TV's turned on for warnings -- WASHINGTON BOARD

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Date Posted: 09:33:07 04/15/02 Mon
Author: MJ
Author Host/IP: wks-166-152-9.kscable.com / 24.166.152.9
Subject: TV's turned on for warnings

[for discussion use only Fair Use]

In crisis, they'll turn on your TV
Experts say remotely activated sets can save lives during disasters
By Seth Borenstein

KNIGHT RIDDER NEWS SERVICE

Wednesday, April 10, 2002

WASHINGTON � If your TV is off when disaster looms, some emergency managers want to be able to turn it on to warn you of the coming danger.

YOUR VIEW

How do you feel about remotely activated TV sets?
Sign me up. 7% 80
Creepy. If I want the news I'll turn the TV on myself. 93% 991
Total Votes 1071

Results are not scientific.

The technology that would allow the government to remotely activate your television or radio is already there. But it has never caught on because so many people don't like the idea of government reaching into their homes.

Still, an emergency specialist who says a "smart receiver" system can save lives intends to broach the idea at the National Association of Broadcasters convention today in Las Vegas.

"The more you know about what's happening, the better off you are," said Peter Ward, chairman of the nonprofit advocacy group Partnership for Public Warning, which will raise the subject at the broadcasters' convention. "We hope to reduce loss of lives. . . . The reality is, if you look at warnings and the history of warnings, they have saved lives."

Jim Butchart, communications technology coordinator for Alaska's Division of Emergency Services, said emergency managers strongly support the idea of remotely activated media. "Because all of the (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) weather radios, all of the cable television scrolls, all of the television announcements do you no good if you're home asleep."

Nevertheless, it's still an uncomfortable idea, and the White House Office of Homeland Security said it is not exploring the idea.

Since 1997, the Federal Communications Commission has required radio, broadcast television and cable television companies to have the equipment "that sends out the proper codes to turn things on," said Frank Lucia, the retired emergency communications bureau director for the FCC who has joined Ward's efforts. But the FCC hasn't required radio or television makers to install the equipment to receive such remote activation signals, he said.

If you had the right gear, cable companies could turn on your set with a burst of reflected infrared light, said Mark Smith, spokesman for the National Cable Television Association.

In Europe, a version of that concept is used in 95 million car radios that can switch from playing a compact disc to issuing an emergency or traffic warning. Residents near nuclear power plants in Sweden have radios that turn on automatically during an emergency at the plant.

So the technology works. The question for Americans is should it be installed?

"Just the reality of it coming on in your home, if that technology is there, it becomes easier to add the capability to peek," said Wayne Crews, director of technology policy at the Cato Institute, a libertarian research center in Washington sponsored primarily by business interests.

"Anonymity still matters to a lot of people, and privacy still matters to a lot of people," Crews said. What's more, people already have access to nearly instant communication through the Internet, he said.

Supporters say consumers would still have some control over privacy, because they will be able to program what warnings they want to receive.

"You the consumer decide who, what, where and why" warnings come in, Lucia said. If you want just tornado warnings for your county, that's all you get, he said. If you want no warnings, you get no warnings.

It still may turn off consumers.

"It would be quite a shock to the system to have your television suddenly on," said Rob Frieden, a former Federal Communications Commission attorney and telecommunications professor at Penn State University in State College, Pa. "There's a big gap between technological feasibility and consumer acceptance."

That's what killed the idea when it was first broached in Atlanta about 13 years ago for cable television customers, said Ellis Stanley, who was Atlanta's emergency management chief at the time and now runs disaster response for Los Angeles. Customers told the local cable company they'd give up cable television if it came with that type of remote activation equipment, he said.

That apprehension similarly killed Federal Emergency Management Agency research into remotely activated television sets in the early 1980s, Ward said.

Such concerns also shelved a federal government science and technology advisory panel recommendation in November 2000 that called for widespread use of smart receivers.

But after the terror attacks on Sept. 11, some emergency managers think now is the time to bring back the concept.

"Since 9-11, we need to look at all possible avenues," Stanley said. "Why don't we use that technology to work it into our lifestyle to use it as a way of informing and educating and warning."

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Replies:

Re: TV's turned on for warnings -- Donk, 18:34:13 04/15/02 Mon
- Re: TV's turned on for warnings -- Interested Awareness, 16:53:38 04/16/02 Tue