WAKE FOREST, N.C. — A public safety community initiative is developing a new statewide paging system for first responders in North Carolina using Next Gen TV.
The new system, leaders say, could be replicated across the nation to replace the conventional 70-year-old paging technology still widely in use.
Indeed, most fire and rescue agencies still use analog paging systems to dispatch and communicate with first responders.
To help usher in upgrades, North Carolina’s public television network is poised to power a new statewide public safety system — one that could support public safety and emergency response agencies throughout the state.
The Wireless Research Center’s Government and Public Safety community initiative is providing a forum for collaboration to develop a prototype digital paging system, dubbed “Paging Plus.”
A Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security awarded to engineering firm Device Solutions supports the applied research through the Wireless Research Center, PBS North Carolina (formerly UNC-TV) and the North Carolina Department of Information Technology (NCDIT).
Paging systems are used by public safety agencies because they are considered to be more resilient than cellular networks during natural disasters and other emergency situations. Paging systems are based on networks that broadcast from 911 call centers that can reach paging devices. A one-way dispatch page with information is sent to devices worn by first responders in volunteer and staffed departments. The communication networks are typically managed on a county basis with one or two towers providing marginal county-wide coverage.
As RBR+TVBR‘s Summer 2022 will share in-depth, BitPath and Triveni Digital are each at the forefront of developing internet technology that harnesses ATSC 3.0. With a dedicated channel for public safety data tied to the new broadcast TV standard, “one-to-all” emergency communication is already being promoted as a coming benefit.
PBS North Carolina has launched Next Gen TV service in the Raleigh-Durham market in cooperation with Capital Broadcasting Co., and in the Greenville-New Bern area through WUNK-TV.
The new digital paging capabilities would provide responders with improved pager coverage, more rapid dispatching, and overall improved situational awareness with additional information including maps and videos. New services can also enhance notifications for the public through on-screen notifications for weather, fire, earthquake, Amber Alerts and other emergencies. The WRC is helping with development including antenna design, prototyping and testing in addition to modeling wireless signal coverage.
“Public safety agencies will not need to build a new network to improve services using the statewide television network,” said Senior Engineer John Swartz, who leads the WRC’s Government and Public Safety team. “Network infrastructure and new devices for the new system have been designed are now being tested. For the next phase of the initiative, the WRC and project team will seek a commercial partner to bring the new system to the market in North Carolina and beyond.”
New devices have been developed including a stand-alone pager and software to integrate new services into smartphones. Receivers support live audio streaming, video, data files, maps, and sensor data impossible to include in conventional paging systems.
“The Paging Plus team has taken the concept much further than I ever imagined,” said WRC Senior Engineer Paul Allan Sadowski. Sadowski is a co-inventor for a drone communications and sensor system that can rapidly deploy long range data communications, including support for disaster response. He’s also a co-inventor of Paging Plus, recognized by the NAB for TV Broadcast Innovation.
“Paging Plus lays the foundation for a whole ecosystem of solutions that are better served by the unique attributes of ‘concurrent one to many’ TV broadcasting over high power, high tower transmission facilities,” Sadowski said. “Not only can Paging Plus advance first responder communications, the technology can benefit cyber protection, flight safety, K-12 education, and more robust public service information.”
Said PBS North Carolina Chief Technology Officer Fred Engel, “As a statewide public media entity, we are committed to keeping North Carolinians informed during emergencies and in times of crisis. Utilizing our network’s capabilities to improve public safety is a powerful way we can serve communities across the state.”
Other WRC public safety community initiatives include collaboration with The Center of Excellence for Advanced Technology Aerial Firefighting (CoE) created by the state of Colorado to lead development and testing for aerial firefighting technology. The WRC is also collaborating with the NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory to develop a new way to measure humidity using 4G and 5G cell signals, potentially improving public broadcast warnings for severe weather.
— Reporting by Scott Yates
