Futuri, Florida’s Division of Emergency Management, and the University of Florida Launches First-Ever AI-driven Emergency Broadcast System to Deliver Life-Saving Disaster Communications

GAINESVILLE, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec 18, 2024--

After another record-breaking Atlantic Hurricane Season Futuri, the global leader in AI technology for broadcast and public safety, in partnership with Florida’s Division of Emergency Management (FDEM) and the University of Florida, launches BEACON ™, a revolutionary AI-powered emergency communication system.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241218816107/en/

BEACON combines AI with the resiliency of broadcast technology to transform how emergency managers and first responders communicate with communities before, during, and after disasters. This marks the nation’s first 24/7 emergency preparedness network, providing critical, real-time information to keep citizens safe during emergencies.

“Futuri understands that AI can and should be a force for good,” said Daniel Anstandig, CEO and founder of Futuri. “Futuri, along with FDEM and the University of Florida, identified a gap in the timely delivery of critically important messaging to the public, providing the opportunity to introduce a new critical communication infrastructure to Florida’s – and other communities – hardest hit disaster areas. This first-of-its-kind communications tool automates important updates and advisories into radio broadcasts voiced by AI – getting potentially life-saving information to the community faster than ever before.”

A new era in emergency communication

BEACON - The Broadcast Emergency Alerts and Communications Operations Network – is the first system in the nation to seamlessly integrate AI technology with traditional broadcast channels, delivering information in real time to communities across Florida.

Unlike current systems, which rely on multiple channels with varying reach, BEACON ensures a unified, consistent message across all platforms. It automatically captures, prioritizes, and translates 100% of public safety information from authorized government sources, localizing this content based on geography and translating it into multiple languages, ensuring no community is left without vital information.

This critical information from state and local emergency managers is broadcast over traditional radio and TV airwaves and is also available via streaming and the free BEACON mobile app on iOS and Android. The system integrates directly into newsrooms and studios through a secure dashboard, allowing broadcasters across the state to access real-time content.

Around-the-clock emergency preparedness

BEACON’s dedicated radio and TV feeds broadcast easy-to-understand preparedness information, even when there are no active disasters. This includes actionable steps residents can take to protect themselves and their families before, during, and after an emergency. With the ability to reach vulnerable populations through resilient broadcast technology, BEACON is essential for emergency managers in today’s evolving media landscape.

“BEACON provides a 24/7/365 solution to all government agencies with this first-of-its-kind communications tool, automating important updates and advisories into radio broadcasts voiced by artificial intelligence and getting them out to the community faster than ever before,” said Kevin Guthrie, FDEM executive director.

How BEACON works:

Randy Wright, Director of Media Properties at the University of Florida, emphasized the partnership's significance, stating: "BEACON is the first 'always-on' alerting channel, developed at the University of Florida's public media WUFT-TV/FM, which is also home to the nationally recognized Florida Public Radio Emergency Network. BEACON provides hyper-local alerting solutions for every community in the state of Florida using broadcast infrastructure that is largely in place and already operational. BEACON utilizes artificial intelligence in an entirely new way for the public good, ensuring official alerts and advisories are available to the public 24/7/365 without the need for a cell phone, computer, or other device. Based in broadcast, the most resilient of media, BEACON is truly 'safety first, always on.'"

Nationwide rollout and accessibility

After stress testing the reliability of BEACON across every Florida media market, Futuri will extend its emergency system beyond the state, working directly with governors’ offices and emergency managers nationwide to implement BEACON and ensure local broadcasters have access to the content feed to deliver the necessary information to their communities.

“BEACON is revolutionary in emergency communication,” said Craig Fugate, a former FEMA administrator and FDEM executive director. “Its nationwide implementation offers an unprecedented opportunity to transform emergency messaging, with a unified platform for authorities to disseminate critical alerts and instructions in real time.”

Following a record-breaking hurricane season, officials urge all broadcasters and Florida residents to tune into the BEACON feed for critical emergency information. Feeds will be available for every major metropolitan area in Florida via the BEACON mobile app. All Florida residents are encouraged to download the app, available on iOS and Android in the Apple App Store and Google Play. Citizens in the Gainesville media market can also tune in to 89.1 FM for live BEACON broadcasts.

Click here to listen to BEACON audio as Hurricane Milton made landfall along Florida's West Coast.

About Futuri

Futuri, an AI technology company, helps media companies engage and monetize audiences to thrive in the AI era. Futuri’s suite of software leverages the company’s 20+ patents in artificial intelligence, broadcast technology, and public safety to predict audience behavior and deliver the right content to the right audience at the right time across all platforms – broadcast, podcast, streaming, and digital publishing. Futuri also serves government agencies with BEACON, the world’s first AI-powered emergency broadcast system. Over 7,000 broadcast and media companies worldwide, reaching audiences of 100 million per week, trust Futuri to grow and monetize their audiences and improve profitability with software such as TopLine, a sales intelligence system that expedites the sales cycle and grows revenue; and TopicPulse, an audience intelligence system that trends what audiences care about and forecasts what will go viral. For more information, please visit www.futurimedia.com.

Former FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate, FDEM Executive Director Kevin Guthrie, Dean of UF College of Journalism and Communications Hub Brown, CEO of Futuri Daniel Anstandig, and the President of UF Kent Fuchs. Futuri, Florida’s Division of Emergency Management, and the University of Florida come together to announce the launch of the first-ever AI-driven emergency broadcast system, revolutionizing disaster communications to save lives at the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications Atlas Lab in Gainesville, FL on Wednesday, December 18, 2024. [Chris Watkins Photography]

The United States launched strikes on Iranian targets, a U.S. official said, in what appeared to be a limited operation on the eve of Tuesday’s crucial midterm elections.

Iranian state media reported explosions being heard on the islands of Qeshm and Hengam in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, and in the nearby mainland area of Bandar Abbas. Unlike earlier in the war, the strikes were not publicly announced.

President Donald Trump previously said the U.S. wouldn’t launch strikes on Iran before the midterms. The unpopular war and the resulting impact on U.S. gasoline prices and other parts of the economy have been a vulnerability for his Republican Party as it tries to keep control of Congress.

A U.S. official, who wasn’t authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said Monday that the strikes targeted Iranians using surface-to-air missiles against the U.S. in the strait. The move came as Iran said it had a two-day plan to reopen the critical waterway, through which about a fifth of the world’s oil supply flowed during peacetime, and resume nuclear talks with the United States.

Back-channel negotiations have also been playing out as Israel and some Middle East allies lobby Trump on the way ahead in the more than 8-month-old war that’s rattled the global economy and wreaked havoc on Iran.

Speaking before the U.S. official confirmed strikes, U.S. Vice President JD Vance told reporters Monday that Trump “and I both feel pretty good about the prospects for potentially coming to a negotiated settlement.”

The Trump administration was last known to have carried out attacks in early September. But thousands of U.S. troops remain in the waters off Iran to maintain a naval blockade aimed at preventing tankers carrying Iranian oil from reaching the global market. A third aircraft carrier and thousands of additional troops are also on their way to the Middle East.

The region is on edge about the prospects of the U.S. resuming full-scale operations against Iran, and the new strikes were likely to renew concerns.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pushed for another wave of strikes on Iran after the U.S. elections, according to two regional officials and a third person familiar with the matter.

A return to full-scale war with Iran could help Netanyahu form an emergency government after he and his far-right allies lost their parliamentary majority in last week’s elections. Trump has alternated between threatening major strikes and pushing for a deal with Iran.

The two officials said diplomatic efforts have made progress and that mediators are trying to advance a framework for Iran to cease its attacks in the Strait of Hormuz in return for the U.S. lifting its blockade on Iran’s ports.

They said more talks are planned for this week. The two officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were discussing classified briefings they had received from American, and, in one case, Israeli officials. The third person, who was briefed on the call, was not authorized to comment publicly and also spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Iran has said it has a two-day plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and resume nuclear talks with the U.S. if Washington meets its demands.

Iran previously said the plan could be implemented within a week if the U.S. met seven conditions, including lifting its blockade. Iran now says ships passing through the reopened strait would have to follow a route agreed upon by Iran and Oman. Separately, Iranian officials have said the U.S. must lift sanctions on Iranian oil sales and agree to a ceasefire that would include Lebanon.

Iranian state television quoted the country’s chief negotiator and parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, as saying on Tuesday that Iran had “delivered a firm and rational response to the American side. The ball is now in America’s court to prevent war.” It was not immediately clear what response he was referring to.

Qalibaf also warned that Iran’s armed forces remained at the highest level of defensive readiness. “If Washington makes another strategic miscalculation, it should know that this time it will face a new battlefield and will find itself even more desperate than it is today,” he said.

Associated Press writers Aamer Madhani and Cara Anna contributed to this report.

A woman crosses a street beneath a billboard depicting U.S. President Donald Trump behind bars and calling for his killing in central Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

A bird flies low over the water as cargo ships lie at anchor in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, early Saturday, Oct. 24, 2026. (Amirhosein Khorgooi/ISNA via AP)