Public Safety Datacast Paging Utilizing NextGEN Television Broadcast
Fred Engel
UNC-TV
Fred Engel has been in broadcasting since graduating from Ferris State University in 1978. He spent 27 years at WTTW Chicago rising from an engineering maintenance technician to Vice President of Technology. He spent nearly three years with a Systems Integration firm in Chicago as Vice President of Broadcasting working with customers on system designs. In 2010 he joined Kentucky Educational Television as Senior Director of Technology and in 2016 took a similar role with UNC-TV in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. Fred and his team received a Midwest Emmy award for the design and construction of WTTW’s Digital Broadcast Operations Center. He holds a Certified Professional Broadcast Engineer certification with the Society of Broadcast Engineers and serves on the PBS Engineering Technology Advisory Committee (ETAC).
Red Grasso
North Carolina Department of Information Technology
Red Grasso is the Single Point of Contact (SPOC) for the FirstNet project in North Carolina. He spent a decade as a firefighter with the Town of Morrisville, North Carolina before moving into the technologies and working for St Louis County, Missouri deploying a regional P25 trunked radio system. Focusing on public safety communications, he has served in many roles at different levels of government including disaster response at the local, state, and federal levels. His bachelor’s degree is in Emergency and Disaster Management and is a graduate of the Community Preparedness and Disaster Management program at UNC-CH. Red is also responsible for the communications system at the annual Burning Man event in Nevada.
Paul Allan Sadowski
State of North Carolina, Broadcast Infrastructure (retired)
Paul Allan Sadowski is an RF and Systems Engineer with over 45 years working in communications technology. In 1973, Allan started his electronics career as a Communications Technician which led him to entering NC State University for a BS Electrical Engineering (1983) while also working as a design engineer for an early computer graphics company. As a college junior he designed the first hardware implementation of Alpha Channel (for Lucas Films IL&M.) Returning to the USAF in 1982 Allan supported RADAR research activities and then was selected for sensors and systems integration projects. He received his MS Information Systems Technology from Hawaii Pacific University in 1993 and retired from the USAF in 1996. Allan worked at the NC State Highway Patrol for 17 years as IT Manager – networks, and then became North Carolina’s FirstNet SPOC where he supported FirstNet until his (second) retirement in 2017. Allan currently consults on sensors integration, 4G LTE communications, and PNT efforts. In addition to Alpha Channel, Allan has enjoyed other development efforts including a datacasting related Patent, XML Facial Images for Law Enforcement (XFILES), and an Internationally adopted image product dissemination system (5D).
Abstract
Red Grasso and Paul Sadowski from the North Carolina Department of Information Technology will share their experiences in the public safety communications arena to talk about the existing, analog paging system used by first... [ view full abstract ]
Authors
- Fred Engel (Organisation: UNC-TV, Job Title: -, Speaker Consent and Release: -)
- Red Grasso (Organisation: North Carolina Department of Information Technology, Job Title: -, Speaker Consent and Release: -)
- Paul Allan Sadowski (Organisation: State of North Carolina, Broadcast Infrastructure (retired), Job Title: -, Speaker Consent and Release: -)
Topic Areas
Possible Topics: ATSC 3.0 , Possible Topics: Disaster Recovery , Possible Topics: Infrastructure , Possible Topics: Mobile , Possible Topics: Public Safety , Possible Topics: Regulatory , Possible Topics: Trends & Future Tech
Session
F1530-SCA » Public Safety and NextGen TV – the Future is Now (15:30 - Friday, 6th April, St. Croix A)
Presentation Files
The presenter has not uploaded any presentation files.
