America's Emergency Network Goes Live in Florida for Busy Hurricane
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE America’s Emergency Network Goes Live in Florida for Busy Hurricane Season Powered by HughesNet®, service provides residents with access to real-time news briefings from state and local government officials Germantown, Md., September 29, 2008—Hughes Network Systems, LLC (HUGHES), the global leader in broadband satellite networks and services, today announced that America’s Emergency Network, Inc. (AEN), a satellite-based emergency communications system powered by the nationwide HughesNet broadband satellite service, has been successfully streaming real-time news briefings from numerous state and local operations centers since the onset of the hurricane season. Beginning with Tropical Storm Fay, the system has been up and running for subsequent Hurricanes Hannah, Gustav, and Ike. Based in Florida, AEN’s service provides residents with access to news, preparedness, and recovery advisories issued by the governor and other state officials by streaming live, storm- related briefings from Florida’s Division of Emergency Management in Tallahassee and the Village of Islamorada, and from operations centers in Miami-Dade, Broward, Brevard, Duval, and Putnam counties. Additionally, the service works with major Florida newspapers to provide convenient, free public access to the video streams over their Web sites. “Emergency managers, the media, and the general public now have seen first-hand the importance of AEN’s communications system, the void it fills, and the service it provides,” said Bryan Norcross, president and chief executive officer of America’s Emergency Network. “Utilizing the HughesNet satellite backbone ensures that our system remains functional even when terrestrial phone lines, cable, and mobile service are knocked out.” “During a disaster, timely communications are of the essence,” said Mike Cook, senior vice president at Hughes.
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