Transcript 0:00 [upbeat music] Welcome back to The Peggy Smedley Show, the podcasting voice of IoT and digital transformation. Hello, listeners, and welcome back to The Peggy Smedley Show. 0:15 For my first segment today, I actually have two guests joining me. 0:19 My first guest started working with Skytel, a telecommunications company owned by his family, where he developed a system in which a device connected to a fire alarm automatically noticed a fire station via radio frequency. 0:33 In two thousand and eleven, he founded his current company, an earthquake early warning system for companies and consumers based on satellite te-technology. 0:43 Also joining me today is a veteran of various national incidents, including the Oklahoma City bombing, the World Trade Center collapse, the recovery of the Columbia Space Shuttle astronauts, and the PG&E pipeline explosion. 0:57 He has been in th-- He's currently with the fire district since nineteen eighty-one and has been in his current role of the fire chief since two thousand and six. 1:07 Please welcome Alejandro Cantu Segura, founder and CEO of SkyAlert, and Harold Schapelholmén, fire chief of the Menlo Park Fire District. Gentlemen, welcome to the show. Morning. Good morning, Peggy. 1:23 Thank you so much for the opportunity. Well, it's great to have you. You guys have really done some amazing things, and first of all, I wanna thank you for that. 1:31 But I thought today, you know, Hala- Alejandro, I think I'll start with you, um, talking about the company, because I think that maybe is a great place to start for my listeners who really don't know much about SkyAlert and what you're doing. 1:44 So let's start there. Right. So SkyAlert is an earthquake early warning company, and what that means is that we let people know, we let companies and users know that an earthquake is about to strike. 1:57 So these people can actually take precautionary measures to be able to put yourself in a safe spot or to be able to protect your assets. 2:04 So in a way, what really we're trying to do is to save people from the world's deadliest natural disaster, which is earthquakes. 2:11 Well, you think about the things that have been happening lately, you know, the hurricanes and floods and, and things like that. Now, you think about an earthquake. 2:18 People are concerned about natural disasters that occur. So what... why did you get interested in this? 2:24 I mean, is it just because you were thinking about, you know, events in our society happening so much that it's just one of those things that you go, you know, "I, I, I should do something"? That's right. 2:35 Well, and I think a lot of things have to do with, with my racing. I was raised in Mexico City, so back in the eighties, right after the nineteen eighty-five deadly, deadly Na-- uh, Mexico City earthquake. 2:47 So I guess by growing up in a city that was damaged and has scars all over the city about the latest earthquake, I think it just gave me a different type of meaning and different type of, of vision for my life. 2:58 And of course, natural disasters are things that are happening all the time, and in a way, we can't really avoid them. 3:04 So as growing up, I started to realize how we've gone so far in all these different, uh, natural disasters. 3:11 Like, we see what just happened with Dorian or, or, or other hurricanes, and it just made a lot of sense that warning, to have enough warning about natural disasters would really changes the outcome. 3:23 Like, if we look into the history, like, of, of hurricanes back in the eighteen hundreds, like, people would just receive a hurricane without no further no-- w-without notice, and the death tolls were incredibly high. 3:35 As technology came along, it started playing a role, and now we can get warnings for seven days, a week, or even different types of things for different types of disasters. 3:42 It's when really we can prepare the most as a society, as people, to change the outcome of, of that natural disaster. So I think, like, those two things were the ones that really make me go and, and change 3:54 the way that we're now gonna be living th-with earthquakes. 3:58 Because the way that we see it is if we can get down to advance warning of an earthquake, and we can get people to protect themselves, to get under a desk, to drop, cover, and hold on, to turn off machinery, that is the best way that we can actually change the outcome of the earthquake. 4:12 And as I was building out the company, I realized that most of the things that we do today to be able to resist an earthquake, to be able to be prepared, is things that we're planning to do after the event. 4:23 Which don't get me wrong, those are great. Like, to be able to have your emergency bag and, and have your family plans up to date, that's, that's great things. 4:31 But if we can actually get the warning before and we can make sure that we, that we won't be injured and that no one is gonna have, like, some big problem, then I think, like, it really changes the outcome to be able to go and help out because earthquakes are incredibly powerful. 4:45 Is it now that you're able to do this now because technology has finally become to a point that we're able to bring it to society? 4:53 We've advanced so much in technology, you're able to bring it, you know, and, and we're seeing so much that's happened in Silicon Valley, you're able to start it and really say, "Look, we're seeing advances and we can do these things"? 5:05 Absolutely. I think, of course, cloud computing is one of the things that really made this possible. IoT is the, is the second part. 5:12 So I think, like, the conjunction of those two parts are the things that actually make us being able to deliver earthquake early warnings, right? 5:20 Cloud computing, in the end, we're talking about a really mass emergency notification system. We gotta be able to notify millions of people, millions of companies, millions of users. 5:31 So that really requires a lot of computer power. 5:33 So by using the cloud, we're able actually to be able to send all these warnings out, and by using IoT, then we can actually now control different types of, of automatic processes that we can do with the warning, right? 5:47 Some of them are, like, uh, shutting off gas valves, turning off elevators, um, I don't know, unlocking security doors. 5:54 All these different things that now can be done automatically to be able to prepare for an earthquake.I'm kind of curious and, and, and, and, uh, Alejandro, I'll come back to you exci- i- in a second, but Harold, I've got to ask you, as a fire chief, you look at this and every vendor comes to you and says, "Hey, we've got this great technology. 6:12 It's gonna save the world." [chuckles] And, you know, you got to sit there and go, "Yeah, okay, I've heard it before." 6:17 I, I-- when you look at something like this and you say, "Look, I'm looking at another IoT solution that's really going to do something dramatic," how do you go about looking at it and evaluating something and saying, "I'm seeing something that really is going to save lives, and I wanna be a part of it?" 6:34 Well, that's, and that's probably the best point that I could make is that, you know, we're consequence management. That's the fire service, right? 6:42 We deal with seconds, minutes, and hours, and that's when incidents occur. You know, we're always dealing with the human condition, which is incidents based upon arrogance, ignorance, and complacency. 6:54 So when you have a natural event like an earthquake, you know, you're right, the normal reaction, the normal governmental entity is always, you know, kind of behind the curve, if you want to say that, but, but we're not the normal governmental agency because of what we do, because of where we're located, and, and just trying to have a more progressive mentality, which is, you know, how do we provide a device or use a device that preemptively gives us some more time to know that an earthquake is coming, allows our personnel, you know, and as, as Alon- Alejandro mentioned, you know, through smart station technology, through the Sky Alert, through the ShakeAlert sensor system. 7:33 You know, if we let our firefighters know an earthquake's coming, doors can be opened, gas can be shut off, power can be turned on, the lighting if it's nighttime. 7:43 The fire trucks may be able to be pul-pulled outside if that's necessary. But our personnel can gain some level of safety for themselves. 7:50 Now, most of the stations that we're putting this in have been rebuilt to modern seismic standards, but that still doesn't, you know, really mean that we're not gonna be affected. 7:59 So, you know, I guess to summarize the question and the response, it's that, you know, what better entity than your public safety provider to have some sort of pre-warning that something's coming so that we can move to be ahead of it, right? 8:15 So that we can secure ourselves, our personnel, and that we know we're gonna be operational after the event happens, so we can handle other emergencies. That's, that's really the biggest key for us. 8:26 And, you know, you, you asked about all these different vendors in the space. Well, on a lot of fronts, right? 8:33 We're, we're pushing tech- technological advancements with a lot of different companies, and we're very proactive in that, and we're trying to, trying to have them work with us so that we don't have-- they don't build things that don't work and then tell us in the fire service or in public safety, "Hey, we built this great thing for you," and then we would look at it and go, "Yeah, that's great. 8:55 It doesn't meet our needs. It's not gonna ever work the way we need it." And so we discount it. We can't waste time. 9:01 So I'd rather have people approach us before we have a problem with some sort of innovative solution and work with them to make it, you know, something that's usable. That's, that's really the biggest thing, right? 9:12 Technology's great. 9:14 A lot of smart people in Silicon Valley and all over, certainly here, coming from all over the world, developing amazing things, but many times it doesn't fit in our, our world, or they think it does, or if it just had some tweaks from the practical approach, the people that use things every day, then there would be an acceptance for that level of technology, and we can improve and integrate that into how we operate. 9:40 So Har-Harold, I have a tagline here that says, "With great technology comes great responsibility." 9:45 So my question to you then is, looking at that, if you want companies to come to you, because we're talking about these smart cities all the time. We want cities to be smart. 9:54 I, I have two questions for you then that I have to ask. How much advance notice do you get with the Sky Alert? 10:00 Because that's gonna be an important one, because it, it, it, it, it could be a matter of, is it seconds, or what are we talking about here? And then I wanna know the other partners. 10:09 So let me, let me ask you that question first, then I'll go to the second one. Well, you know, how much time depends on where the earthquake is, right? 10:17 So I mean, this whole, the whole ShakeAlert system is based upon the sensors in the ground that USGS has placed there. And, and I don't wanna make it sound like this has been an easy road either, `cause it hasn't been. 10:28 I mean, Alejandro, you know, we looked at several different vendors and thought that Sky Alert was the best interface to the ShakeAlert system, and we're a pilot program. 10:38 You know, USGS, and, and this is no disrespect to them, and, and, and I don't want anybody to think that, but, you know, we're years behind agencies that are in Japan, Mexico, uh, you know, other places in the world that have this type of technology already. 10:53 And it's been a real slow go to get this, um, because I think there's a lot of concern. A, they wanna get it right and perfect, which can never really happen completely. 11:04 But B, you know, there's just a-- they, you know, they thought, well, we're gonna have to provide you with a grant. You, you know, government doesn't wanna spend money. 11:10 That it couldn't be further from the truth, and we've been asking for this for three years. 11:14 So, you know, to, to the question specifically, you know, at the end of the day, you know, things have to work when we get them, and you're right. You know, at, at some point, you gotta jump over that threshold. 11:27 But this isn't the only type of tech that we're dealing with. 11:30 We're dealing with in-facepiece, uh, air pack face pieces for our firefighters, uh, technology that allows us no longer to have to use handheld thermal imaging, so we can look into a building. 11:42 Imagine this is all in your, in your face piece. You know, we're, we're very big into drones and UAS. You know, we're big into any type of, again, technology that advances our capability to do things better. 11:55 And as I mentioned, you know, it's seconds, minutes, and hours. That's real world. You know, we have to be good at what we do to save life and property and protect the environment. 12:04 So, you know, we're always looking for tech partners that can help us do that.Well, and Al- Alejandro made a very good point. We're talking about the cloud now. 12:14 We're talking about the IOT, you know, we're talking about AI. All of these things can't be disparate systems. 12:21 You have to have interoperability to be able to make those seconds, those minutes turn into seconds when you're talking about saving your, your men and women's lives when they're out there risking their lives for other people, right? 12:33 I mean, isn't that what we're talking about here? Well, it is what we're talking about. I mean, how do we make them more efficient, more effective, right? 12:42 I mean, they're, they're the front line, they're the, you know, the tip of the spear when it comes to an emergency. And so that is how we approach it. 12:48 But again, here in our world, if it doesn't work, it will be rejected, and nothing worse can happen than to try and insert something and it fail under operational conditions. 13:00 So when we look at all of these things that we talk about, the types of things that are happening, we're looking at a lot of technology that goes into this. 13:08 And so Alejandro, when we look at this, and I guess the question I would have for you is how can companies use Sky Alert? Because that's really important to me. 13:18 It's also really important to mention is really how, how it works, right? And, and right now, the possibility for companies to use this technology is a result of years of the USGS investing in the ShakeAlert system. 13:31 And us as a company, SkyAlert, what we actually do or help with companies to be able to interface and by getting out the ShakeAlert, the earthquake early warning technology, and then being able to use it. 13:42 So we have been doing this for years, so we have multiple, multiple examples of how companies get to use this. 13:49 Because one of the things that we have to take into account is that everyone is going to be affected by an earthquake or by a natural disaster of this, of this magnitude. 13:59 So we're talking about banks, we're talking about retails, we're talking about factories, we're talking about schools, hospitals. Everyone in a way is gonna have to be able to deal with this. 14:08 So one of the things that we do whenever we go into companies to be able to help them understand what is the bigger risk, like what is the priority that we wanna be able to protect from earthquakes? 14:19 Some of those answers are like my people, right? Like I, I got this many employees, I wanna be able to protect them. 14:24 I'm a responsible employer, and I wanna be able to let them know that an earthquake is coming, so all of them can drop, cover, and hold on before the earthquake hits. 14:32 Personally, I think that is the most important part, because in the end, we do this to save lives. 14:37 But then when we're talking about industrial side of things, when we're talking about banks, we're talking about all different things, then we look at them from the asset point of view in terms of what can I do with this place to make them the most resilient, right? 14:52 So they can recover as fast as possible before the earthquake. So then when we're looking at factories, we're talking about emergency shutoffs, right? 14:59 Like most of the factories have an emergency shutoff, so you just press the red button, the factory stops, everything is in a s- is in a stable position, then the, the shaking can begin, and then whenever the shaking stops, we can make sure that everything goes right, and then just turn it up again. 15:15 Gas lines, right? Of course, fires are the biggest, uh, threat after an earthquake. 15:20 So we can shut off the gas valve, we can make sure that nothing catches on fire during the earthquake, and then when everything is steady again, we can turn on the gas valves again. Elevators is another thing. 15:30 You know, like here, just here in the Bay Area, at any given point, there's around forty thousand people that are gonna be in an elevator, and then if that time an earthquake hits and if it's strong enough, there's gonna be, I think, literally thousands of people are gonna be trapped inside of elevators. 15:44 So if we can really interact with these elevators and like make them themselves open the doors, go to the closest floor, then we can really avoid all these different kinds of problems that might arise from the earthquake. 15:57 So in the... 15:58 I guess in the end, like the possibilities are endless, and this is one thing that I love about my job is that whenever we work with a company, we really do a really cool brainstorming session and start brainstorming like what are the things that could go wrong? 16:11 And what of, uh-- and out of all these things that could go wrong, which one would be the priority, and let's attack that one first. 16:18 So it goes all the way from, uh, from preparing hospitals, from preparing schools, to stopping up factories, and it, it really like the possibilities are endless in that way. 16:29 So the question I have right now then is, who's actually using it right now? Who is deploying it? 'Cause you've described what happens, but who is actually deploying it right now? Absolutely. 16:39 So currently, of course, we now are working with the Menlo Park Fire District with Chief Schabelhoman, which for, for me is like one of the most incredible, uh, projects that I've ever worked on and working with so progressive and being able to really understand and being able to practice it, it's been, it's been wonderful. 16:57 Besides, like all the other things, I mean, you know, we were, we were based and founded in Mexico, so we currently operate that service for more than four hundred different companies down there. 17:06 So along there, just to mention some of them, like we work with FedEx, uh, we work with WeWork to be able to protect the people that work inside there. We work with AT&T. We have multiple hospitals, multiple schools. 17:18 So in a way, we see all these international companies that have some presence operating in Mexico that have some sort of earthquake risk before because of the Mexican earthquake risk, and then we help them to protect them. 17:29 So in a way, uh, we have a lot of experience working with a lot of these companies, and here in the US, as the technology is starting to come out, we're starting to work with the early adopters of these cases is the Menlo Park Fire, Fire District. 17:43 Do you think right now is the technology, and, and I'm not sure if this is a question for you or Harold, as we think the technology is advancing, do you think that more companies here in the States will embrace this because they understand that natural disasters, I, I don't wanna say it like this, but forgive me for saying it, are almost becoming a way of life, and we need early warning systems to be able to prepare us to better protect us and to also protect our emergency responders so they can better serve us when something happens?That's correct. 18:18 I mean, you know, at the end of the day, I think what the public expects and what I believe we can provide using some of these, you know, some of this technology, but also integrating it to its usability is we've actually been working on with a, with a company that makes a long-range acoustical device, an LRAD, which is a public notification system that you can... 18:41 It takes, you know, you can use an audio alert, and there's pre-scripted messages. You know, there's an alert tone, and then you actually have somebody talking. 18:50 Um, and we're, we're working on putting that up on one of our, our communications towers in one of our cities that we predict is, which is East Palo Alto, right along the San Francisco Bay. 19:01 And that would be integrated not only for fire and for flooding, which is two of the risks that the community has, uh, but equally for earthquake. 19:09 And so it would use this kind of pre-scripted message, um, activated by, again, ShakeAlert through SkyAlert through the monopole through the LRAD, and that would give up to a hundred and fifty decibel warning and audio warning within the community. 19:26 And so that's, that's something relatively new. I know there's sirens that people use for fires and so forth. 19:31 In many cases, you know, as you saw on the fires that we have in the northern part of the state, if they occurred at nighttime, people's cell phones were in another room, maybe they were on vibrate or off, and so it caught a lot of people unaware. 19:44 So, you know, again, you know, using your mobile devices, it's a very important thing, and people use them regularly, and obviously it's important and it works most of the time unless you don't have it or you put it away so you can actually get some decent sleep, but then you're vulnerable, right? 19:59 So having several different types of audio alerting and notification systems in communi-- in different communities that are vulnerable just makes a lot of sense. 20:10 So, Alejandro, as we start looking at this right now, how comfortable are you that c-consumers, businesses are embracing the idea of what we have to do? 20:21 Because technology is great, but it also becomes somewhat im-- you know, people are concerned about the es-ethics, the safety and security of these types of things. What are you finding out? 20:31 You know, as we start advancing them, do they feel comfortable with it? You know, what, what are you hearing? Right. 20:38 So I think one thing that we have to take into account is that this technology in a way is brand new in, in the US, right? 20:45 But when we really look at the examples of other countries, right, like Mexico or Japan that had the systems for years, we can see how it was massively adopted at some point, right? 20:56 Like every place in Japan, all phones in Mexico, like all phones, companies and users already using this technology. 21:02 So I see-- I definitely see a path for that vision where everyone in the US at some point is gonna be able to use the technology and protect their lives. 21:10 So the question right now is how fast is the adoption gonna be able to take place? 21:14 Are we going to have to wait for a massive earthquake, so we get everyone to be scared, and then they, then they realize how good this technology is and how much they need it? Or is it gonna make it a little bit... 21:25 Or are we actually gonna be able to access all these people before an earthquake happens? And that is, of course, what we're working on. 21:32 And, like, it takes, at this point where the technology is brand new, it takes a lot of evangelizing. 21:37 We have to be able to tell companies that the technology is available and of course teach them how to use this tool and what is this tool for. 21:45 If we cannot expect everyone to just have an idea or, or that they woke up that morning and say like, "Oh, I wanna protect myself from earthquakes," we really have to-- we really have a big job in terms of being able to communicate what earthquake early warning is, all the benefits, and then people can actually get to adopt it and put in the energy, the effort, and of course the money to be able to, to protect ourselves from earthquakes. 22:06 So I guess right now we're seeing a lot of great interests from a lot of big companies that are starting to look at this and, you know, like this thing, these kind of things take a little bit of time, and my number one priority is like how do we actually make this technology easily to adopt, easily to explain, and get people behind it before it's too late? 22:27 Because we don't want an earthquake that hits everyone to wake up this thing, right? We can actually do it by telling people how it works and all the benefits and how to get them there. 22:39 Right now, you're, you're, you're beta-ing. When will it be fully adopted? I, I don't know if that's Harold or you, Alejandro, who wants to answer that one. I guess, I, I guess I'll take it. 22:55 You know, at this point, what we're doing, we have two fire stations out of seven. It's our two most, you know, recently built ones in the last few years that we've completed. 23:03 Again, using smart station technology, so it's able to control lighting, gas, you know, and then also through the emergency communication systems, give the audio alert in the station. 23:13 So we, we don't have that same system in our older facilities. You know, the most, uh, one of our oldest is seventy years old. We're about ready to replace that, so we will wait on that one. 23:23 But for some of the others, we are looking at kind of a cut-down version of what, you know, of what they could do. 23:29 In fact, in some ways, the older, more vulnerable structures, it does make sense to have at least the countdown model in the firehouse, so they're aware that the earthquake is coming and there's a countdown. 23:41 It won't be able to open the garage doors, it won't be able to turn on the lights, it won't be able to turn off the gas because the stations, you know, don't have that type of smart systems in them. 23:52 But we think that it is worth it to at least pre-notify the firefighters in the station that an earthquake is coming and so they can seek cover and shelter for themselves, and again, if possible, open doors and at least, like I said, know that, that, you know, within the next, whatever, ten, twenty, thirty, forty seconds, there's gonna be an earthquake. 24:13 So we see a value in that, even, you know, in some cases, like I said, more for the older structures. And then in terms of when will USGS change this from a pilotTo a full-blown program. I, I don't know that. 24:25 I think that's a question to them. 24:27 But I think the more that we embrace this and prove that it does and can work and people can see the benefits from it, I think the faster they're gonna say, "You know, okay, let's go to full implementation." 24:39 And, uh, that's what we're looking forward to. So Harold, I have... Harold, I just have about 30 seconds. Quickly, have you guys had alerts since using, test using it right now? Have you had alerts? 24:48 So we have not had, thank goodness, a real earthquake that's a 5.0 and greater, because that's what this is set to. So we have not had that yet. Um, I'm sure at some point when it happens, if it works, great. 25:02 If it doesn't, we'll make an adjustment, but again, that it's there is an improvement. All right. Well, gentlemen, Alejandro, I wanna thank you, founder and CEO of SkyAlert. 25:12 Uh, Harold Schapelholmann, uh, fire chief of the Menlo Fire Park District, thank you both. Quickly, where can our listeners go to learn more about what you guys are doing together? Right. 25:23 So I think they can go to our website, www.skyalertusa.com. 25:28 We also, we're active in social media, where we're posting all these different, um, examples of the technology, how it's being done, and how can it be used for other companies right now, and completely it's available, so someone that's listening wanna be able to use this technology, we can go in, deploy them, and train them, so I think it would be great. 25:44 So if anyone- All right... who's listening can do that- Thank you... that's great. All right. Thank you, gentlemen. Appreciate it. All right, listeners, we're out of time. 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