Hurricanes, Tornadoes & Wildfires; Oh My!

Increasing Government Support with Datacasting and iSAGA

Lee Solonche, Jeffrey Yeagley Vegas PBS

Mark O’Brien Spectrarep

Ben Sher, Marlis Breitkreutz

Department of Energy Remote Sensing Lab

Traditional Television and Radio Emergency Alert System (EAS)

• Weather Alerts – Tornadoes, Hurricanes,

Rain, Hail, Snow, Floods, Volcanoes, Earthquakes, Tsunamis

• Amber Alerts

– Missing Children

• Health Alerts – Dust, pollen, fire,

smoke or air quality

• Disasters – Toxic Spills – Terror Attacks

2006 WARN Act • Established a redundant path for the

Wireless Emergency Alert system using the Public Television Interconnection System.

• PTV stations broadcast WEA over-the-air; ensuring the messages are receivable, if Internet connections to FEMA fail.

Public TV: Critical Role in Emergency Communications

• Post 9-11/ Katrina federal emergency communications digitize public safety messages

• Allows universal distribution on TV, radio, Internet, and mobile through Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS)

• PTV stations uniquely qualified and positioned to provide enhancement of this critical service in emergency situations

Digital Datacasting • Demonstrated 2002-2004 at NAB/

“hidden” emergency information in digital TV signal

• Addressable receivers allow only first responders to view key information/ display videos or web-like pages

School Emergency Alert Response System (SEARS)

• Used by Clark County School District Police Department

• Aerial Maps, Building Blueprints • Emergency Shutoff Points,

Crisis Response Plan • Key Personnel Rosters • Medically Fragile Children • Evacuation and Reunification

Routes

Datacasting: Carpenter 1 Fire • Category 1 Incident Command

Team at Centennial High School provided: • Aerial Maps, Building Blueprints,

Roster of Key Contact Personnel • Utility Activation and Shutoff

Locations • Weather Information via

Broadband Wireless Real Time Broadcasts

• Children’s Programs to School Shelters

Vegas PBS Datacast & 4G/LTE Demo

LVMPD, Alcatel-Lucent, & 50 First Responders NHP South, October 8, 2013 3:30 – 5:30 p.m.

4th Gen Long Term Evolution 4G/LTE Super fast Super bandwidth Will take anything

Mobile “band 14”

server

Nevada Highway Patrol South 4 G/LTE Trunk Mounted servers wirelessly connected provided secure path to Vegas PBS servers

Dongles receive Datacast for viewing

Open Incident Pop Up

Click on crawl

Available Information:

Resource List Crisis Response Plans

Blueprints Video

Contact Information Jeffrey L. Yeagley Director of Engineering, IT & Emergency Response Vegas PBS 3050 E. Flamingo Rd. Las Vegas, NV 89121 Phone: 702-799-1010 X 5428 Email: jyeagley@vegaspbs.org

Lee Solonche Director of Educational Media & Technology Services Vegas PBS 3050 E. Flamingo Rd. Las Vegas, NV 89121 Phone: 702-799-1010 X 5324 Email: lsolonche@vegaspbs.org

Mark O’Brien Vice President & Chief Technologist

Datacasting Case Studies

Need: Resilient Broadband Communications

Communications Networks Fail Disaster Area Residents By Arshad Mohammed and Jonathan Krim Washington Post Staff Writers Thursday, September 1, 2005; Page D1

Bridge Collapse: Why Did Cell Phones Fail? by Tom Conlon, posted Aug 4th 2007 at 11:03AM

Three killed, more than 100 injured in marathon blast: Area is locked down as FBI leads investigation By Mark Arsenault, Globe Staff, April 16, 2013

Need: Resilient Broadband Communications

Communication is a fundamental of emergency management and yet an inherent struggle during disasters. Superstorm Sandy was no exception as complaints about a lack of information were common. This came from communities in pockets of the East Coast where information was desperately needed but scarce, according to some community organizers. Although there were areas hit by the storms that fared well soon afterward, there were “black holes,” where printed paper and bullhorns were needed to get out the word. Social media was a bright spot, as Newark, N.J., Mayor Cory Booker showed on Twitter, and in New York City where Emily Rahimi chained herself to her desk at the Fire Department for a day and a half, monitoring the department’s Twitter feed and proving heroic to desperate residents.

Sandy Created a Black Hole of Communication Jim McKay January 28, 2013

New Jersey Public Television

How it Works

1 1. Aggregate content

Data Video Audio

3 Encrypted targeted datacast transmission

2

4

3. Selected receivers decrypt data

Optional two-way return path

5

Las Vegas/Clark County School Security

•Las Vegas, NV & Clark County School District

•370 schools •300,000 students •12,000 security cameras

•Unable to distribute critical incident response data to police and emergency personnel in the field

•KLVX-TV signal distributes public safety data throughout Las Vegas Valley

WHUT Washington, DC •Supports situational awareness for July 4, 2011/12, celebrations on the National Mall

•U.S. Park Police (USPP) deployed a datacasting to push video and alerts across diverse disciplines and jurisdictions

•Fifteen agencies received relevant video feeds from U.S. Park Police and to dozens more agencies had an incident occurred

Reference Major David J. Mulholland, United States Park Police

• Video highlights from USPP event at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOMaGKJGGYI

WHRO Norfolk • In Norfolk, Virginia, similar technology being deployed to improve response at several institutions of higher learning

•Blueprints, crisis plans, security camera feeds and other data aggregated for distribution to local public safety units

•Metrics manage content, prioritize and explore common data that improves awareness across all campuses

Maine Public Broadcasting • MPBN received CPB grant to improve information sharing between public safety and other Maine broadcasters

• During emergencies, Public safety organizations will be able to share video and files with broadcasters throughout the state for private and public dissemination

• MPBN installed a microwave connection to Maine Emergency Management (MEMA)

WGBH Contract with CPB WGBH / WGBY Cover Massachusetts

Other Datacasting Projects

MPT sailabration

New Hampshire

WRAL busses

Denver nurse

training

KET M-EAS WARN FEMA