The National Association of Broadcasters announced a “strategic realignment” to accelerate development and deployment of the Broadcast Positioning System, a public safety and national security initiative made possible by the NextGen TV ATSC 3.0 standard.
The announcement comes two months after NAB announced that the U.S. Department of Transportation awarded the organization a $744,000 contract to advance BPS field testing. BPS is a new technology that was invented and developed by the NAB.
Broadcasters have been promoting the system, which uses NextGen TV/ATSC 3.0 signals to deliver terrestrial-based timing and location services that can serve as a backup to the Global Positioning System.
BPS has the potential to protect the nation’s critical infrastructure in the event of a GPS outage, cyberattack or disruption, the organization said. NAB is partnering with Dominion Energy for the system’s contract and for field testing.
NAB Executive Vice President of Technology and CTO Sam Matheny and Vice President of Advanced Technology Tariq Mondal, who have led BPS development to date, will move into new roles dedicated exclusively to the initiative, according to an NAB release.
Matheny will now serve as executive vice president of the BPS and Mondal as vice president of the BPS. Together, they will work to build a team focused solely on advancing BPS technology and services, NAB said.
“By investing more resources in BPS, we are accelerating a technology that strengthens national resilience while creating meaningful long-term opportunities for our members,” NAB President and CEO Curtis LeGeyt said.
NAB realignment
NAB is also launching a new Industry Affairs and Innovation department, led by Executive Vice President April Carty-Sipp, bringing together NAB’s Industry Affairs and Technology teams under one umbrella.
It said that the integration will align member services, innovation, engineering and technology expertise to better address the challenges and opportunities facing media outlets “at the intersection of business and technology.”
Senior Vice President of Emerging Technology and Executive Director of PILOT John Clark will serve in the newly created role of chief innovation officer and senior vice president of Emerging Technology, where he will lead NAB’s efforts to identify, develop and expand next-generation tools, partnerships and technologies that help local broadcasters.
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