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The Local Piece: Stations in the Community These projects represent some of the exciting local and state initiatives that public television stations are involved in around the country: Does your station have a story to tell? Email Lonna Thompson (lonna@apts.org) and let her know! Missouri Public Television Missouri Public Television Stations Partner to Provide Homeland Security Education for School Leaders APTS member stations KCPT, KETC, Ozark Public Television and KMOS have partnered with the Missouri School Boards' Association (MSBA) and the Missouri Office of Homeland Security to produce "Terrorism: The Implications for Our Schools". The program is designed to promote the involvement of school leaders in homeland security efforts, to encourage school leaders to develop or review school emergency response policies, to ensure that those policies and plans include bio-defense mechanisms, and to provide information on ways to help children cope with the threat of terrorism. " School leaders must be informed and be in a position to work with other agencies in their communities to confront and manage terror threats through education and planning," says MSBA Executive Director Dr. Carter Ward. [top]  KERA - Dallas, TX KERA Uses Digital Bandwidth for Homeland Security and Beyond In partnership with University of Texas Medical Branch-Galveston, the KERA Homeland Security system can deliver crisis communications to discrete or general audiences, including simultaneously different messages to health departments, DMAT teams, hospitals, law enforcement/fire safety, and general public. The University of Texas Medical Branch - Galveston is the largest telemedicine provider in the nation and the only academic campus in the U.S. with a maximum CDC-related biological containment laboratory (BSL4 research laboratory). KERA, in conjunction with the Pacific Mountain Network, has also launched the Digital Network (TDN). Based in Dallas, TDN is a distributed application network company founded on technology developed initially by KERA. It manages the distribution of large, complex digital files with a comprehensive hardware and software solution, and has the potential to generate revenue for KERA through the utilization of excess HDTV bandwidth. [top]  KET - The Kentucky Network KET Brings Together Health, Police, Emergency Personnel for Preparedness Initiative Kentucky's public television stations and their digital transmitter network are capable of datacasting significant amounts of information over the airwaves in what could be called the "wireless portion of Kentucky's information highway." This digital datacasting capability developed by NDS, Inc. specifically for Kentucky, will enable emergency and other high priority information to be delivered to computers around the state on a moment's notice. KET is working with partners ranging from the Dept of Public Health, Kentucky State Police, Emergency Management and several others to develop the potential of this new service. [top]  KETC - St. Louis, MO KETC Partners with NBC Affiliate for Emergency Broadcasts KETC's general manager, James Baum, has been asked to sit on the St. Louis Regional Homeland Security Panel. The panel has responsibility for homeland security recommendations for the area. One measure already taken is establishing a mutual agreement between KETC and the local NBC affiliate, whose tower and facilities are located very close to the Arch, and therefore potentially subject to damage. If this circumstance were occur, KETC has agreed to turn over their full air to the NBC affiliate for follow up news coverage, and they have offered their facilities and buildings. This is a good example of being a good Samaritan in the area (as Brooklyn's public television station, WNYE, did in post-September 11 New York.) The NBC affiliate has also agreed to provide for KETC if the reverse happens. [top]  KLVX - Las Vegas, NV KLVX Links Schools to Serve as Evacuation Sites KLVX has been working with the Clarke County Emergency Preparedness office to take advatage of the system KLVX has in place to transmit video and other information to schools. KLVX currently links to over 300 schools in the region. Current emergency plans from the county designate the public schools as safe evacuation sites. KLVX has now partnered with the county to help in communiticating to these centers in case of emergency. KLVX staff has worked to make their studios and other facilities available to emergency managers. In addition to communication to the school sites, KLVX is working to leverage the same technologies to provide for communication links to rural communities and the protection of incoming water supplies to the Las Vegas area. [top]  KMOS - Central MIssouri State University KMOS Develops Continuity Plan with Missouri National Guard KMOS TV, Central Missouri State University, and the Missouri National Guard (MoNG) are working to develop a Continuity of Operation Plan (COOP) site for the MoNG State Operations Center in the event of a crisis or disaster and to serve as a backup system for the Guard. Central would serve as a Jump Site if the State Operations Center becomes inoperable due to attack or natural disaster. KMOS TV brings to the table its new 2000 foot tower (one of six tallest structures in the world). With digital broadcast and datacast technology, KMOS will geographically cover over 29 percent of the State of Missouri. KMOS, Central and the MoNG are working collaboratively to develop and implement a triple redundant network to insure a highly dependable communications network in times of crisis and a robust network for communication, education and training in times of peace. [top]  New Hampshire Public Television New Hampshire Public Television Leads Preparedness Charge New Hampshire Public Television (NHPTV) helped to address homeland security needs by coordinating the Partnership for a Safe New Hampshire. Partnering with the University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension, the New Hampshire Library Association, and Volunteer NH, NHPTV designed a series of forums to help communities across the state create dialogue about emergency preparedness and related issues. The forums were held in eight separate communities each chosen for their unique emergency preparedness needs (rurality, proximity to a nuclear facility, accessibility by sea, etc.). NHPTV standardized the format of the forums, and each meeting featured a question and answer session with local emergency management personnel to connect the broader message with local needs. The project was funded by a National Center for Outreach 4x4 grant, and drew on public television's tradition of convening communities through outreach. [top]  New Jersey Network NJN Develops Datacast Demonstration Project for Nuclear Power Plant Recently, NJN began a datacasting pilot project to protect the Emergency Planning Zone around the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station. NJN installed datacasting cards in the PCs at Ocean County and Lacey Township Emergency Operation Centers to link these sites to the datacasting network. This is the first homeland security datacasting project in the country to work with a nuclear facility. NJN is working in partnership with the State Office of Emergency Management for this project. [top]  Thirteen/WNET - New York, NY Thirteen/WNET Prototypes Two-Way Broadband Emergency Alert APTS member station Thirteen/WNET (New York, NY) is developing a program to test and analyze end-to-end communication with first responders over the station's digital broadcast spectrum. The Smart Dissemination Networks Project will evenutally incorporate a sensor networks to collect local data, integrate, disseminate and display video, other sensor data, and multi-source national intelligence data related to special operations for urban environments, perimeter defense, homeland defense, emergency response systems, emergency broadcast systems, and mobile command and control. Covering 50-75 mile urban area, the system would also receive return requests for information in the same broadcast channel ("in band return path"). The in band return path capability has been tested in laboratory settings. NIMA, under the auspices of the National Technology Alliance, awarded a contract to Thirteen to develop the system with Rosettex Technology. [top]  WNYE - Brookyln, NY WNYE-DT Uses Digital Broadcasts for Emergencies On September 12th, 2001, the Department of Defense issued a public request for volunteers to construct an emergency data broadcasting system to aid in the FEMA-led rescue efforts at the WTC site. WNYE agreed to make the station's experimental digital television facility available for the project. WNYE's digital facility was used to transmit internet data, streaming video, and broadcast video to laptop computers at ground zero and in mobile vehicles in and around Manhattan and Brooklyn. Content included high-resolution imagery from the Defense Department's National Imagery and Mapping Agency, late-breaking news, and continually-updated contents of the FEMA website. [top] |
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