Tornado interrupt football? This tech will help solve that [Ep. 407]

Tired of tornado warnings in other counties interrupting your television programming? Never again! New technology, beginning to roll out nationwide, could offer a solution.

As broadcast stations across the country deploy ATSC 3.0, a standard more commonly known as NextGen television, a future where severe weather and breaking news coverage is geo-targeted to separate viewers in specific locations is possible.

The new technology, which is expected to be in homes, vehicles, and mobile devices over the next decade, creates new possibilities for TV stations. Unlike traditional television, which broadcasts the same signal to all viewers within the coverage area, the new generation technology allows programming changes to be sent differently to different devices.

Using Internet-based indicators received by the IPTV transmission, viewers not actively under a tornado warning could stay with regular programming, such as live sporting events, while viewers most impacted by life-threatening severe weather could watch live, breaking weather coverage.

Our guest this week on the Carolina Weather Group is John Lawson, who serves as Executive Director of the Advanced Warning and Response Network (AWARN) Alliance, an international coalition of broadcasting, consumer electronics, and professional tech companies. The Alliance is leveraging Next Generation Television (ATSC 3.0) to develop an advanced system for emergency alerting, news, and information.

The technology is new and not yet deployed everywhere. To see if your city and local broadcasters are transmitting for NextGen TV, visit https://www.watchnextgentv.com/. Even after the new transmissions begin, it will still be a matter of time before local broadcasters decide whether or not they want to segment programming to different parts of their audience.

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The Carolina Weather Group operates a weekly talk show of the same name. Broadcasting each week from the Carolinas, the show is dedicated to covering weather, science, technology, and more with newsmakers from the field of atmospheric science. With co-hosts across both North Carolina and South Carolina, the show may closely feature both NC weather and SC weather, but the topics are universally enjoyable for any weather fan. Join us as we talk about weather, environment, the atmosphere, space travel, and all the technology that makes it possible.