WASHINGTON—Sam Matheny, CEO of newly launched Merkhet Solutions, today told a House subcommittee that the country is becoming “dangerously overdependent” on GPS satellites for delivery of precise timing and positioning data.

Merkhet Solutions is the company spun off from the National Association of Broadcasters to develop commercial uses for the Broadcast Positioning System, a terrestrial backup to GPS. In testimony before the House Communications and Technology Subcommittee, Matheny warned lawmakers that GPS disruptions from jamming, spoofing, cyberattacks or natural failures could endanger critical infrastructure including energy, telecommunications, data centers and financial services.

These “risks endanger virtually every American critical infrastructure sector, including energy, telecommunications, data centers and financial services, where a disruption to precision time can trigger grid instability, network outages and lost transactions,” Matheny said.

BPS provides a backup to GPS by leveraging the nation’s TV broadcast transmission infrastructure to deliver precise timing information. “BPS is a patented terrestrial timing and position technology that leverages existing high-power broadcast infrastructure and licensed spectrum already covering the United States,” Matheny told the subcommittee. “BPS was first conceived by my team at NAB in 2021, and you can think of it as the terrestrial equivalent of GPS.”

A potential loss of GPS would affect national security and pose an economic risk of $1 billion in losses per day, Matheny testified.

Matheny laid out five BPS advantages, including:

• An infrastructure that is already in place.
• Transmission of BPS signals from high-power, tall towers in diverse locations, making it difficult to jam or spoof at scale.
• BPS uses existing licensed spectrum.
• BPS supports unlimited simultaneous users, meaning no bottlenecks—an essential element for emergency and critical infrastructure applications.
• BPS is independent of GPS and other global navigation satellite systems, functioning even when GPS is compromised.

Congress can help advance the speed and scale at which BPS can begin offering reliable GPS backup service, Matheny said.

“First, Congress should help accelerate BPS installation and operations through funding for traceable time, station hardware, calibration and ongoing network operations and monitoring,” he said.

Congress also “should support and work” with the Trump Administration in designating a lead agency to “expedite the activation of BPS and other complements to GPS,” he said.

“Finally, Congress should encourage the Federal Communications Commission to complete the important work it has already initiated on ATSC 3.0,” Matheny said. “In addition to the significant benefits to television viewers, including upgraded picture and sound and better emergency alerting, the full benefits of BPS cannot be harnessed until the FCC completes its work on the ATSC 3.0 transition.”

More information on Merkhet Solution is available on the Merkhet website.

WASHINGTON—The National Association of Broadcasters has launched Merkhet Solutions, an independent company focused on commercial deployment of the Broadcast Positioning System (BPS).

BPS is a terrestrial timing and positioning technology that uses the NextGen TV (ATSC 3.0) broadcast standard to deliver precise time and location signals over the existing network of U.S. broadcast towers.

First conceived by the technology team at NAB in 2021, the patented terrestrial, GPS-independent timing and positioning technology is designed to leverage the high-power, geographically diverse broadcast infrastructure already covering the United States.

"BPS represents a powerful intersection of innovation, public safety and opportunity for broadcasters,” NAB President and CEO Curtis LeGeyt said. “Launching Merkhet Solutions is the next step in commercializing this technology and ensuring it reaches the critical infrastructure operators who need it most, while continuing to create meaningful long-term opportunities for local stations."

BPS has been designed to address the more than $1 billion-per-day economic and national security risk posed by overreliance on GPS. To push forward the commercial deployment of BPS, Merkhet Solutions is engaging across critical infrastructure sectors, including energy, data centers, telecommunications and financial services where a loss of precision time can trigger grid instability, outages and lost trades.

“BPS solves a problem we can no longer afford to ignore: an entire economy and national security posture resting on a single, contested signal from space,” said Merkhet Solutions CEO Sam Matheny. “We built BPS at NAB because broadcast infrastructure is uniquely suited to deliver assured terrestrial timing at scale. We're launching Merkhet Solutions because the time to operationalize this technology is now."

Under Matheny’s leadership at NAB, BPS advanced rapidly from research concept to real-world deployment.

NAB demonstrated the first BPS prototype to the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) in 2022, followed by the first live broadcast demonstration in 2023. In 2024, NAB entered into a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Nexstar Media Group.

In 2025, NIST concluded in a peer-reviewed paper presented at the Institute of Navigation International Technical Meeting that BPS was “comparable to or better than GNSS” for time transfer stability and a “viable complementary PNT solution.” Later that year, the U.S. Department of Transportation awarded NAB a contract to deploy a BPS field trial with critical infrastructure partner Dominion Energy.

BPS is designed as a terrestrial complement to GPS, providing operators with an additional resilient source of timing and positioning that can be used alongside GPS or relied upon when satellite-based services are disrupted by jamming, spoofing, cyberattacks or natural events. The federal government recognized the need for terrestrial complements to GPS through the National Timing Resilience and Security Act and Executive Order 13905.

NAB said Merkhet Solutions intends to serve customers across all critical infrastructure sectors, with an emphasis on the lifeline sectors of energy, telecommunications, data centers and financial services, where timing precision is mission-critical and GPS vulnerability is an unacceptable risk.

Learn more at the Merkhet Solutions website.

WASHINGTON—The National Association of Broadcasters in December realigned its technology-focused leadership to advance development and deployment of the Broadcast Positioning System (BPS), which can complement and backup the Global Positioning System that is increasingly recognized as a potential single point of failure for delivery of precise timing and positioning data critical to national security.

NAB shifted Sam Matheny, former executive vice president for technology and chief technology officer, to his new role as executive vice president for BPS. At the same time, it transitioned Tariq Mondal from his role as vice president of advanced technology to vice president of BPS. Clearly, BPS is a major thrust for NAB and the industry alike.

In this Q&A, Matheny discusses the strategic personnel realignment, U.S. Transportation Department-funded BPS testing, whether BPS may turn out to be the killer app for ATSC 3.0 and other BPS-related issues.

(An edited transcript.)

TV Tech: Last month, NAB announced a strategic realignment of senior technology leadership focused on BPS. Why has NAB made this move?

Sam Matheny: NAB made this move to accelerate development of the Broadcast Positioning System (BPS) and to put dedicated senior leadership behind an initiative that has clear public safety, critical infrastructure and national security implications. BPS has progressed from concept and early demonstrations into a phase where sustained focus, coordination and execution matter. This realignment allows NAB to concentrate technical leadership on advancing BPS while continuing to support broadcasters as they deploy and invest in NextGen TV infrastructure.

TVT: Last year, the Department of Transportation awarded a $744,000 contract to NAB to move forward with BPS field testing. How has that factored in?

SM: The DOT award in August was another validation that BPS is aligned with broader federal efforts to strengthen resilience for position, navigation and timing services. It signaled the continued shift from discussion to real-world evaluation, but importantly, it was part of a larger series of events. In January of 2025, BPS’s time transfer stability was declared “comparable to or better than GNSS [Global Navigation Satellite System]” and a “viable complementary PNT [Positioning, Navigation and Timing] solution” by scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in a peer-reviewed paper presented at the Institute of Navigation (ION) International Technical Meeting. These events, coupled with other indicators, helped drive NAB’s decision to align leadership around BPS so the organization can support field testing, data collection and engagement with government and industry partners in a more focused and sustained way.

TVT: For readers who aren’t familiar with BPS, briefly bring them up to speed.

SM: BPS, a technology invented and developed by NAB, uses NextGen TV broadcast signals to deliver resilient, terrestrial-based timing and location services. One can think of BPS as the terrestrial equivalent of GPS. It is designed to complement GPS. It can provide a backup when satellite signals are disrupted, jammed or spoofed, but it can also be integrated to work with GPS as a hybrid solution. Because BPS leverages high-power broadcast infrastructure that already exists across the country, it has the potential to scale nationally and provide a reliable layer of resilience for public safety, critical infrastructure and other essential services. Other nations that are deploying ATSC 3.0 have also expressed interest in BPS.

TVT: Tell us about the new testing funded by the DOT contract. What will you be looking at?

SM: The field trial supported by the DOT contract is focused on evaluating BPS performance in real-world environments rather than controlled demonstrations. The work is intended to assess how BPS can support critical infrastructure operations when GPS is unavailable or degraded, as well as how the system performs in terms of reliability, coverage and operational integration. NAB has partnered with Dominion Energy with a focus on energy grid resiliency. This testing is a key step in understanding how BPS could function at scale.

TVT: Can you tell us a little more about partnering with Dominion Energy and the broader role of BPS for U.S. industry?

SM: Electric utilities rely heavily on precise timing to operate safely, manage load and maintain grid stability. Power enters the grid from multiple sources and has to be time-aligned for effective distribution. Precision time also plays a huge role in fault detection and helps grid operators identify and fix problems quickly should they occur. Partnering with Dominion Energy allows NAB to evaluate how BPS could help sustain timing and synchronization for electric grid operations during GPS disruptions. More broadly, BPS is being evaluated as a terrestrial complement to GPS that could support a wide range of industries that depend on precise timing, including energy, cellular communications, data centers, financial systems and transportation, where even short disruptions can have significant consequences.

TVT: Is BPS the killer app for ATSC 3.0 that could accelerate deployment by giving the federal government a national security incentive?

SM: BPS is a strong example of how NextGen TV infrastructure can enable services that go well beyond video and entertainment. While ATSC 3.0 supports many new consumer and business applications, the ability to deliver GPS-level resilient timing and positioning highlights its potential role in public safety and national resilience. That broader value proposition reinforces the importance of completing the transition to NextGen TV and ensuring the underlying broadcast infrastructure is fully deployed nationwide.

TVT: Is precise timing or precise positioning the initial priority for BPS? Why?

SM: The near-term priority is accurate, traceable time delivery. Many critical infrastructure systems depend on accurate timing to function properly, and timing disruptions can cascade quickly across networks and services. A 2019 study by NIST estimated the economic impact of a loss of GPS at $1 billion per day. BPS is designed to provide resilient timing as a foundational capability, while positioning and additional services will continue to be developed and refined over time.

TVT: Some in the industry have expressed concerns about the geographic distance between towers affecting positioning. What are your views?

SM: A minimum of three geographically diverse transmissions is needed to perform the multilateration required to determine location, with more towers being better and providing greater accuracy. Our analysis estimates that a typical (median) location in the contiguous U.S., BPS signals from 17 NextGen TV stations might be received at 1.5-meter antenna height. This analysis excluded stations within a kilometer of one another and used only the highest power station from each cluster of stations. So we believe that BPS can provide a useful service for position and navigation. We’re also excited that professors and graduate students at the University of Alabama have begun studying the position and navigation possibilities of BPS and will present early findings at the Workshop on Synchronization and Timing in May.

TVT: At the 2025 NAB Show, there were presentations on the leader-follower architecture and clock configurations for BPS. Can you tell us a bit about what’s being considered?

SM: BPS is designed to be an independent self-synchronizing network that doesn’t rely on the Internet, cellular networks or other connectivity. We’ve designed it as a mesh network where stations listen to one another in a leader-follower configuration. This design is similar to how EAS works. A leader station has a direct connection to UTC traceable time and is equipped with a cesium clock for long holdover, so system integrity can be maintained for months even if there is a total loss of connectivity to traceable time. Follower stations receive time from leader stations and have less expensive rubidium clocks that offer some holdover protection. The result is a network where each station is listening to multiple other stations, and we can monitor individual station health at our network operations center (NOC). A “health bit” is part of the system and can be transmitted if a station is known or suspected to be impaired for maintenance or other reasons, so that it will be ignored until it is healthy again.

TVT: Transmitting BPS addresses the vulnerability of relying solely on GPS, but what is happening on the receiver side?

SM: Reliance on a single timing solution, GPS, is why our nation is at so much risk. GPS has become an invisible utility that has evolved into a single point of failure for critical infrastructure and day-to-day consumer applications. BPS is the terrestrial equivalent of GPS and has been declared to be a “viable complementary PNT solution” by scientists at NIST. We are working with timing solution vendors that want to integrate BPS into their products to offer multiple sources of reliable time in a single product. This lays the foundation for hybrid solutions where BPS and GPS can be used together, not just BPS as a backup. A hybrid approach also offers the ability to use BPS to monitor the health of GPS and detect if there is jamming or spoofing taking place.

TVT: Is there anything else you would like to add?

SM: BPS demonstrates how broadcasters are using their existing infrastructure to support national resilience in new and meaningful ways. This work reflects a broader shift toward viewing broadcast networks as critical infrastructure. NAB is focused on validating that role through real-world testing, partnerships and collaboration with government and industry.

WASHINGTON—The National Association of Broadcasters today announced a "strategic realignment" to accelerate development and deployment of the Broadcast Positioning System (BPS), a groundbreaking public safety and national security initiative made possible by the NextGen TV (ATSC 3.0) standard.

The announcement comes two months after NAB announced that the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) awarded the organization a $744,000 contract to advance BPS field testing. BPS is a new technology that was invented and developed by the NAB.

Broadcasters have been promoting the system, which uses NextGen TV/ATSC 3.0 signals to deliver resilient, terrestrial-based timing and location services that can serve as a backup to the Global Positioning System (GPS). This has the potential to protect the nation’s critical infrastructure in the event of a GPS outage, cyberattack or disruption, the organization said. NAB is partnering with Dominion Energy for the contract and the field testing.

NAB Executive Vice President, Technology and Chief Technology Officer Sam Matheny and Vice President, Advanced Technology Tariq Mondal, who have led BPS development to date, will move into new roles dedicated exclusively to the initiative.

Matheny will now serve as executive vice president, Broadcast Positioning System, and Mondal as vice president, Broadcast Positioning System. Together, they will work to build a dedicated team focused solely on advancing BPS technology and services, NAB said.

“This work represents a powerful intersection of innovation, public safety and opportunity for broadcasters,” said NAB President and CEO Curtis LeGeyt. “By investing more resources in BPS, we are accelerating a technology that strengthens national resilience while creating meaningful long-term opportunities for our members.”

As part of the realignment, NAB is also launching a new Industry Affairs and Innovation department, led by Executive Vice President April Carty-Sipp, bringing together NAB’s Industry Affairs and Technology teams under one strategic umbrella. This integration will align member services, innovation, engineering and technology expertise to better address the challenges and opportunities facing broadcasters at the intersection of business and technology.

Additionally, Senior Vice President of Emerging Technology and Executive Director of PILOT John Clark will serve in the newly created role of chief innovation officer and senior vice president of Emerging Technology, where he will lead NAB’s efforts to identify, develop and expand next-generation tools, partnerships and technologies that empower local broadcasters.

“This realignment reflects NAB’s commitment to ensuring broadcasters are positioned to compete, grow and serve their communities in a rapidly changing media landscape,” LeGeyt said. “By streamlining expertise and aligning strategic priorities, we are delivering more responsive, forward-looking support to our members.”

NAB says the new structure will strengthen its ability to advance innovation that supports local journalism, emergency communications, public safety, broadcast engineering and the next generation of broadcast technology, ensuring that broadcasters remain essential to communities across the country.

In February, 2024, the FCC announced that the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), which has provided affordable internet services to households that could otherwise not afford them, will wind down unless Congress acts to provide additional funding. 

Originally part of the bipartisan Infrastructure bill that was passed by Congress in 2021, the ACP delivers internet service financial assistance to disadvantaged households in rural and depressed urban areas. These services were lifelines  during the Covid pandemic and have remained so, given the move to remote work and the need for internet connectivity to sustain gainful employment. 

Pleading the case for ACP continuance, FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel urged Congress to approve additional funding for ACP last month. If new funding is not approved, the  program will terminate in April. 

The stakes are high—failure to sustain this program will have dire effects on underserved families that depend on internet service as much as they rely on electricity, gas and other household utilities.  

Writing to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Technology on March 4, Rosenworcel stated,“Prior to participating in the [ACP] program, 68 percent of ACP households had inconsistent connectivity or zero connectivity, and….“more than 75% of ACP households expect their service will be disrupted if the ACP ends because they will need to change their plans or stop internet service entirely.…  I believe we have come too far with the ACP to turn back and lose the gains we have made connecting so many households across the country.” 

To address the problem, House bill HR6929—introduced in January with bipartisan support—extends the ACP with $7 billion in new funding, so Rosenworcel’s letter is an act of well-timed urgency.

Internet as a Household Utility
Heat, water and electricity have always been acknowledged as baseline household shelter needs—so why not internet? This has been an ongoing debate that began in 2015, when the Obama administration established the concept of “net neutrality,” which basically came down to “Internet for all”—without preferential treatment from internet service providers for some segments of the population over others.

Net neutrality  was subsequently overturned by the Trump administration in 2018, when the FCC ruled that internet service providers indeed had the right to decide who gets premium Internet service and content, and who doesn’t. 

Then in 2021, the Biden administration reinstated net neutrality by issuing an executive order. The order was followed with a bipartisan infrastructure bill that included a provision for the ACP, which ensured financial assistance to disadvantaged constituencies so they could obtain adequate Internet service in their households. This week the FCC plans to approve a measure to reinstate net neutrality.

When net neutrality was eliminated in 2018, the New York Times published a story about rural Ferry County in Northwestern Washington state. Ferry County is largely forest land, and spans 22,000 square miles. If residents wanted to access the internet, they had to go to the nearest public library—a situation that  the Times described  as “roughly 7,500 residents of this county, which is rich in natural beauty but internet-poor.”

Today, 93% of rural households have internet access. Internet service, often facilitated by the ACP, has made a difference in their quality of life.

“We join in the optimism that this period of unprecedented investment in American broadband represents,” said Tom Ferree, Chairman & CEO of Connected Nation.  “Indeed, history is watching, and therefore it is critical that every effort be made to ensure that this unique moment is not squandered but truly delivers on the promise of providing fast, affordable, reliable, low-latency Internet access to all Americans.”

The Impact of the Digital Divide
Just as rural and disadvantaged urban households have been sustained by ACP support, the program has also benefited broadcasters and digital content purveyors, which  have been able to reach larger audiences with their video content. At the same time, however, the digital divide has shifted—today the digital divide is as much about content affordability as much as it is internet access. 

Experiencing price pressures from every direction,  consumers want to see more economical video content options—but cable tv providers have  moved instead in the opposite direction by continuing to double down with price increases that have outperformed inflation.

The end result has seen consumers moving away from cable and onto internet-based content streaming platforms that offer more flexibility, including the ability for consumers to  control their own spend. This has generated a global video streaming market that has a projected CAGR of 19.3% from 2023-2030. 

What this means is that even if the ACP obtains new funding and households in all areas continue to enjoy Internet access that is affordable, the digital divide battle of affordability will continue to  be fought in the trenches of affordable video content for consumers, such as the ability to make discretionary content streaming choices that fit consumers’ budgets. Given this, what steps can broadcasters and digital content purveyors take now to obtain maximum profitability and to reach the most consumers?

2024’s Digital Divide Strategies
To navigate the new digital divide of content affordability, the keyword for broadcasters and digital content providers in 2024 is agility—in pricing and in delivery.

So far in 2024, 99% of U.S. consumers are paying for at least one streaming service. However, 45% acknowledged that they canceled at least one streaming service in the past year because the service became too expensive. 

Broadcasters have responded with a plethora of viewing options with varying price points that consumers can choose from.

(Read: ATSC 3.0 Holds Key to Educational Success in Stay-At-Home Era)

“[Broadcasters] are the ultimate Swiss Army Knife of content distribution,” said Sam Metheny, NAB CTO and EVP of NAB.  “First and foremost, they continue to transmit free, over the air, high-definition video. They are also available via cable, satellite, streaming services, and direct-to-consumer through their own apps, web sites, and streaming channels.  This diverse distribution model meets consumers where they are and enables viewers to access broadcaster content on their own terms.”

24/7 low-latency internet is also a requirement.

“In many cases broadcasters are adopting and leveraging cloud, virtual, and SaaS models, which provide greater flexibility for productions,” said Metheny.  “These can reduce CAPEX, and may also reduce OPEX depending on how they are used.”

The hope is that with more flexible content choices and delivery options, broadcasters and video content providers can reduce costs and make progress with digital divide content affordability with consumers in all demographics—with the end results of revenue and market share growth.

Metheny is bullish on this prospect.

“[We see] broadcasters embracing NextGenTV, or ATSC 3.0, which now reaches over 75% of the country,” he said. “This advanced and innovative broadcasting technology allows for more robust, interactive content delivery, personalized services and improved audio and video quality. Because the new technology combines the best features of broadcast television and broadband, NextGen TV allows local stations to better personalize their broadcasts with information and interactive features so viewers can get the content and features most relevant to them.”

FREMONT, Calif.—The Ultra HD Forum, a global organization that promotes the market adoption of Ultra HD, announced its new board of directors and officers. LG Electronics’ Nandhu Nandhakumar takes the lead as president and board chair, succeeding Harmonic’s Thierry Fautier, who is completing his term. Yasser Syed of Comcast Cable, and Renard Jenkins of WarnerMedia, have been named new board members.

Filling out the officer slate are Dolby’s Patrick Griffis as vice president, Xperi’s Pete Sellar as treasurer and Interdigital’s Bill Redmann as secretary. Continuing in their current positions on the board are Broadcom’s Wade Wan and NAB’s Sam Matheny.

Outgoing President Thierry Fautier, who remains a board member, said in a press statement, “It’s been an exciting first five years, starting with few commercial UHD services to almost 200 now. We successfully met early challenges such as resolution, HDR, HFR, multiple NGA technologies and have provided a framework addressing them, making UHD commercially deployable for operators. I’m incredibly proud of the publication of our industry guidelines and the interoperability work conducted with other industry groups to help make this happen. Lastly, our service tracker is now becoming an industry reference. I look forward to future contributions under the leadership of my capable successor Nandhu Nandhakumar.”

 Incoming President Nandhakumar said, “Ultra HD makes video more relevant in these more isolated times, so it is timely that our board is now even more representative of the industry at large. It is exciting to see the increasing rate of deployment of Ultra HD services over diverse distribution paths.”

WASHINGTON—“We are not just dealing with a crisis, but also a catalyst.” 

So says Sam Matheny, CTO and executive vice president at the National Association of Broadcasters, opening the online version of the Broadcasting Engineering and IT Conference Wednesday. It was part of the two-day NAB Show Express event.

“Things are changing rapidly, and in ways people may have never thought possible,” Matheny said, according to the text of his prepared remarks as provided by NAB. “Companies have adopted remote production, cloud technologies, distributed master control and so much more.”

Matheny said such change would typically take a long time—“years to convince people of, and still years more to deploy.” But the pandemic is prompting rapid change. “It unleashed your talents and genius as you were tasked with adapting and thriving in a new operating environment.”

Matheny said he has had numerous CEO conversations about the value of technology and engineering right now, enabling stations to stay on the air.

“They’ve said, ‘You know, if you had asked me eight weeks ago was this possible, I would have told you no. But, it has actually worked quite well.’ And they weren’t describing minor changes. They were describing 75% of the workforce being displaced from the office. They were describing massive change. And you, you are your company heroes of this pandemic. Thank you for all you are doing to keep our communities and nation informed and safe, and also entertained.”

A number of the sessions planned for the BEITC conference migrated to the NAB Show Express website and are accessible there either live or on-demand.

The site also features presentations and acceptance remarks for the NAB’s Engineering Achievement Awards including the TV award to Jim Stenberg of American Tower and the radio award to Jeff Welton of Nautel and the Digital Leadership Award to J.D. Crowley of Entercom.

This story originally appeared on TVT's sister publication Radio World.

Sam Matheny is chief technology officer and executive vice president of the National Association of Broadcasters.

Radio World: What impact is the coronavirus national emergency having on station operations? 

Sam Matheny: Radio and TV stations are implementing special policies to address coronavirus. These vary per station or group, but include remote work orders and extra cleaning.

We understand a small number of stations are having issues accessing their main studio due to the virus and quarantine areas. In these cases, we are working with FEMA and state or local emergency management authorities to aid them in getting the access they need. In some instances secondary studios are being considered or have been activated. 

RW: Are there specific impacts in technical infrastructure and programming operations we should know about? 

Matheny: Given broadcasters’ critical role in keeping the public informed, staying on the air is their top priority.

Some broadcasters have been forced to move to alternate studio sites as employees in main studio locations have tested positive for COVID-19. They are able to make use of broadcast auxiliary spectrum for a limited time, and many stations have equipment available to ensure continuity of operations from alternate studio sites, as well as to report accurate and timely information from state and local officials. Many radio stations have existing disaster plans that they routinely review and drill. Such plans are important resources and can help inform broadcasters’ response to the operational challenges posed by COVID-19.

Additionally, DHS just today [Monday] issued NCC Watch Access and Fuel letters to support any recovery/restoration activity that may be impacted due to COVID-19 nationwide.

RW: What impact is the emergency having on radio engineers and technical staff, professionally or personally?  

Matheny: Clearly everyone is impacted by the novel coronavirus and radio engineers are not exempt. There is a heightened sense of preparedness and a great deal of planning taking place.

This morning, we received the following information from an NAB Radio Technology Committee member: “All air travel cancelled. Work from home infrastructure being implemented. Work spaces being separated. Building outside air being maximized which will elevate energy consumption. Remote audio and video recording/reporting apps being added to increased number of smart phones. Stocking food, water and sterilization wipes at station. Contacting local hazmat mitigation companies for 24/7 numbers. Holding market-wide conference calls to determine back-up studio links.”

PILOT, an NAB innovation initiative, has been impacted too. We had to cancel an FM-band HD Radio field test that was scheduled to start today, March 16. This field test, months in the making, involves Xperi and radio engineers from a number of NAB-member groups. 

RW: Engineers are often asked to be the ones who step in when other staffers have to step out. Are there any best practices that NAB hopes that engineers and their employers will adopt?

Matheny: Radio and television engineers are often the unsung heroes during more traditional emergencies such as hurricanes, tornadoes or wildfires. They play a vital role in keeping stations on the air and operational and we expect they will play that role with the current situation. 

RW: What else should we know?

Matheny: We at NAB have created Coronavirus Response Toolkit for all stations to use. It includes operational resources that stations can download and integrate into their planning. It also includes PSA’s that can be used to educate audiences about the virus and response. 

Also, as Brock Long, former FEMA administrator, says in this recent Op-ed, radio has a special place in emergency communications and keeping people informed. This is a job that stations—and station engineers—take very seriously.  The spread of this virus presents unique challenges, but we are confident radio stations will continue to play a vital role in informing and educating the public, while also keeping them entertained and connected in a time of social distancing. And all of this is made possible by the hard-working engineers that will keep the stations operational.

WASHINGTON — TV and radio broadcasters have a new resource to help fund internships to grow the pool of young engineering talent for the broadcast industry.

Pilot, NAB’s technology innovation initiative, in partnership with the National Association of Broadcasters Educational Foundation, today announced the launch of a new program to provide grants to NAB members that establish paid engineering and media technology internships at their radio and TV stations.

“We believe these internships will help NAB member stations attract the best and brightest and expand awareness of the exciting work that a career in broadcast technology can provide,” said NAB CTO Sam Matheny. “We are thrilled to be working with NABEF on this program, as a key component of Pilot’s technology education efforts.”

Initial grants will be for part-time internships in the spring 2019 academic term and full-time internships in the summer of next year. The program is aimed at helping NAB members that do not offer engineering or media-technology internships at the moment.

The new initiative will also help selected stations identify and support interns as well as assist with their attending the 2019 NAB Show in Las Vegas.

The deadline for NAB members to apply for the grants is Aug. 15 for the spring 2019 internships. The deadline for the summer internship grants is Nov. 2.

“Through these grants, we expect to provide more opportunities for students to explore and learn about broadcast technology and engineering,” said NABEF President Marcellus Alexander. “The result will be an increase in the pool of talent for our industry.”

More information is available on the NAB Pilot website.

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WASHINGTON—A House subcommittee tasked with overseeing emergency communications heard from the FCC and FEMA on Tuesday, Feb. 6, about the Jan. 13 Hawaii false missile warning as well as from wireless and broadcast industry representatives and state emergency managers about the status of the nation’s emergency alerting systems.

“Considering the technological advances that have been made over the past decade, we have high expectations for what our phones, tablets and computers can do,” said Emergency Preparedness, Response and Communications Subcommittee chairman Dan Donovan (R-NY) during opening remarks. “At the very least, we expect that the alerts that come through on our devices are timely, accurate and only sent when necessary,”

Front and center was the errant missile attack warning issued by the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency. Lisa Fowlkes, chief of the FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau called the false alarm “unacceptable.”

“It resulted in widespread panic and the extended period it took to correct the error—nearly 40 minutes—compounded the problem,” she said. “This cry of wolf damaged the alert messaging, which can be dangerous when a real emergency occurs.” Fowlkes informed the committee that the FCC has issued a preliminary report on the incident after dispatching investigators to Hawaii.

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), who is not a member of the subcommittee, asked to participate in the hearing. She inquired about reports that the Hawaii state employee who was responsible for sending the errant message maintains that it was real. She also asked for more information about the process used to cancel messages and the lack of safeguards.

In reply, Fowlkes walked the subcommittee through what the agency’s investigators found in Hawaii and covered much of what was unearthed in the agency’s preliminary report, including information from state emergency management that the warning officer did not hear the “exercise, exercise, exercise” warning at the beginning and end of the simulated call from Pacific Command but heard only the “this is not a drill” phrase in the message. Fowlkes also explained that cancelling emergency messages does not trigger an all-clear, but rather, stops a message from being continuously transmitted via EAS and WEA.

Antwane Johnson, director of continuity communications at FEMA, said that the uncertainty Hawaii’s Emergency Management Agency had over the type of message that should be used to correct its error points back at the training his agency provides. “And that’s where we are going to address this, through training, increased awareness and working with our federal, state and local partners,” he said.

The subcommittee also heard from Benjamin Krakauer, assistant commissioner, strategy and program development at New York City Emergency Management, Peter Gaynor, director of the Rhode Island Emergency Management Agency, Scott Bergmann, CTIA SVP regulatory affairs and NAB CTO Sam Matheny.

During his testimony, Matheny concisely laid out the unique strengths of broadcasting as an emergency alerting medium.

“First, broadcasting covers virtually everyone—broadcast signals reach more of the U.S. population than any other communication medium,” he said. Matheny also pointed to the local nature of broadcasting to deliver market-specific information and alerts; the lack of bottlenecks created by network congestion; the resiliency and redundancy of stations and equipment; the ability of radio and TV to provide enough information for the public to understand the exact nature of an emergency and what steps to take; and broadcasters’ status as members of the communities they serve.

Matheny reminded the subcommittee that about 1,000 TV broadcasters are currently in the process of moving to new channel assignments as part of the FCC’s spectrum auction and repack. The work needed to replace TV antennas and make other tower changes will impact 700 FM stations as well, he said. “Broadcasters need the time and money required to make these moves successfully, and without impairing the public’s ability to access emergency alerts,” said Matheny.

The NAB CTO also explained to subcommittee members that the newly authorized ATSC 3.0 TV standard will enable advanced emergency alerts to be transmitted to the public. Saying that new regulatory hurdles should not be put in the path of broadcasters as they deploy ATSC 3.0, Matheny explained that next-generation TV will enable “the ability to wake up sleeping devices, more precise geo-targeted alerts and sending rich multimedia files, such as weather radar images, evacuation maps and even video files with detailed explanations about the emergency and what to do.”

CTIA’s Bergman told the subcommittee that since WEA’s inauguration five years ago, wireless emergency alerts “have become an essential tool for the hundreds of millions of Americans who rely on their mobile phones every day.” The wireless industry has improved WEA capabilities since the system’s initial launch and is committed to implementing enhancements adopted by the FCC last week, including improved geo-targeting down to the cell level, he said.

Referencing the Hawaii false alarm, Bergman said the integrity of WEA messages remains the foundation for the public’s trust in the system. “Wireless carriers do not control the content of emergency messages,” he said, adding that neither do they have discretion over whether to send them. However, the CTIA representative assured the subcommittee that the wireless industry is committed to the security of its networks.

New York City’s Krakauer said more must be done to update WEA. While calling it “one of the greatest advances in public alert and warning in our country’s history,” he said, “the capability offered by WEA has not kept up with advances in technology” and the way people use their mobile phones.

High on his list of deficiencies is WEA’s inability to send multimedia alerts. Krakauer recalled the 2016 Chelsea bombing that wounded 31 people. Without multimedia alerting, the WEA system could only send a description of the suspect and alert the public to check local media to see a picture of the bomber. Only 45 percent of the public took the extra step of going to their TVs to look at the picture, he added. Other areas of concern to Krakauer included the lack of many-to-one communication and multilingual alerting beyond Spanish, he said.

WASHINGTON—NAB’s Sam Matheny testified to the U.S. Senate that broadcasters are “the backbone of the Emergency Alert System,” during a hearing on Thursday, Jan. 25, that took a direct look at policy concerns around the use and effectiveness of Emergency Alert Systems. “This is Not a Drill: An Examination of Emergency Alert Systems,” sought answers on Wireless Emergency Alerts and recent failures, most notably the Hawaii false alarm of an impending missile attack. Matheny, NAB’s executive vice president and chief technology officer, was one of the witnesses brought in to provide testimony and answer additional questions from senators.

Sam Matheny

In his testimony, Matheny said that broadcasters take their responsibility as a source for news and emergency updates seriously and that in some situations broadcasters may be the only available communications medium if wireless networks fail.

“Because broadcasting plays such an important role in this critical communications infrastructure, it is vital that the government support and foster broadcasting,” Matheny stressed in his testimony. 

He provided three areas that he believed should be of focus for the government in improving broadcasters’ EAS capabilities: The need to support the deployment of ATSC 3.0; support and passage of the Viewer and Listener Protection Act to ensure that TV and radio stations that provide emergency alerts are not pushed off air as part of the ongoing repack process; and that Apple be encouraged to activate the FM tuner in future models of its iPhone as other wireless phone manufacturers have to improve people’s access to vital disaster information.

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The committee asked Matheny whether the current estimate of $1.75 billion for repack funding for broadcasters was enough to ensure that stations are not forced off the air and run the risk of not being available in the case of an emergency. Matheny said that he believes there is a “substantial disconnect from what’s available and what is going to be needed.” Matheny agreed with FCC Chairman Ajit Pai that the current funding is not enough and that the real number is going to be around $3 billion.

When the issue of the Hawaii false alert was brought up, Matheny was questioned on how the alerts were disseminated. Matheny said that the emergency alerts worked as designed, issuing a text scrawl across television and an audio alert across radio. “The broadcast infrastructure worked,” he said. “The message did get out, unfortunately, in this case it was a mistaken message… that piece of the process (the alert) worked as designed.”

Matheny’s full prepared testimony to the committee is available here.

DALLAS—Sam Matheny, executive vice president and chief technology officer for NAB, is the newest member of the National Wireless Safety Alliance’s Board of Governors. The announcement was made during the NWSA stakeholder meetings, which are currently underway in Dallas.

As part of the Board of Governors, Matheny will help develop policy and provide oversight for the national non-profit assessment and certification organization for the enhancement of safety and training for those who work one towers and other non-standard structures.

“Climbing and rigging really tall broadcast towers to handle very large antennas requires special skills that are uniquely challenging,” said Matheny. “Developing programs that will increase tower safety is of vital concern and will save lives. I’m delighted to join the NWSA and help with this important endeavor.