ONE Media/Sinclair Broadcast Group, SpectraRep, Sonim, and Saankhya Labs have organized a series of live demonstrations at the August APCO 2019 show in Baltimore. APCO is the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials-International.

The live demos will show new ways the next generation of broadcast television, known as ATSC 3.0, can improve the secure transmission of private encrypted IP data and video.

This year and into 2020, TV stations across the US will be rolling out the next generation of broadcast TV, ATSC 3.0 transmission and NextGenTV receivers. TV stations will share high power broadcast spectrum across a national network, enabling emergency control centers the ability to distribute live video, and rich media in the same immediate and unbuffered form as broadcasters do. Also, the ‘one-to-many’ distribution of broadcast signals enables live emergency video to easily reach unlimited numbers of people in a region, even as cellular traffic becomes congested.

Live Next GEN Broadcast signals provided by Sinclair Broadcast Group will demonstrate the following new abilities:

• Ability to connect to instant Skype-to-Broadcast TV distribution, enabling community leaders immediate access to local broadcast TV transmissions during an emergency.
• Ability to transform a cell phone into a satellite video phone, using an attachment from Saankhya Labs.
• Ability to receive direct high-power broadcast signals from an emergency operations center or local TV station via a mobile phone using a small dongle attachment from Saankhya Labs.
• Ability to control the ATSC 3.0 network remotely via a Gateway (provided by DigiCAP), which will manage the TV signal from the ONE Media Lab in Hunts Valley MD.

When the Next GEN TV standard was being designed, new capabilities for serving emergency communications were added.  Some of those new capabilities include:

• Ability to send “one to many” rich media, such as live video, during high volume emergencies, to virtually unlimited numbers of targeted devices.
• Ability to encrypt and target the delivery of rich media by device or geographical region.
• Ability to use ongoing and redundant broadcast infrastructure which has been proven to be more resilient than cell towers during hurricanes and earthquakes.

The APCO show will provide a rare opportunity for public safety communications professionals to see live demonstrations on how NextGenTV broadcast spectrum and services can improve communications and information sharing.

In addition, Sinclair Broadcast Group is sponsoring a 30-minute presentation by Jerald Fritz, Executive VP Strategic and Legal Affairs, at ONE Media 3.0 / Sinclair Broadcast Group, on the ways NextGenTV (ATSC 3.0) can improve critical communications.