John Lawson to Testify about Public Television Stations' Role in a National All-Hazards Alert and Public Warning System to Respond to Communications P

16 April 2006

John Lawson, president and CEO of the Association of Public Television Stations (APTS) will testify about local public television stations' leadership in rolling-out a national all-hazards alert and public warning system before the FCC's Independent Panel Reviewing the Impact of Hurricane Katrina on Communications Networks. The hearing will take place at 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday, April 18, 2006 in the FCC's Room TW-C305.

Mr. Lawson will discuss the Digital Emergency Alert System (DEAS) National Capital Region Pilot -- a successful project between APTS and the Department of Homeland Security using digital technology to improve America's alert and warning system. The DEAS project uses Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) messages and DEAS-enabled relays to datacast DEAS text, voice, and video alerts over public television stations to cell phones, computers, pagers, and other devices. The pilot demonstrates how government can improve public alert and warning during times of crisis.

At the hearing, Mr. Lawson will provide a live demonstration where DHS will generate a test message which will be sent to the PBS satellite operation center and uplinked to the PBS satellite. WETA will downlink the message and datacast it through their digital transmitter to receive units located in the hearing room.

The Independent FCC Panel may include the results of the APTS-DHS pilot project in its report on the impact of Hurricane Katrina on communications infrastructure, including public safety communications, and recommendations for improving disaster preparedness, network reliability and communications among first responders.

In comments filed with the FCC in March, APTS provided detailed information on the one-year DEAS project. Phases I and II of the project demonstrated how digital public television stations across the country can act as a wireless network capable of datacasting public alerts and warnings during times of crisis. Local public television station's digital, congestion-free bandwidth can support public alert systems as well as closed networks to enable public safety and emergency management agencies to securely transmit critical, time-sensitive information. The pilot showed that digital broadcasting to voluntary media and telecommunications service providers improves and enhances the ability of Federal, State, and local governments to provide critical and lifesaving emergency messaging to the nation.

Source: prnewswire

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