John Lawson, executive director of the Mobile500 Alliance, is in Minneapolis this week at the annual Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) Conference & Exposition.
He’s there to explain to attendees how Mobile-EAS, a new component wending its way through ATSC to become an add-on to the ATSC A/153 Mobile DTV standard, can help communicate vital information to the public during an emergency.
According to Lawson, first responders in Massachusetts, Nevada and Alabama, the sites of a yearlong M-EAS pilot, already have shown keen interest in the emergency alert system for Mobile DTV.
In this the first of a two-part podcast interview, Lawson discusses Mobile-EAS, how M-EAS will be accommodated by Mobile DTV receivers expected on the market later this year and how M-EAS not only can notify the public of an emergency but also provide a secure channel for transmission of tactical video to first responders on the scene of an unfolding event.
