TORONTO—Eon Media, WCTE Central Tennessee PBS and Public Media Venture Group (PMVG) have announced a pilot project to evaluate the potential of Eon Media’s eonArchivesAI product to enhance programming, enrich local service and raise additional revenue in a local public television environment.

As part of the pilot, Eon Media with the assistance of PMVG will work with WCTE PBS, serving rural Tennessee, to deploy the product to index extensive WCTE archives using AI-generated metadata, PMVG said.

WCTE’s archives include years of public events, public service programming, cultural features and local sports. While the station has digitized much of its archives, the lack of any metadata encoding or indexing has presented a virtually insurmountable obstacle to WCTE’s ability to leverage these archives, it said.

The potential to create new programming or enhance current programming, to identify material that may have value to local government or public service organizations or to generate license revenue from archives is a significant opportunity for the station. The WCTE pilot will provide this metadata indexing, a user interface to extract content and a public-facing online storefront to allow interested parties to identify and license material that might be of interest to them, it said.

Eon Media has a successful record with commercial broadcasters. These efforts have enabled the company’s broadcast customers to generate over $50,000 in revenue in the past six months—a sum that excludes the value of leveraging archives in news reporting, creating nonbroadcast content offshoots and other benefits that add to the value of the stations, it said.

The pilot will help EON Media and PMVG identify challenges and opportunities unique to local public television stations and determine what features public television stations need to derive the most value from their archives. The pilot will also help stations develop and augment policies for responsible, ethical and journalistic uses of AI as well as respond to potential concerns of donors and the general public about stations’ use of AI.

More information is available on the Eon Media, PMVG and WCTE Central Tennessee PBS websites.

BOULDER, Colo.—Public Media Venture Group and the Korea Radio Promotion Association (RAPA) have successfully implemented DigiCAP’s Enhanced Management System (EMS) at W35DZ-D, an LPTV station serving as an ATSC 3.0 translator for public television station WCTE in Cookeville, Tenn.

DigiCAP’s EMS provides real-time monitoring and remote diagnostics for all ATSC 3.0 service passing through the station’s signal chain. The system is installed at the station’s transmitter site and is connected to DigiCAP’s operations center in Seoul. There, the system tracks key operating parameters and presents them through a user-friendly dashboard accessible to station personnel via personal computer or smartphone, DigiCAP said,

"With an upgrade path for ATSC 3.0 transport and transmission system monitoring, EMS ensures long-term sustainability for broadcasters navigating the evolving ATSC landscape," said Joonyoung Park, fellow and senior vice president at DigiCAP.

EMS is designed to scale across multi-transmitter networks. It is particularly well-suited for public television state networks, some of which operate more than 100 transmitter sites. By improving reliability, optimizing technical resources and reducing operational costs, EMS has the potential to transform how public broadcasters manage ATSC 3.0 infrastructure, it said.

“EMS has already had an impact on our operations at W35DZ-D, providing a comprehensive view of the various programming and data streams running through our signal chain, and allowing us to optimize our service by minimizing the need for costly site visits. We look forward to working with DigiCAP to expand the availability of EMS to PMVG members and to public television stations overall,” said PMVG CEO Marc Hand.

At W35DZ-D, EMS is seamlessly integrated with DigiCAP’s DigiCaster software-based ATSC 3.0 air chain. This compatibility simplified the installation process. Recognizing that public television stations use ATSC 3.0 equipment from a variety of manufacturers, DigiCAP and PMVG are exploring ways to expand EMS compatibility across the many different configurations of ATSC 3.0 deployment across the public television system, PMVG said.

“WCTE is a small public television station with a track record of big public service. Given all of the local production that we do and our very small budget, engineering resources are at a premium for us. EMS has a big impact, allowing us to do more with less,” said WCTE station manager Craig LeFevre.

This initiative is part of a RAPA-PMVG joint venture aimed at applying advanced technology developed during the ATSC 3.0 rollout in South Korea to the United States.

The focus is to develop public service applications for ATSC 3.0 that increase public service and enhance station efficiency. Other projects currently implemented or under development at the WCTE / W35DZ-D site in Cookeville include LiveCAP, an AI-driven system providing closed captions in multiple languages, and EQ4ALL, an emergency-alerting system that uses avatars to provide severe weather and other alerts in American Sign Language to deaf and hearing-impaired viewers, PMVG said.

More information is available on the DigiCAP, RAPA and PMVG websites.

COOKEVILLE, Tenn., and BOULDER, Colo.—PBS station WCTE and the Public Media Venture Group (PMVG) this month met in Cookeville to test and implement a new initiative that uses ATSC 3.0 technology to bring American Sign Language (ASL) services to emergency alert systems.

Building on the groups’ introduction of real-time, Spanish-language closed caption translation this past December, the latest effort aims to ensure critical information reaches deaf and hearing-impaired community members. Both projects are powered by PMVG’s NextGen TV (ATSC 3.0) station in Cookeville, leveraging the capabilities of NextGen TV broadcasting to deliver life-saving emergency information across the entire Cookeville and Putnam County, Tenn., region, PMVG said.

WCTE (branded on-air as WCTE Central TN PBS), PMVG, DigiCAP and EQ4ALL are collaborating on the ASL initiative, which is supported by a memorandum of understanding between PMVG and EQ4ALL to advance accessibility and emergency alert technology, it said.

The meeting at the Putnam County Emergency Management Agency in Cookeville was hosted by WCTE president and CEO Avery Hutchins and Putnam County EMA Director Brandon Smith. Attending the meeting were project leaders, station engineers, emergency management experts, specialists in accessibility solutions and local government officials, including the Putnam County Mayor and the Cookeville Mayor. Meeting attendees expressed strong support for the initiative and agreed to work together to complete further testing and deployment, it said.

At the meeting, DigiCAP senior VP Joonyoung Park introduced the company’s cloud-based, NextGen TV “broadcast app” technology that integrates seamlessly with existing emergency alert infrastructure.

“Broadcasting's large coverage area and the hardening and backup power of broadcast sites make television an ideal platform for emergency alerts,” Parks said “ATSC 3.0 technology enhances this capability by adding intelligence and accessibility features to the alerts.”

EQ4ALL co-CEO Kevin Lee demonstrated human avatar technology that uses ASL to deliver emergency alerts over various platforms. The avatars not only sign critical messages but also guide viewers to trusted local resources for additional information.

“Signing is crucial because many hearing-impaired individuals cannot rely on text-based alerts,” Lee said. “The ATSC 3.0 standard allows us to add sign language capabilities, making alerts more accessible and impactful.”

More information is available on the WCTE, DigiCAP, EQ4ALL and PMVG websites.

BOULDER, Colo.—The Public Media Venture  Group (PMVG), Korea Radio Promotion Association (RAPA), and WCTE (Cookeville, Tenn.) have announced the successful  launch of an ATSC 3.0 demonstration site at W35DZ-D, a low-power television station owned by PMVG. 

The new testbed, located on WCTE’s Monterey, Tenn., transmitter site, will showcase the potential of ATSC 3.0 technology for public media.  

PMVG, RAPA, and WCTE anticipate that the station will begin providing a full ATSC 3.0 service to the Upper Cumberland region of Tennessee and Kentucky this fall. 

“We are excited about the new capabilities ATSC 3.0 can bring. As a public station in rural Tennessee, we see  3.0’s potential to better serve our community by enabling us to add more services and distribution channels,”  said WCTE Station Manager Craig Lefevre. “The testbed will not only benefit the Upper Cumberland region, but  also inspire the broader industry to explore the possibilities of 3.0.”  

The testbed was built with the help of DigiCAP, a leading ATSC 3.0 solutions provider based in Seoul, South  Korea. It will serve as a platform for developing and demonstrating various ATSC 3.0 applications and use cases, such as enhanced emergency alerting, interactive education, and datacasting. 

In early August, a delegation of Korean engineers and technology suppliers visited WCTE to set up and test the new station. The delegation included representatives from RAPA, ETRI, DS Broadcast, and DigiCAP. 

Welcomed by  WCTE leadership and technical staff, who were actively involved in the testing process, the delegation met with  local decision makers and business leaders, as well as two members of the Tennessee Legislature, the companies and groups said. 

The delegation  also visited Putnam County’s Emergency Management Center and toured WCTE’s mountaintop transmitter site.  

While on-site in Monterey, the RAPA delegation installed and tested an ATSC 3.0 system configuration  comprising a media encoder, air-chain and modulator, and conducted a successful low power test of the system configuration. 

“As a platform for NextGen testing and development, this  demonstration site will show how public media can continue to lead in delivering cutting-edge content and  services,” explained Marc Hand, founder and CEO of PMVG. “We look forward to working with WCTE and RAPA to experiment with the ATSC 3.0 features that can  benefit all public stations and their communities.” 

“DigiCAP is proud to be part of this significant initiative that will showcase the capabilities of NextGen TV, from  enhanced emergency alerting to targeted education services,” added Joonyoung Park, senior vice president of DigiCAP. “The launch  of the testbed exemplifies the power of international collaboration and demonstrates how technology leaders  and innovative broadcasters can come together to drive the future of broadcasting.”  

BOULDER, Colo.—The Public Media Venture Group (PMVG) has announced that it has been donated W35DZ-D, a low-power television (LPTV) station licensed to Algood, Tenn. and that PMVG will construct the station in collaboration with public TV station WCTE, Cookeville, Tenn.

The station will transmit from WCTE’s tower in Cookeville. Once on the air, the station will double the amount of free, over-the-air television available to the Upper Cumberland region and provide WCTE a way to begin offering NextGen TV broadcasts in the rural area of Tenn. it serves.

The donation was made by Lowcountry 34 Media, an LPTV owner based out of Beaufort, South Carolina in an arrangement facilitated by Chris Blair.

The FCC approved the assignment of the station to PMVG as the new licensee on March 28, 2022. The station must begin on-air service before the end of July 2022.

PMVG and WCTE will work together to take advantage of the flexibility the FCC has provided in its rules that allow low-power television stations to “flash cut” from ATSC 1.0 to ATSC 3.0. 

PMVG, which is a nonprofit business development consortium of 33 public media organizations, has been working for the last year to identify ways to use this flexibility to help its public television station members transition to ATSC 3.0. Low-power options are particularly important to several PMVG members who, like WCTE, operate the only full-power television stations in the regions they serve and have no potential full-power transition partners to work with. 

W35DZ-D is currently the only practical way that WCTE can begin to provide ATSC 3.0 service to the population it serves.

PMVG and WCTE plan to transition the new station to ATSC 3.0 in the near future. Once transitioned, PMVG and WCTE will not only use the superior capabilities of ATSC 3.0 to provide enhanced television programming to viewers, they will also leverage the non-broadcast capabilities of ATSC 3.0 to help bridge the digital divide for students in rural Tennessee and expand the amount and effectiveness of weather and emergency alerting to the region.

The FCC has also approved the assignment of LPTV station W29EN-D in Beaufort, SC, to PMVG from Lowcountry 34 Media. Once built, these stations will bring nearly $1 million in new broadcast assets to PMVG and public television.

"PMVG is thrilled to coordinate and close on the donation of these stations to benefit WCTE and SCETV," said PMVG CEO Marc Hand. "Our first priority is to do everything we can to bring our member stations options to transition to ATSC 3.0, which is of the utmost importance during this time of rapid transformation and advancements in the broadcast industry. Securing these low-power licenses that enable two of our stations to bring the benefits of NextGen TV to their communities exemplifies our purpose and value as an organization."

“Access to education is the greatest opportunity we can give our viewers, and establishing an infrastructure like this gives WCTE PBS the foundation to be ATSC 3.0-ready,” said Avery Hutchins, WCTE President and CEO. “This work makes it possible for WCTE PBS to serve our community by closing the digital divide among students while improving the OTA experience for others. WCTE PBS couldn't be more excited to be working with PMVG on this initiative. The success of this collaborative work will be a win for public safety communication, civil literacy, and At-Home learning initiatives such as datacasting.”

"Our company helps broadcasters achieve the highest and best use of their license assets," said Jeff Winemiller, owner and general manager of Lowcountry 34 Media. "Our partnership with public television has brought important resources to communities in Tennessee, South Carolina, and Pennsylvania. We're proud to be working with the Public Media Venture Group to advance the important service that public television stations provide.”

WCTE is a small, rural public media organization located in Cookeville, Tennessee, serving a fourteen-county region known as the Upper Cumberland. It is the only broadcast television station within a 75-mile radius of Cookeville, nestled in between Knoxville, Nashville, and Chattanooga. 

COOKEVILLE, TENN.—Lots of TV towers live on the tops of mountains. In that respect, there’s nothing unique about the location of WCTE’s 800-foot broadcast tower outside Monterey, Tenn., about 10 mile drive from the PBS station’s Cookeville studio over mostly good roads. But when our engineers were having to drop everything and fix issues nearly every day—sometimes more than once—it seemed far too remote.

The trips were wearing us out physically and financially. In addition, we were spending a fortune on amplifiers and the ones we needed were getting hard to come by. The power supplies inside the amps were proprietary and couldn’t be repaired.

We needed something more reliable so last year we took delivery of a new Hitachi-Comark Parallax transmitter. In a week, the site team from Comark had installed the single-cabinet, complete with a new heat exchanger.

MODULAR POWER SUPPLIES

With the new transmitter installed, we’re not driving to the transmitter every day, and operation costs are about half as much as our old transmitter. Our first electric bill was literally half what we’d been spending, resulting in savings of at least $2,000 a month. It was that energy savings that allowed us to replace our old transmitter, though other factors were just as important. One of the biggest-selling points was the fact that Parallax amps have modular power supplies that can be purchased on eBay for about 5 percent of what we’d been paying every time we lost a power supply in an amp.

Since WCTE’s tower facility is located at the end of a road that runs several miles through mountainous woods, power failures are common. The emergency generator always kicks in and there are plans to purchase and install a UPS to carry the whole plant through the moment of failure before power is restored, but the ease with which Parallax recovers from a dip has been beneficial.

The transmitter powers back up within seconds and the web server allows us full control and monitoring from anywhere. We get emails from the Parallax immediately when there’s an issue—in nine months there hasn’t been anything but power company problems—but we can see voltages on each leg, water temperature and flow, error logs... everything you could ask for.

NEW COOLING SYSTEM

After the Parallax was installed, the site’s old transmitter became the backup, and aside from a new three-phase power circuit for the Parallax, the installation of the new cooling system was the only modification needed in the transmitter building. The new cooling system utilizes an indoor tank, further limiting exposure to ice-fall from the tower. The use of flexible hoses allowed for convenient placement of both the tank and the outdoor heat exchanger.

Even the efficiency of the cooling system is surprising. The heat exchanger didn’t run much at all during the fall and winter so I’ll be interested to see how it does in the summer, with the indoor tank and the reduced heat load. It’s gotten up to about 85 degrees outside already this spring, and our air conditioners don’t seem to be having any trouble keeping it cool indoors.

The Parallax has transformed how we work. WCTE only has two engineers, and we were scrambling to move our master control, maintain and operate a production truck and two IT networks and provide technical leadership for the station. When you take into account the cost savings on energy and on our time, it really has made a huge difference.

Craig LeFevre is a 12-year veteran of WCTE with an MBA from Tennessee Technological University and CBTE certification from the Society of Broadcast Engineers. He can be reached atclefevre@wcte.org.

For more information, visitwww.comarktv.comor call 800-345-9295.

SOUTHWICK, MASS.—Hitachi-Comark will ship a new Comark Parallax transmitter to WCTE/Upper Cumberland Public Television in Cookeville, Tenn., in early September. WCTE is a PBS member station that covers the north central counties of Tennessee.

WCTE’s new DTV transmitter will be equipped with eight broadband power amplifiers providing 13kW Transmitter Power Output level. It will be delivered with dual Exact-V2 exciters and a liquid cool system. Comark is handling the shipping, offloading/placement of the transmitter at the WCTE facility.

Additional features of the Parallax transmitter include vertical high-gain power amplifiers that provide 2kW per PA module for UHF or 1.6kW per PA module for VHF band 3; asymmetrical Doherty; hot-swappable between AC and DC; and it is ATSC 1.0 compatible, but is also upgradable to ATSC 3.0.