Introduction

Voice-based paging is still widely used in the Fire and EMS disciplines for emergency call alerting. This can be true for both volunteer and staffed/career agencies. In these instances, paging is generally only a one-way page sent from fixed infrastructure to a device worn by a member of that agency. Call alerting can occur for agency members while they are at a station, at home, or even as they go about their daily jobs. A Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP), or 911 center, sends the page to a voice pager with information about the location and type of emergency. This type of pager allows the responder to “hear” the dispatch. These devices are also known as a Tone & Voice Pager, Fire Pager, Voice Pager, and/or by the common vendor models such as the Motorola Minitor Pager, Unication G4/G5 Voice Pager, SwissPhone Voice Pager, or Apollo Voice Pager, just to name a few.

Challenges

While seen as a great innovation when they were introduced over a half-century ago, the largely audio-based (tone and voice) technologies incorporated within these legacy pagers fall well short of providing the timely dissemination of emergency information needed today. Moreover, these outmoded pagers cannot support the distribution of mixed media digital content needed by today’s first responder communities. Lastly, the capability to extend the delivery of this emergency information to personnel located outside the geographic bounds of a jurisdiction - that might be conducting business just outside the county, is highly problematic.

Opportunities

Today however, the speed and coverage limitations of these legacy pagers can be overcome through resilient communications technologies being fielded under emergent Advanced Television Systems Committee (ASTC) 3.0 / Digital Television (DTV) broadcast standard. Furthermore, these emerging ATSC / DTV standards support an extended collection of information types well beyond the audible content disseminated via yesteryears paging solutions, including eXtensible Markup Language (XML) content, digital streams of Full Motion Video (FMV), and other multimedia content useful to the nation’s First Responders and the Communities they serve. This is what our Next Generation Digital Pager (NGDP) systems architecture is built to address.

The Solution

Our NGDP systems architecture directly supports constructs outlined by the Digital Paging over Public Television solicitation issued in late 2019 by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). It leveraging capabilities developed within iCode’s FireCast® Platform, with proven ATSC 3.0 RedZone Receivers developed by Airwavz.tv (https://redzonereceiver.tv), and the ATSC 3.0 integration testing and Over-The-Air (OTA) broadcast facilities offered by the News Press and Gazette (NPG) company. Herein, we map these offerings into the needs outlined by DHS’s Digital Paging over Public Television solicitation.

FireCast® Platform (NGDP System Infrastructure)

Our FireCast® Platform is comprised of three core components: FireCast® Gateways, FireCast® mobile applications (FireCast® Pro, FireCast® Community), and FireCast® Cloud services. These components are deployed in five roles, with three instances of the FireCast® Gateway filling distinct roles within the overall NGDP system (one at each PSAPs, one at each ATSC 3.0 Station, and one with each ATSC 3.0 Receiver).

FireCast® Gateway (NGDP PSAP Gateway component)

Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) outfitted with a FireCast® Gateway will communicate emergency dispatch information (textual and rich multimedia content) originating from Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) systems over different Internet Protocol (IP) pathways leading to our resilient FireCast® Cloud services.

FireCast® Cloud (NGDP Paging Server component)

Designated FireCast® Cloud services function as the Paging Server component idntified within the DHS  Digital Paging over Public Television solicitation, providing the common service that all PSAPs connect to via their respective indivdual FireCast® Gateway devices. For scalability and resiliancy, our hybrid cloud services are provisioned across the nation. Services verify the authenticity of each gateway (node) connecting to it, and furthermore verify the authenticity of digital content transported over the network through digital signatures. Services also identify and resolve situations where inbound digital content already exits in the cloud (because it arrived via an alternate and faster communications pathway). Upon receipt, digital content is compared to mission profiles (residing in the Paging Server) to determine which ATSC 3.0 Broadcast Station Gateway destinations this content is to be routed too.

FireCast® Gateway (NGDP Broadcast Station Gateway component)

FireCast® Gateways (provisioned on virtual or physical machines) residing at destination ATSC 3.0 Television Stations are the recipients of emergency dispatch information published by the FireCast® Cloud services, which originated from PSAPs. This digital content is scheduled as non-real time media and placed in the queue for OTA broadcasts, some of which can be repeated at designated intervals.

FireCast® Gateway (NGDP Digital Pager component)

Three portable, battery powered Digital Pager designs are underway - each incorporates an ATSC 3.0 Receiver, an integrated or companion antenna, supports interaction with a companion mobile app, and may include a textual display for stand-alone operations.

In particular, the smartphone-ready Backpack pager configuration incorporates an integrated antenna (see the Airwavz.tv Quarterback® in the image below). The Wearable pager incorporates a companion antenna that users can clip to their belt, attach to a rucksack strap, or slide into a pocket. Like the Backpack pager, the externally Mountable weatherproof pager incorporates an integrated antenna into the pager enclosure itself.

Both the Wearable and Mountable pager implementations leverage the proven Airwavz.tv RedZone Receiver (the small red-colored USB-enabled device in the image above) and a small embedded computer and are capable of distributing emergency information to multiple FireCast® Pro apps residing within the radius of the digital pager’s internal Ad-Hoc WiFi network. DTV Antenna options for both the Wearable and Mountable implementations are underway. The Wearable Pager configuration includes a companion flexible antenna (based on the electromagnetic properties incorporated within the rigid antenna used within the Quarterback®), but more compatible with flexible belts, a rucksack strap or pocket. The Mountable Pager configuration can be thought of as an All-In-One dashboard, tripod, or ruggedized camera accessory incorporating the antenna, receiver and computer in a weatherproof enclosure.  These Mountable Pagers incorporate a threaded universal mounting options one often used by commercial GoPro® cameras. 

Mountable pager implementations incorporate a small display and audio output capable of communicating text-oriented content without connections to a mobile device. Display and interaction with rich multimedia content (i.e., video) is not supported on this small display, and therefore a mobile device (e.g., iPhone/iPad or Apple Watch) is necessary to render geospatial content, still imagery or full motion video content. The FireCast® Pro app (illustrated below) residing on Apple devices incorporate haptic feedback and audible tones to minimize end-user interactions with the companion app.