The Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG) and ONE
Media 3.0, a subsidiary of Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:
SBGI), have launched the nation’s first pilot project to use Next
Generation Broadcast to disseminate Advanced Emergency
Information.
The pilot program will provide free, over-the-air redundancy to
emergency messaging currently sent by local governments via text,
email. social media, and other system platforms. The broadcast
platform will bring with it the efficiency of instantaneous and
simultaneous delivery to all users. ONE Media 3.0, through its
affiliated WJLA (7 News) newsroom, will also provide enhanced, rich
media supplements to those emergency messages that meet its
newsworthy criteria.
Initially, the pilot will focus on emergency messages from
Arlington and Fairfax Counties in Northern Virginia and the
District of Columbia. The pilot will be expanded to other area
jurisdictions in coming months. The pilot program will initially
use the facilities of WJLA’s sister station in Washington, WIAV,
and then migrate to WJLA 7 News with its broader reach.
NextGen Broadcast is based on the powerful ATSC 3.0 over-the-air
transmission standard. This new protocol, rapidly being deployed
across the nation, enables an exceptionally advanced alerting and
informing tool. Rather than simple text crawls across a TV screen
that a tornado is approaching, for example, NextGen Broadcast
powers a much more robust signal that can render real time doppler
radar, weather images, evacuation routes, shelter locations, flood
maps – and do it in multiple languages. Importantly, the messages
can be geo-targeted to just the area affected by the emergency
warning based upon inputs by the viewer. Not limited to weather
emergencies, the new tool will be employed for virtually all
emergencies including civil unrest, hazardous spills, and AMBER
Alerts.
This Advanced Emergency Information (AEI) can include both
alerts and vital recovery information received on a wide range of
enabled consumer devices and connected vehicles. Because TV
stations operate independently of the cellular network and have
back up power, they can continue to distribute emergency messages
even when the cellular network and electric grids are down. While
not a replacement for other alerting pathways, the new broadcast
system dramatically enhances alerts with critical information and
provides much needed redundancy.
The AEI pilot is an outgrowth of the AWARN Washington, DC
Roundtable, which brought together local TV broadcasters and
emergency managers from across the National Capital Region. The
discussions centered on the voluntary deployment of AEI using the
NextGen platform and ways to continue COG’s longtime commitment to
supporting emergency communications.
Scott Boggs, Managing Director, Homeland Security and
Public Safety at COG noted, “The jurisdictions that we represent
are always looking for more and better ways to inform the public
during emergencies. We see NextGen AEI as a powerful new tool for
both public warning and providing vital information for recovery
after disaster strikes. Because it uses over-the-air broadcast
signals, AEI can be especially effective for reaching underserved
audiences.”
According to Jerald Fritz, Executive Vice President
Strategic and Legal Affairs at ONE Media 3.0, the pilot project is
an opportunity to showcase the life-saving capabilities of NextGen
Broadcast. “Sinclair and ONE Media 3.0 have developed an
open-source broadcaster app that provides a range of new consumer
services, with AEI being the most powerful from a public service
perspective. Sinclair has made a huge investment in local
journalism at our stations across the country. Working with the COG
to voluntarily deploy AEI through the 7 News newsroom paves the way
to extend our ‘first informer’ role to many more markets,” he
said.
AWARN Executive Director John Lawson said the National
Capital Region pilot is an extension of a dialogue at the national
and grassroots levels between broadcasters and emergency managers
in several regions. “Through our AWARN roundtables, we found that
technology is only the front-end of the conversation. Just as
important is developing the relationships between local stations
and emergency managers to actually use the technology. The
Washington AEI pilot is a testbed for both technical capabilities
and the working relationships between broadcasters and emergency
managers that are vital to keep the public safe,” he said.
Anyone in the WIAV (display Channel 58) viewing area who has a
NextGen TV set or a NextGen set-top converter box should be able to
receive the emergency messages from WIAV. As other devices,
including NextGen-enabled phones, are deployed, those too will
benefit from this sophisticated new emergency tool.
About Sinclair/ONE Media 3.0
Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: SBGI) is a diversified
media company and a leading provider of local news and sports. The
Company owns, operates and/or provides services to 185 television
stations in 86 markets affiliated with all the major broadcast
networks; owns Tennis Channel and multicast networks Comet, CHARGE!
and TBD; and owns and provides services to 21 regional sports
network brands. Sinclair’s content is delivered via multiple
platforms, including over-the-air, multi-channel video program
distributors, and the nation’s largest streaming aggregator of
local news content, NewsON. The Company regularly uses its website
as a key source of Company information which can be accessed at
www.sbgi.net.
ONE Media 3.0, headquartered in Hunt Valley, MD, was established
as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. with
a vision to build and globally deploy the Next Generation Broadcast
Platform, enabling broadcasters to be competitive across all
platforms in delivering enhanced video and data services. For more
information about ONE Media 3.0, see www.onemediallc.com.
About the AWARN Alliance
The Advanced Warning and Response Network (AWARN) Alliance is an
international coalition of commercial and public broadcasters,
consumer electronics makers, and B2B tech companies that is
supporting the development of Advanced Emergency Information using
ATSC 3.0 NextGen TV. The AWARN Roundtables support the Alliance’s
vision: to save lives and protect communities by leveraging
advanced emergency alerting, news and information powered by ATSC
3.0 NextGen TV. The Alliance’s mission is to educate, promote,
advocate and collaborate to support the successful rollout of ATSC
3.0 advanced emergency alerting, news and information.
About the Metropolitan Washington
Council of Governments
The Council of Governments is an independent, nonprofit
association of 24 local governments where area leaders address
regional issues affecting the District of Columbia, suburban
Maryland, and Northern Virginia.
Category - General
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230410005209/en/
AWARN John Lawson – Jlawson@AWARN.org
Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments Steve
Kania - skania@mwcog.org
ONE Media 3.0 Jessica Bellucci -
jbellucci-c@sbgtv.com
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