The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) has forged a partnership with a private datacasting company with the goal of testing broadcast television spectrum for potential use in delivering emergency alert messages when legacy infrastructure is unavailable.
The Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRDA) was signed with Virginia-based SpectraRep earlier this month, according to materials reviewed by The Desk. The two organizations will explore various ways that existing digital broadcast signals might be used in the future to transmit NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards, which offers current conditions, forecasts and climate-related emergency information.
NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards has operated for more than five decades, primarily transmitting on FM frequencies specifically set aside for weather radio transmissions. Most NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards stations transmit on 162.55 FM, which is receivable via specialized consumer and professional weather radios, public safety scanners and some AM/FM radios.
Six other frequencies are reserved for NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards, and a few stations simulcast via online streams. Regional National Weather Service (NWS) offices typically operate NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards stations in local areas.
Through its partnership with NOAA, SpectraRep will study how NWS offices currently transmit emergency messages via NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards and evaluate whether similar messages can be reliably sent over digital broadcast TV signals. During the study, the company will create a demonstration in which live NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards programming is securely carried through a local TV station’s broadcast signal and delivered to a NOAA endpoint, such as a weather radio transmitter.
One goal of the study is to ensure that weather-related alerts sent via digital broadcast TV signals are correctly received by radio equipment, including consumer-grade radios that listen for specific signals to trigger audible and visual alerts about weather watches, warnings and emergencies.
Digital broadcast TV stations already use a small portion of their spectrum for datacasting purposes. Those uses include transmitting information about a show that is in progress, programs that will air at a later hour, TV ratings data and closed captioning. Some stations also transmit automated time signals and weather information.
Since broadcast TV transmissions are digital, NOAA and SpectraRep theorize that weather-related radio transmissions and emergency alerts can be sent to multiple weather transmitters listening for certain signals without interfering with the main programming feed of a TV station. With broadcast TV signals existing in an “always on” state, the organizations also feel TV stations could serve as a comparable alternative to deliver NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards in the event that an emergency knocks out the availability of its FM transmissions.
George Jungbluth, the Director of the National Weather Service’s Mission Systems and Technology Office, said the partnership will evaluate alternative methods for distributing weather radio programming.
“NOAA/NWS is looking forward to collaborating with SpectraRep to evaluate innovative approaches for delivering NOAA Weather Radio content via datacasting and other pathways for modernizing access to NOAA Weather Radio content,” Jungbluth said in a statement.
SpectraRep was selected in large part because the company has already explored different ways to datacast emergency alert notifications independent of the NOAA partnership. The company works with public safety agencies to develop solutions that allow police, firefighters and other emergency officials to receive real-time information during critical incidents like wildfires and severe storms.
One of its products, IncidentOne, already uses digital TV broadcast signals to deliver critical incident data to first responders during emergency situations, according to marketing materials reviewed by The Desk. Its datacasting solution supports different types of media, including live video, computer files, weather maps, blueprints and other information that police and firefighters might need when responding to an emergency.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security deployed IncidentOne in Washington, D.C. to support its counter-terrorism and public safety efforts during a July 4 celebration four years ago, SpectraRep’s marketing materials said. The deployment of IncidentOne allowed public safety agencies across that region to share information during the holiday, and didn’t require onerous interconnect support because multiple agencies with different needs able to achieve their desired outcomes using a single platform.
Severe weather alerts are among the many types of media that IncidentOne can currently deploy to first responders, but the technique hasn’t been publicly tested to determine whether something like IncidentOne can help NOAA and regional NWS offices deliver similar emergency messages to other broadcasters and the public in general.
In addition to its partnership with NOAA, SpectraRep has also participated in public-private and inter-company partnerships with other stakeholders to evaluate the transmission of emergency messages over NextGen TV, the new broadcast transmission standard that uses ATSC 3.0 technology.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was working on a similar initiative aimed at delivering emergency messages over NextGen TV signals through a partnership with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). The partnership was rooted in the Next Generation Warning System (NGWS) grant program, which was suspended after Congress stripped CPB of taxpayer funding last year. FEMA has since taken over the NGWS grant program, and recently announced a disbursement of $48 million for states, territories and tribal nations working on programs to deliver next-generation emergency alerts over different systems.
