A communications system that sends emergency messages at high-speed to desktop personal computers via NJN Public Television’s digital broadcast signal was demonstrated March 4, 2003 at the State Office of Emergency Management at New Jersey State Police headquarters in West Trenton.

Triveni Digital's SkyScraper datacasting system powered the demonstration, which allows broadcasters like NJN to deliver large amounts of data via their DTV signals.

The demonstration was part of a project in partnership with the State of New Jersey Office of Emergency Management to send emergency management data to OEM sites located within the Emergency Planning Zone (EPZ) around the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station. The project is the first in the nation to utilize public digital television to enhance emergency preparedness for nuclear power plants.

Governor of New Jersey states, "Communications via NJN’s digital television system is yet another tool with great potential to add to New Jersey’s homeland security preparedness efforts and protect citizens in times of an emergency."

NJN and the Office of Emergency Management Announce Digital Demonstration Project to Enhance Homeland Security; First of its Kind in the Nation
West Trenton, NJ - March 4, 2003 - A communications system that sends emergency messages at high-speed to desktop personal computers via NJN Public Television’s digital broadcast signal was demonstrated today at the State Office of Emergency Management at New Jersey State Police headquarters in West Trenton.

NJN, in partnership with the State of New Jersey Office of Emergency Management (OEM), has developed a demonstration project to send emergency management data to OEM sites located within the Emergency Planning Zone (EPZ) around the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station. OEM has designated Ocean County and Lacey Township Emergency Operation Centers as the two participating sites. The project will demonstrate the potential for very quick, efficient and robust distribution of emergency information to multiple receiving devices using NJN’s digital television (DTV) airwaves.

"Communications via NJN’s digital television system is yet another tool with great potential to add to New Jersey’s homeland security preparedness efforts and protect citizens in times of an emergency," said Governor James E. McGreevey. "This cutting-edge technology holds the promise to allow emergency personnel to respond to an incident even more rapidly."

Any type of content that can be digitized can be easily transmitted over NJN’s digital signal. The content will include up-to-date traffic flow information and road closures; aerial photographs/videos of New Jersey; OEM public information, and more. The technology has broad potential application for broadcasting emergency information without using land or wireless telephone bandwidth or conventional e-mail sent over the Internet, technologies that might be subject to disruption during a crisis situation.

In order to receive the data within NJN’s DTV signal, NJN installed in personal computers at both sites a DTV card (very similar to traditional network cards found in most computers) and digital receiver software. Equipped with off-the-shelf antennae, the Ocean County and Lacey Township Emergency Operation Centers are able to receive this data.

DTV allows NJN to select and choose data it receives from New Jersey government agencies, federal agencies and third parties, and then distribute it to targeted receivers in the field. NJN will be able to distribute data content to several receivers simultaneously or target just one receiver, and also will be able to update and redistribute the data as often as needed by New Jersey state officials.

According to John Lawson, executive director of the Association of Public Television Stations, NJN’s project "is the first in the nation to utilize public digital television to enhance emergency preparedness for nuclear power plants. This is yet another example of NJN’s pioneering work in digital transmission technology and will serve as a model for the nation."

The New Jersey Public Broadcasting Authority Act of 1969 mandates that NJN "operate its television stations in order to broadcast news and information concerning the emergency condition."

With NJN’s conversion to digital television, NJN will be better positioned to fulfill this mandate and meet the State's needs for emergency and security services as its domestic security preparedness plan evolves. In the near future, DTV's broader bandwidth channel will provide a digital pipeline into the home, the workplace, hospitals, emergencies centers, and other sites, with a transmission rate many times that of a PC modem, giving NJN the capability to use bandwidth to transmit over-the-air video, audio, text or data directly to television sets, computers and media servers.

"The capability that this technology provides assures us the ability to provide secured, encrypted information to multiple locations during times of emergency," said Acting Attorney General Peter C. Harvey. "Additionally, the multi-channel options offered by this technology allow us to also provide general information to the public, health care professionals and various public and private sectors, which are extremely important during times of emergency."

"NJN already has invested in the required technology components to enable our broadcast center to distribute data over its DTV signal," explained NJN Executive Director Elizabeth G. Christopherson. "Working in partnership with Triveni Digital, an industry leader based in Princeton, NJN developed and implemented two innovative initiatives in education and workforce development that use NJN’s digital signal to datacast content to community-based sites.

"Thanks to the leadership of Commissioner Albert Kroll and the Department of Labor, which is growing the New Jersey Workplace Literacy Program, NJN is using its digital infrastructure to educate and train New Jersey workers to ensure a skilled and educated workforce," Christopherson continued. "NJN is eager to harness its technology and resources to assist the State of New Jersey in its domestic security preparedness plans and other emergency response needs."

Benefits of DTV

• High capacity wireless broadband
  NJN’s digital television signal is capable of delivering up to 19 Mbps of data. This equates to nearly 13 T1 lines (1 T1 line is a typical high-speed connection at a medium to large size company) to every resident and every square mile within New Jersey.
• Capable of reaching all of New Jersey
  The FCC mandated that all broadcasters convert to digital transmission by 2003. NJN was one of the first ten PBS stations nationwide to launch its digital signal in October 2000. Once NJN completes the build out of its DTV infrastructure statewide, NJN will be able to reach all of New Jersey with its DTV signal. No other data delivery player can make that claim. At the current time, NJN is able to cover most of central and part of northern New Jersey.
• Efficient distribution to many receiving devices
  The DTV signal can deliver the same large data file to every receiver at the same time. Imagine being able to deliver a 10GB Emergency-related database to every OEM within minutes. Use of NJN’s digital broadcast infrastructure, a wireless LAN, also can bypass the congestion of terrestrial and cellular networks that can plague communications in emergency situations, as was demonstrated on September 11, 2001.
• Anything digital moved over DTV
  Anything that can be digitized can move it over NJN’s digital signal. That includes databases, pictures, audio, video, and web pages.
• Robust and resilient delivery mechanism
  The same infrastructure that keeps the NJN television signal on the air 24x7 would be used for the distribution of the critical and urgent emergency information.
• Flexibility in receiver devices
  Emergency information can easily be received by desktop computers and portable computers. NJN can transmit data directly to personal computers and laptops that are equipped with a digital television card. The information can then be transmitted as a wireless exchange to a PDA in the field.

More about Triveni Digital's SkyScraper Datacasting System
Triveni Digital's SkyScraper datacasting system allows broadcasters to easily deliver large quantities of data end-to-end, from content providers through broadcast stations to information customers. The system includes broadcast plant servers, to manage the data flow from content providers into the broadcast stream, and customer-site receivers to extract the data from the broadcast and make it available to end-users.

The open standards-based SkyScraper platform provides a scalable architecture for supporting customized extensions and is compatible with the leading encoders, multiplexers and data encapsulators. By maximizing use of their available bandwidth for data distribution, digital television broadcasters can team together with other content providers to create new revenue streams. The datacasting system is comprised of three main modular components each with its own convenient user interface:

• DataFab collects and manages data content, scheduling and access
• DataHub allocates bandwidth and inserts data into the broadcast stream
• DataReceiver extracts data from the broadcast stream for the end user

The complete SkyScraper system allows broadcasters to manage and monitor datacasting bandwidth while supporting multiple data content providers. Furthermore, content providers may control broadcast scheduling across many data broadcasters while effortlessly leveraging content from any location.

About Triveni Digital:
Triveni Digital, Inc., a subsidiary of LG Electronics, develops broadcast digital television systems, focusing on equipment for management of data and metadata in digital broadcast streams. Triveni Digital's products for ATSC PSIP, DVB SI, data broadcasting, stream analysis and monitoring are renowned for their ease of use and innovative features. Triveni Digital's Custom Solutions business enables the rapid deployment of solutions for data broadcast applications. Working with leading industry partners, Triveni Digital employs an open and standards-compliant approach to the digital television market.

EDITOR’S NOTE – When referring to Triveni Digital, please use the complete company name "Triveni Digital" and not just the word "Triveni". Product and company names used here are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

Contact

Paul Loriquet (609) 292-4791 Ronnie Weyl, NJN, (609) 777-5062; (Cell: 908-246-9507)