I’m proud to share that Device Solutions and PBS NC have been recognized with the Best Paper Award at this year's NAB Broadcast Engineering and Information Technology Conference. This award honors the collaborative work behind our recent paper on a new approach to public safety paging—one that uses the ATSC 3.0 broadcast standard to deliver critical messages faster, more reliably, and across wider areas than traditional analog systems.
This recognition is a huge honor for our team, but even more importantly, it shines a light on a project that has the potential to transform how first responders receive emergency alerts.
While Device Solutions contributed to the technical design and development of the prototype paging devices, this effort would not have happened without the vision, leadership, and tireless dedication of Red Grasso, Director of the First Responder Emerging Technologies (FirstTech) Program at the North Carolina Department of Information Technology, and Fred Engel, Chief Technology Officer at PBS North Carolina. Red and Fred were the driving forces behind this concept from the beginning—bringing together public safety, broadcasting, and engineering communities to solve a decades-old problem in a new way.
Together, we set out to address the real-world challenges facing EMS, fire, and other first responder agencies still relying on aging VHF voice pagers. With ATSC 3.0, we’re showing that there's a viable, standards-based path forward—one that increases speed and reliability while leveraging existing infrastructure to reduce cost and complexity.
The DHS Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program made this work possible, and we’re incredibly grateful for their support. What started as a bold idea presented at NAB in 2019 has now progressed into a functioning prototype system undergoing field testing in North Carolina—and it’s making waves across the country.
On behalf of our entire team at Device Solutions, I want to thank NAB for this recognition, and more importantly, thank Red and Fred for their partnership and leadership. Collaborations like this are what drive meaningful, lasting change—and we’re honored to be a part of it.
