KVIE Sacramento In Datacasting Experiment

Public TV station KVIE Sacramento kicked off a month-long experiment in datacasting Thursday by using it to deliver simulated emergency earthquake warnings during the Great California Shakeout earthquake preparedness drill, said a news release from America’s Public Television Stations. Datacasting is “the process of delivering internet protocol (IP) data over a traditional digital public broadcast television signal, including instantaneous alerts, combined with evacuation maps and even live video,” APTS said. The test is being monitored by the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, the FCC and the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate, the release said. The next phase of the datacasting test “will measure the speed and coverage of alerts digitally encoded into KVIE’s high power television transmission,” said KVIE Director of Technology Mike Cappi. “Warnings used to be a matter of seconds or minutes, but when there are natural disasters like earthquakes, saving a fraction of a second in delivering a warning can make a huge difference,” Cappi said. “This work is part of public broadcasting’s larger public service mission, including the APTS strategic partnership with DHS, to promote the use of public safety datacasting as an effective component to alert and protect the American people,” said APTS CEO Patrick Butler.