LTN Global Communications Aids Sinclair With Public Service Info During Hurricane Florence

With the support of LTN Global Communications (LTN), Sinclair Broadcast Group’s station WCTI-TV provided critical and lifesaving public service information to residents of New Bern, North Carolina through Hurricane Florence.

WCTI the only TV station located in New Bern, continued to keep residents informed throughout flooding caused by the storm. Engineers worked diligently to get the station back on the air, while parent company, Sinclair partnered with LTN to provide support in the aftermath of the storm.

“Any operational plan we could devise, LTN was there to support,” says Paul Spinelli, Sinclair’s Director of Engineering, remarking that the LTN Network Operations Center was “terrific” during and after the storm.

Due to the flooding, WCTI was unable to operate from their facility. Using the LTN network, Sinclair was able to deliver important local news and other programming to New Bern, allowing them to continue to deliver critical information to Craven County residents, through both digital and linear feeds.

LTN’s network uses real-time decision-making to route traffic to the most efficient pathway. This allowed Sinclair to quickly route live video feeds between the hundreds of LTN connected locations they operate.

“LTN has worked alongside Sinclair’s forward-thinking engineers to build a bulletproof terrestrial, IP, Multi-cast network,” says Jonathan Stanton, LTN’s VP of Technology. “This level of engineering and development allows Sinclair’s affiliates to provide the highest level of public service to the communities they serve.”

“Even while continuing to operate from their parking lot, WCTI used LTN to backhaul feeds to a new master control facility for New Bern in the aftermath of the storm,” says Spinelli. “It’s during the unavoidable and unexpected disasters like Hurricane Florence where LTN’s fully managed Network Operations Center and technology really stand out.”