WASHINGTON – August 7, 2023 – America's Public Television Stations (APTS) has been awarded a $500,000 grant from the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) to provide an earthquake early warning alert system across the State of California.
The 19-month grant will finance alert operations for 11 California public television stations and will be administered by APTS, based in Arlington, VA.
In 2017, Cal OES awarded a grant to APTS to implement a demonstration pilot system working with five California Public Television (CPT) stations to deliver near-simultaneous earthquake early warning alerts from the USGS ShakeAlert system over the broad wireless coverage of PBS SoCal serving metropolitan Los Angeles, KPJK San Francisco, KPBS San Diego, KVIE Sacramento and KVPT Fresno.
This pilot system, created in coordination with SpectraRep, a leading provider of datacasting solutions, proved that digital television datacasting could transmit earthquake early warning alerts from the stations to receivers in under three seconds, far faster than the previous standard of 30 seconds. Subsequent refinement has reduced that delivery time to less than one second on average.
Phase two of this project will extend this earthquake early warning system to the other five public television stations in California and one public television station in Reno, NV that operates two translator stations licensed and located in California that serve California residents.
The grant will provide for completion of the Statewide network and the transition of the warning system from pilot to operational status. In addition to the addition of the six new stations, phase two funds production-grade fortification of the pilot system, maintenance and operation.
These local public television stations will support Cal OES and partner organizations United States Geological Survey (USGS), California Geological Survey (CGS), UC Berkeley and Caltech in providing high-speed dissemination of earthquake alerts across the State of California with a production-grade service.
“Public broadcasters in California are true pioneers in public safety, demonstrating the lifesaving power of public television’s datacasting infrastructure during earthquakes,” said Patrick Butler, president and chief executive officer of America’s Public Television Stations. “The first trial showed that public television can deliver the fastest ever earthquake alerts and warnings, and now, with phase two funding from Cal OES, we will be able to extend this lifesaving technology across the entire state of California.”
“We are very excited about this project with APTS and our California public television stations,” said Lori Nezhura, Cal OES Deputy Director of Planning, Preparedness, and Prevention. “It is part of our goal to diversify the way we send out earthquake early warning notifications to ensure all Californians receive these life-saving alerts.”
“Public safety is essential and California’s public television stations are dedicated to meeting local needs across our State,” said Andrew Russell, Board Chair of California Public Television, and President and CEO of PBS SoCal and KCET. “This project will help protect people from harm and save lives by transmitting early warnings of an impending earthquake to help prepare local communities. It uses public television infrastructure and breakthroughs in technology to deliver a vital public service.”
“SpectraRep has had a long successful partnership with APTS, and now we look forward to working with them and local stations to deploy datacasting solutions that significantly increase the ability of emergency responders to protect lives during catastrophic events like earthquakes,” said Mark O’Brien, president of SpectraRep. “A mature communications technology, datacasting will work seamlessly with local digital television spectrum to deliver secure, encrypted and targeted emergency communications simultaneously across the large geographic area of California.”
“When an earthquake hits, every second counts. We are proud to work with local law enforcement and first responder agencies, especially Cal OES, in the next phase of this essential and important project as we use the power of public television to keep all Californians safe,” Butler said.
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About APTS
America’s Public Television Stations (APTS) is a nonprofit membership organization ensuring a strong and financially sound public television system and helping member stations provide essential public services in education, public safety and civic leadership to the American people. For more information, visit www.apts.org.
Contact:
Stacey Karp
202-654-4222
skarp@apts.org