In Rochester, NY, the local PBS member station is working with the fire department to provide a countywide Emergency Training and Information Network using new DTV technologies.
The Rochester Fire Department was searching for an affordable, effective way to update its training materials and methods, according to Lt. Dan Bender. Video-on-demand was the most practical and cutting edge alternative to support the needs of the department, but bandwidth was an issue.
After it was determined that the city's IT Department had no room and local cable companies weren't interested, Bender approached the city's public television station, WXXI, which was ready, willing, and able to lend a hand. Once the fire department knew that bandwidth was available, WXXI engineers threw another suggestion onto the table, datacasting, which enabled the project to grow quickly from a one department training tool to a countywide ETIN.
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"This project fulfills our mission statement by serving the community in a rich manner through the development of technology and support for first responders," said Kent Hatfield, vice president of technology and operations, WXXI Public Broadcasting Council.
The larger venture meant a need for major funding. As luck would have it, the Metropolitan Medical Response System, an emergency preparedness program of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, announced grants for a special project funding that "fit us to a tee," said Bender. "Seventy cities applied, but we received the biggest piece of the pie."
Announced in October 2004, that $642,000 piece of funding has enabled 102 first responder sites within Monroe County, an area of more than 663 miles with approximately 750,000 residents including Rochester, the third largest city in New York, to be one of the first regions in the country with an ETIN.
"They're using less than three percent of our digital signal so it isn't a drain on the system at all," Hatfield explained. "However, the agreement is that we will give the ETIN whatever bandwidth is needed during a major emergency."
Moving The Content
The Rochester and Monroe County Fire, Police, and EMS Departments, Monroe County Health Department, County Emergency Preparedness, the Public Safety Training Facility, the Public Safety Building, and six area hospitals as well as the neighboring Livingston county EOC are part of the six-channel network. Only the Monroe County Office of Emergency Preparedness, which resides at PSTF, will have the ability to override any or all of the six channels during emergency situations in order to transmit live video and give instructions.
Point-to-point WiMAX links between the public safety buildings and station WXXI provide a secure private network for moving content to the station. WiMAX is a standards-based technology that enables delivery of wireless broadband access, and is used as an alternative to cable and DSL. Once WXXI has the content, it's then broadcast out to the end-users across the six-channel set-up via the WXXI DTV broadcast.
Triveni Digital ETIN "back office" software manages the flow of content from the public safety buildings to the station, and the Triveni Digital SkyScraper data server manages the broadcast of the content to the receivers. According to Ralph Bachofen, Triveni Digital director of product management, the ETIN is the first to use the Triveni Digital SkyScraper Emergency Services Network solution.
The three-part solution includes a Data Fab, which allows each of the six channel administrators to organize content and set up broadcast schedules; a Data Hub used by WXXI to distribute the content among the ETIN's six channels and 102 responder sites; and a Data Receiver at each of the 102 responder sites to view the chosen content. Each site's receiver is only capable of accessing one channel's data; for example, the fire department will not receive the police department's content and the hospital channel will not receive either the police or fire department content.
"Triveni was willing to customize the application to our specs. We've been working closely with them to make sure we not only get the data we want, but also how we want it," said Bender.
Additionally, the ETIN has a high level of security encryption, so only specified locations will receive decrypted content. "The ETIN's datacasting cannot be received by home viewers. Even if they could get the signal, they wouldn't be able to view the data because it's encrypted," said Hatfield.
The initial setup for each of the 102 sites was covered by the MMRS grant and includes a broadband receiver, 54-inch LCD monitor, and Proxim Wireless antenna, plus wiring and licensing, at a cost of approximately $4,000 per site. Yearly maintenance is outside the purview of the grant and will cost each site $1,000 per annum.
The receivers, which can pick up the WXXI signal within a 75-mile radius, are outfitted with 640 GB hard drives and digital content is available 24/7. Content includes informational updates, live video, training videos, PowerPoint presentations, weather forecasts, threat alert levels, and Web content. The MPEG-4 content can be viewed using QuickTime, and can be accessed through a wireless keyboard and mouse or TV-style remote control.
"Previously, when we wanted to watch something at the [fire]house, 12 guys had to crowd around a small computer screen. The Fire Department has put the LCD screens in the firehouse kitchens, since that's where we meet most often. Now we can watch training programs in a more supportive environment," said Bender. "There are 15 classrooms at our training facility that can accommodate anywhere from 30 to 100 trainees. Instructors will be able to use content on the ETIN, but taking companies out of service for training is taxing. We're hoping to eliminate some of that need and allow them to do some training in-house."
Most day-to-day content on the channels is not in real-time. Digital files are downloaded to the server when activity at WXXI is lowest, usually between 2 and 4 a.m.
Content can be accessed in three ways. The Auto Mode is similar to watching television, according to Bender. The Fire Department auto mode has rolling ticks, bulletins, threat level, weather, river, and tide reports that run constantly.
"They're getting bits and pieces of training over a 24 or 48-hour period," added Bender. "In auto mode, our thought was to create a video play list within a four-hour loop. We thought it would be best to saturate them with one to two minute clips. Then, as a group, they can go to the video library, find something of interest, and sit down to watch and discuss it."
Room With A View
In the Emergency Mode, the local EOC can override all six channels and feed live video to the sites in order to address emergency responders in a timely fashion. And the On Demand mode permits access to archived training programs as well as access to Pictometry, a geo-spatial aerial mapping software program that allows emergency responders to get a clear view of what they're walking into before arriving at a scene.
Founded in 2000, the Rochester-based Pictometry includes aerial views in full color, high-resolution digital format from at least three and up to 12 different directions. Through a special licensing agreement, every city of Rochester employee has access to the Pictometry images, meaning there was no additional cost to the ETIN to download the images onto the network.
"Any advantage that a responder can get before an emergency is an advantage," noted Bender. "En route to the scene, we usually have three minutes. With Pictometry I can get visuals. Though it's not live, it can tell me the locations of hydrants, water mains, entrances and exits of buildings, the height and width of buildings. We don't have to waste time when we arrive on scene; we'll already have mapped out a plan."
Pictometry's Scott Hill concurred. "This is a great tool for public safety and for the police," he said. "If they're at the command post, they can examine the location and better prepare to maintain officer safety."
Pictometry takes oblique (at an angle, 3D-like view) and orthogonal (straight down) aerial imaging as opposed to Google Earth, which only shoots straight down. "We take four-way oblique and straight down images of every single inch of the area," Hill explained. "Every image is linked to every other image, so if you have a map that is geo-referenced or put an address in, that'll trigger the coordinates. We use landscape images so the image is deep and twice as wide, so it will fit on computer screens."
According to Hill, Pictometry can be accessed in 135 sheriff cars and all police cars in Monroe County, but ETIN is still figuring out a way to effectively use the network in a mobile application. "Group One, a partner of Pictometry, makes software that delivers information to remote units," said Hill. "We've been brainstorming with them how to put schematics, site maps, and floor maps together with the Pictometry imaging for applications such as this."
While the ETIN is just getting up and running, Bender has no doubt that the network is a necessary component to every city's security. "Every city needs an ETIN," he declared. "Once more cities get a look at what we're doing, every one of them will say, 'Why don't we have this?'"
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