Next Generation Emergency Messaging Santa Barbara Round Tables

730 Miramonte Drive,Santa Barbara CA 93109

26 January, 2022

Description

First of a national tour of AWARN regional roundtables developing a voluntary roadmap to Next Gen Emergency Messaging with ATSC 3.0. On January 26-27, 2022, the AWARN Alliance will join with KEYT-TV and the Offices of Emergency Management for Santa Barbara County and the City of Riverside to host the first of a series of roundtable discussions about the development of Next Generation Emergency Messaging (NGEM). Leveraging the advanced alerting capabilities of a powerful new broadcast technology, ATSC 3.0/NextGen TV will be an important piece of a broader discussion of interoperable technologies. The meeting, with invitees from across Southern California, will take place in-person at KEYT’s beautiful hilltop event space in Santa Barbara, starting by 1 pm 1/26 and concluding by 3 pm 1/27.. We’ll start at Noon on Wednesday the 26th and conclude by 3 pm on Thursday. This is an opportunity to join with other public and private disaster information stakeholders in a relaxed, informal setting to discuss the future of public warning. Activities will include a station tour of KEYT, known for its unparalleled disaster coverage in the region, as well as level-setting briefings and networking events ahead of a series of closed-door roundtable meetings. Discussions will center on building out a voluntary, all-digital, and interoperable ‘network of networks’ to improve our response to many types of emergencies, including wildfires. Although the use of NextGen TV and ‘Broadcast Internet’ in a converged system will be covered, technology is not our focus. Instead, we will concentrate on the institutional and human interactions needed to leverage new technology solutions. Objectives for the Santa Barbara Roundtable and beyond • Review the state of alerting and EM-TV newsroom relationships in CA today • Identify best ways for alert originators, broadcasters, and other emergency information distributors to use NextGen TV directly and in a voluntary, interoperable ‘network of networks’ • Identify relationships that need to be built or strengthened between alerting stakeholders • Help create a model for NGEM roundtables in other regions and a national framework. Who should attend? • TV station general managers and news directors from both commercial and public media • Local and state emergency managers, including sheriffs, alert originators, and PIO’s • Area members of the State Emergency Communications Committee • Federal and non-federal alerting regional officials • Selected expert technology solution providers and device makers • Officials involved in emergency communications policy and planning.