ATSC broadcast signal with encoded dispatch messages

A system for broadcasting dispatch messages through an Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) broadcast signal comprising:

• a data normalization server executing on a first computing platform having a memory for storing machine-readable instructions and a processor core for accessing the memory and executing the machine-readable instructions, the machine-readable instructions causing the processor core of the first computing platform to execute operations for the data normalization server, the operations comprising:
• augmenting an emergency event notification characterizing an emergency event that is received from a regional emergency notification concentrator with situational awareness data for the emergency event to provide an augmented emergency notification;
• outputting a broadcast dispatch data object (BDDO) that is generated based on the augmented emergency notification, wherein the BDDO includes a dispatch message with data characterizing the emergency event notification and the situational awareness data, wherein the BDDO is structured for encapsulation into a dispatch channel of an ATSC broadcast signal directed to a proper subset of provisioned ATSC receivers associated with the dispatch message;
• and
• generating an application programming interface (API) call for an ATSC transport encoder, wherein the API call includes dispatch message broadcast control parameters that direct the ATSC transport encoder to inject data of the BDDO into a dispatch physical layer pipe (PLP) of a broadcast stream for an ATSC broadcaster;
• and
• the ATSC transport encoder executing on a second computing platform having a memory for storing machine-readable instructions and a processor core for accessing the memory and executing the machine-readable instructions, the machine-readable instructions causing the processor core of second computing platform to execute operations for the ATSC transport encoder, the operations comprising:
• encapsulating data of the BDDO in a dispatch physical layer pipe (PLP) of a broadcast stream for an ATSC broadcaster in response to receiving the API call from the data normalization server, wherein parameters for the encapsulation are specified in the API call;
• and
• transmitting the broadcast stream to the ATSC broadcaster, wherein the ATSC broadcaster broadcasts a plurality of channels, and the plurality of channels comprises a dispatch channel with the data of the BDDO.

A method comprising:

• augmenting, by a data normalization server operating on a computing platform, an emergency event notification from a regional emergency notification concentrator with situational awareness data for an emergency event characterized in the emergency event notification to provide an augmented emergency notification;
• generating, by the data normalization server, a broadcast dispatch data object (BDDO) based on the augmented emergency event notification, wherein the BDDO includes a dispatch message with data characterizing the emergency event notification and the situational awareness data and the BDDO is structured for encapsulation into a dispatch channel of an Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) broadcast signal directed to a proper subset of provisioned ATSC receivers associated with the dispatch message;
• generating, an application programming interface (API) call for an ATSC transport encoder, wherein the API call includes dispatch message broadcast control parameters that direct the ATSC transport encoder to inject data of the BDDO into a dispatch physical layer pipe (PLP) of a broadcast stream for an ATSC broadcaster;
• and
• providing the API call to the ATSC transport encoder, wherein the ATSC transport encoder encapsulates data of the BDDO in a dispatch physical layer pipe (PLP) of a broadcast stream for an ATSC broadcaster responsive to the API call.