What's New
03/05/07
Business Continuity Planning for the PRSS
Business Continuity Planning (BCP) remains one of the top priorities for NPR Distribution. As a system we have survived many emergencies, including a satellite failure, Y2K, and September 11 2001, and several weather-related emergencies, thanks to an ongoing commitment to disaster preparedness planning activities and drills. The general view of the industry is that the future likely holds many more challenges for all of us in the PRSS.
Our efforts to provide for the continuity of operations for the PRSS are ongoing. Some of our achievements include:
 |
Antenna at NPR headquarters |
- Conducted Network Operations Center (NOC) evacuation drills and operated the NOC using offsite emergency operations procedures.
- Installed a new fully steerable uplink antenna at the NOC to provide seamless coverage on alternative satellites should a spacecraft failure occur.
- Concluded work on the Earth Terminal Refurbishment Project (ETRP) to bring the ability to access other satellites to all PRSS Interconnected Stations.
- Tested the 1st level audio restoral procedures.
- Added enhancements to the backup uplinking facility at WCVE-FM in Richmond, Virginia, to allow for the prss.org website to be backed up by this facility in addition to the program distribution functions that were already part of the facility.
- Updated emergency contacts for stations and distributors.
- Released an online BCP planning module for stations to use in their own BCP planning activities.
- Participated in ongoing coordination of Distribution's BCP plans with the rest of the PRSS and NPR.
- Started a project to review and update the Backup Operating Procedures.
- Tested the Richmond backup site, both for equipment readiness and to "proof" our procedures.
Going forward, we are continuing to review and refine our procedures to make certain that we are best able to handle a variety of potential problems. Likewise, complete ContentDepot backup facilities are currently under construction in St. Paul, Minnesota, at Minnesota Public Radio.
Even the best plans will not succeed without a solid communications strategy. NPR Distribution continues to test and evaluate our emergency communications procedures. The current plan uses a combination of system messaging, fax, PRSS.org, and industry email lists (Pubradio, PubTech, Areps, Dubnet) to provide the widest possible coverage of information should a disaster occur. Additional information about the PRSS BCP plans can be found at www.prss.org.
As always we encourage stations and distributors to share their BCP plans with us. The primary contact for BCP issues at NPR Distribution is Ralph Woods, deputy director of Operations. He can be reached at 202.513.2664 or via email.