12:57 PM EDT on Thursday, April 20, 2006

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Mayor Jerry Abramson, Louisville Fire Department and KET representatives today demonstrated a new wireless "datacasting" system that allows Louisville officials to broadcast live and recorded video, emergency news and alerts, and other information to more than 80 urban and suburban fire stations, police substations and other emergency-responder locations in Louisville Metro.

"The Louisville Fire Department and KET have worked together to create what is essentially a dedicated television service for emergency responders," Abramson said.  "The datacasting system will allow our community's fire departments to enhance training opportunities and connect and coordinate during an emergency in ways they never have before."  Abramson said Louisville is the first city to deploy such a system.

KET is providing the datacasting infrastructure through the KET DataCast service and developed the software for the system, called the Emergency Responders Training Network. The hardware for the datacasting system within the Louisville fire stations is funded through $445,000 in federal Urban Area Security Initiative grants.

"This use of KET DataCast is just one example of how digital broadcasting allows us to expand our offerings far beyond traditional television programming," said KET Executive Director Malcolm Wall.  "Our engineers have done truly groundbreaking work in datacasting that will enhance emergency services in Louisville and throughout the state."

The Fire Department will initially use their system to transmit training videos and emergency alerts to every urban and suburban fire station in Louisville Metro.  The department also has the capability to set up cameras at an emergency scene to broadcast real-time incident video back to other emergency responders who are managing the event from a control center.

"Our video and training specialists have worked with KET to customize a system specifically for our needs in preparing to respond to emergencies," Frederick said.  "We believe this will be a very effective tool both for us and for other responders."

Chief Paul Barth of the McMahan Fire District said his fire department will use the system.  "The datacasting will expand our training capabilities, and demonstrates another positive example of suburban and urban fire departments working together to enhance public safety," said Barth, who is Abramson's liason to the 18 suburban fire districts.

KET officials said they would seek additional funding to employ the Louisville emergency datacasting model in other communities throughout the state.

In a related project, KET is one of 17 public television stations across the nation selected to test Phase 2 of a national Digital Emergency Alert System (DEAS).  In the collaboration of The Department of Homeland Security, The Association of Public Television Stations (APTS) and PBS, test messages are being broadcast over KET's WKMJ in Louisville. National roll-out of the system, planned for later in the year, will further enhance emergency services in Louisville and statewide.