TORONTO—The city of Calgary and Humber Polytechnic's Broadcast-Broadband Convergence B2C Lab have entered what is believed to be North America’s first ATSC 3.0 municipal use project.
The multiyear collaboration between the city and Humber, a public university in Toronto, will examine how NextGen TV can improve municipal services and enhance efficiency by making Calgary a more connected city.
“Having access to the digital world is now more important than ever, and ATSC 3.0 has great potential as a capacity multiplier to help all Calgarians gain equitable access and be part of the online world,” said Erin Ruttan, IT project manager leading Calagry’s ATSC 3.0 and digital equity efforts. “Connections make our neighborhoods strong. But when many of those connections happen online, it can be challenging for some people to be part of the community. We are keen to look at ways we can use ATSC 3.0 technology to make lives better for all the people in our community.”
The project aims to improve city services and build digital equity. The project will focus on designing, building and testing several over-the-air ATSC 3.0 datacasting applications. They include:
- Secure and improved communication for emergency responder networks.
- Targeted public emergency alerting.
- Dynamic digital municipal signage.
- Remote education access.
- Resilient timing and navigation solutions in case of GPS disruption.
The first phase of the project, expected to continue through December 2025, will involve experimental broadcasts using a single transmitter installed at the Harvard broadcast tower in Calgary. The transmitter
will be directly connected to Humber’s B2C Lab in Toronto.
Humber staff and students will oversee implementation of applications, signal processing and data transmission live from Toronto to Calgary.
“As the home of North America's first Broadcast-Broadband Convergence Lab, Humber Polytechnic is at the forefront of developing next-generation television and data delivery applications enabled by the ATSC 3.0 standard,” Ann Marie Vaughan, president and CEO of Humber Polytechnic, said. “This collaboration with the city of Calgary demonstrates the significant impact Humber is making nationally and the importance of collaborating with like-minded partners who are excited to push boundaries and explore innovative solutions that can be applied across various industries, from emergency response to digital education, all while providing hands-on opportunities for our students to engage in research and development.”
