Tennessee Public TV Gets $2M Datacasting Grant

The Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security is making a $2 million grant to Tennessee’s Public Television Stations to fund a pilot project that will deliver private, secure communication between first responders and their management teams in case of an emergency or natural disaster.

Arnold Hooper, Tennessee’s wireless communications director for the Department of Safety and Homeland Security, says the grant will be used to install datacasting equipment and software that will leverage a portion of the broadcast transmission of each Tennessee public television station to deliver encrypted public safety video, files, alerts and other data along with regular programming.

This new capability will allow public safety agencies to benefit from the existing infrastructure, licensed spectrum and ability to securely deliver content anywhere in the state to an unlimited number of specifically targeted receivers. All public safety content is secure and can only be accessed by personnel who have the credentials and receive equipment.

The project is targeted to be completed over 30 months with initial stations being tested and placed into operation within six months of the grant. This first statewide datacasting system will be a model for regional and even national deployments in the future.

Using the datacasting capability and fiber connections already in place among the six Tennessee Public Television Stations, communication between police, fire, medical and government personnel can be targeted within the areas affected by a severe, life-threatening emergency or natural disaster. The six stations are WKNO Memphis, WLJT Martin-Lexington-Jackson, WNPT Nashville, WCTE Cookeville, WETP Knoxville-Sneedville and WTCI Chattanooga.

Vickie Lawson, president of WETP and chairman of the Tennessee Public Television Council, said: “I am honored that all six public television stations across the state, who diligently serve their communities each and every day, are working together on a project that will serve our entire state with this new datacasting communication for safety. We will be able to offer a piece of our airwaves to assist emergency state agencies, first responders and most of all help to protect and inform the residents of Tennessee. Thanks to the diligent work of the WKNO staff and Board and Commissioner Purkey’s office, all Tennessee Public Television Stations have another great opportunity to provide increased service to the citizens of Tennessee.”

Patrick Butler, president-CEO of America’s Public Television Stations, commented: “Public television stations around the country have demonstrated our ability to provide critical information through datacasting to first responders in emergencies as diverse as flood warning and response in Houston, search and rescue of missing persons in rural Grant County, Washington, over-water emergency communications miles offshore from Chicago and Boston, massive crowd control in Washington, D.C., enhanced 911 responsiveness in North Carolina, and much-improved early earthquake warnings in California.

“We hope the State of Tennessee’s groundbreaking grant to Tennessee public television stations to build a statewide emergency communications network founded on this datacasting technology will serve as a model for other statewide collaborations between public television and the public safety community throughout America.”