West Trenton, NJ -- 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 dis tribute 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.provide general information to the public, health care professionals and various public and privatesectors, which are extremely important during times of emergency.”

“New Jersey has a long tradition of pioneering innovative and more effective technologies as applied to emergency response,” added Major Dennis Del Fava, Commanding Officer, OEM. “The partnering of the New Jersey Office of Emergency Management and NJN Public Television to utilize digital broadcasting from the State Emergency Operations Center in West Trenton to key facilities that surround the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station is an example of this tradition. We look forward to expanding this technology applying it to homeland security.”

“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.”

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