the numbers are pretty staggering,” said Achilles. “There’s 32 million working age Americans that don’t even have an associate’s degree.” Another 75 million have an associates or bachelor’s degree but “know where they are working could be in transition.”

During the session, Achilles played a video of a humorous promo running in the Boise market emphasizing the hybrid OTT-OTA nature of the service, its comparatively low price and ease of connecting the Evoca TV Scout set-top box to an OTA antenna and the internet.

Evoca TV subscribers in Boise have expressed a bit of surprise about the high quality of video they receive. “You know the No. 1 thing [people comment about] is the quality of the video,” he said.

Broadcasters around the country have taken note of Evoca TV as well. “A lot of them have a second stick in a town that’s … really underutilized, and they’re not monetizing,” he said. Interest from broadcasters about launching Evoca TV themselves spans the universe of TV broadcasters from those in small and mid-size markets to large markets, he added.

Achilles, who comes to broadcasting from the wireless industry, said he has been impressed by the willingness of broadcasters to collaborate on the launch of ATSC 3.0, which he described as ushering in “a total rebirth of broadcasting.” 

“It’s really an exciting time,” he said.

INDIANAPOLIS—Broadcasting and electronics industry veteran Dave Arland will become executive director of the Indiana Broadcasters Association in January, with the decision by the IBA’s board of directors to select Carmel, Ind.-based Arland Communications as the organization’s association management firm. 

“Our state’s broadcasters provide an invaluable service to listeners and viewers when seconds really matter—such as during weather emergencies or when breaking news impacts a local community. The Indiana Broadcasters Association and its more than 300 members cover the Hoosier state with local, reliable service that millions depend on every day,” Arland said. “We’re honored to assume a management role for the IBA, which works to strengthen the broadcasting industry throughout Indiana.”

A former Indianapolis broadcaster on WIBC, WIRE, WXTZ, and WAJC radio, Arland’s firm also works closely with clients such as the Advanced Television Systems Committee, the Pearl TV partnership of media companies, and LG Electronics on advanced broadcasting technologies. Arland is immediate past-chairman of the Indiana Broadcast Pioneers committee of the IBA and also is a board member of WFYI Public Media, which operates WFYI Channel 20 and WFYI FM-90.

ArlandCom’s five-member team has more than 30 years of communications experience and includes Account Director and former radio broadcaster Sam Klemet, Creative Director Joshua Phelps, Production Coordinator Nicole Wilson, and assistant Kellie Beadle.

“The IBA will become one of our key clients and the perfect complement to the technology organizations and companies we already represent. As enhancements continue to be made to broadcasting, the fundamental benefits remain—the ability to reach thousands of listeners and viewers with a single broadcast,” Arland said. “We plan to work cooperatively on behalf of Indiana’s broadcasters and represent their interests at the Indiana Statehouse and in Washington, D.C.