SACRAMENTO, CA & WASHINGTON—KVIE, the public television station in Sacramento, last month delivered the first-ever earthquake alert in less than three seconds during a test of the California Earthquake Early Warning System.

“KVIE was honored to partner with Cal OES [California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services] to conduct this critical field trial of earthquake early warnings in California,” said David Lowe, station president and GM. “This work is part of KVIE’s commitment to public service and public safety.”

KVIE, which took part in the test Sept. 18, is one of several California public broadcasters that are participating. Others include PBS SoCal in Los Angeles, KPBS in San Diego, KQED in San Francisco and Valley PBS in Fresno.

This network of full-power, data-capable OTA transmitters will carry low-latency CEEWS alerts in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Fresno and Sacramento. The stations’ infrastructure has been hardened to ensure communications services survive during all types of natural disasters.

[Read: Research: Americans Want Public Broadcasting To Provide Earthquake Early Warnings]

America’s Public Television Stations (APTS) and Eagle Hill Consulting have worked with Cal OES to develop robust, high-speed data delivery capability to handle early earthquake warnings to California’s most highly populated areas. Seismic sensors, data processing centers and end-user distribution mechanisms are employed to warn people, institutions and infrastructure operators when an earthquake is detected.

More information is available on the APTS website.

SOUTHWICK, MASS.—KVIE, the public broadcaster serving Sacramento, Stockton and Modesto, Calif., has ordered a new Hitachi-Comark Parallax VHF Band 3 DTV transmitter for Channel 9, the broadcast transmitter announced today.

Initially, the transmitter will be equipped with 12 VHF power amplifiers, which will provide 17.3kW TPO. To enable a future boost in power output, the transmitter is pre-wired to accept additional PAs that can take TPO to 23.1kW if necessary.

[Read: WGBH/WBGY Taps Hitachi-Comark Transmitters For Repack]

The transmitter will be delivered with a liquid cooling system and dual Exact-V2 exciters in a main-standby configuration, Hitachi-Comark said. The company will manage shipment, offloading and placement of the new unit and remove and dispose of the station’s existing transmitter.

“Comark worked with the management of KVIE to provide a complete solution to replace their existing unit with the latest technology. The transmitter will be delivered with ATSC 1.0 compatible exciters, but the unit is easily upgradeable for ATSC 3.0 as soon as the station is ready for testing,” said Dick Fiore, president and CEO of Hitachi Kokusai Electric Comark.