HERD 1, 2, 3 feeds on Broadcastify
- Thread starter joen7xxx
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It's an outfit that got a contract or funding from PG&E to place remote receivers around the state that can stream fire dispatch/command traffic back to PGE's Hazard Awareness Warning Center for situational awareness, basically an all-hazards Ops Center. It's related to a mid-state WISP so they have connections and know-how to get to remote mountain tops; and are placed in some significant radio sites already. I think the audio network is 24/7 and "private" to PGE but if a major incident pops off, they'll co-stream the incident on one of these HERD broadcastify streams. The non-profit Watch Duty does the same thing with remote receivers to support their internal ops, using code and AI for parsing a lot of actionable data, but also turns around and streams the audio publicly 24/7 to broadcastify where they see gaps in coverage from other contributors to support the public as best possible.
ABC story from 2019 on PGE's HAWC in San Ramon. The story has a video where it shows (at 14 seconds) a monitor with a bunch of broadcastify windows all stacked (must not have known the Dashboard feature
.)
ABC story from 2019 on PGE's HAWC in San Ramon. The story has a video where it shows (at 14 seconds) a monitor with a bunch of broadcastify windows all stacked (must not have known the Dashboard feature
.)Here's some info, and a few photos of their radio trailers...
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Thanks for the link to the pics. Somewhat shocked those trailers are what PG&E accepts as state-of-the-art, especially for a remote listening solution. Looks like 99% solar and 1% discone on a mast into a raspberry pi streaming audio, and either a cell or WISP uplink. But PG&E Comms are run by PG&E IT, so that makes sense. IT/Comms folks who truly cross that bridge and "get it" are rare.
The point is it is dedicated, not hosted by a volunteer who 1)may have to evacuate, 2)is hosted at a location in a site, away from the area, so you could listen in to Butte county for instance and not have to BE in Butte County, and not be a the whim of the incident, 3) likely backed up so it can run with the power out for some time, and 4) because you are paying for the feed, likely alot, the uptime is better that the average streamer, the audio is of better quality and you can tell the contractor, "I want to listen to JUST THIS and nothing else, or in some cases you can control which Frequencies/TGs you pay for, not just Joes stream of police and fire in Anytown.
PG&E is being advised im sure, to sink money into ANYTHING that reduces future liability, that's why they even have their own type 6 engines, that is also why SDG&E is running their own helicopter in San Diego at likely thousands of dollars an hour. They also have a intel center that monitors Radio and video of their area. This is not about being a good neighbor. Its about keeping the state PUC off thier back and , as has been said, they got to be doing it better and cleaner than the other guy, they aint got the greatest reputation
www.airmedandrescue.com
PG&E is being advised im sure, to sink money into ANYTHING that reduces future liability, that's why they even have their own type 6 engines, that is also why SDG&E is running their own helicopter in San Diego at likely thousands of dollars an hour. They also have a intel center that monitors Radio and video of their area. This is not about being a good neighbor. Its about keeping the state PUC off thier back and , as has been said, they got to be doing it better and cleaner than the other guy, they aint got the greatest reputation
PG&E provides firefighting support to Marin County
The fire department of Marin County, California, will use a helicopter from energy provider Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) for aerial firefighting
www.airmedandrescue.com
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That's exactly it. It's a contractor serving a customer. It's duplicative only in the fact the stream is happening with or without Broadcastify; they're just contributing to the public where they can at no extra cost to everyone's benefit. And often completely independent of the power and internet grid, which is useful in bad weather and quakes etc.
Previous judgements against utility companies for being the cause of wildland fires required them to spend money on PREVENTING these fires and also EARLIER reporting of fires. They've been very loose (IMO) on how they spend the money. Instead of pouring money into maintaining powerlines that can hold up better in the wind and tree trimming clearances, they've chosen to invest in cameras and what you are discussing above. If someone's pet project is fire dept audio "awareness", that's where the money goes regardless of volunteer hosts.
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