Mobile EAS Implementation Team Tackles Alerting Practices

Posted on June 3, 2013 in ATSC News

With the standard adopted for the Mobile Emergency Alert System, work now turns to the newly-empaneled Implementation Team to fill in the gaps between what stations are transmitting, how the alerts are inserted into the broadcast steam, and what happens on receiving devices that pick up the Mobile EAS transmissions.

Three areas have been identified for the team, which meets weekly by conference call, to study:

— Workflow at the station, both system architecture and interfaces;

— The expected behavior of receivers, and;

— Interfaces with the existing messaging network and with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

The M-EAS Implementation Team has focused most recently on other Emergency Alert System devices and their role in the emergency-preparedness ecosystem. That includes identifying the types of alerts that stations are likely to send via M-EAS, determining the types and sources of rich media that would be associated with each of the alert types, and better understanding how stations treat alert messaging and determine what alerts are transmitted to viewers.

Efforts are underway now to bring Mobile-EAS signaling to stations in North Carolina, Kentucky, and the Washington, D.C. market.

“The Mobile EAS standard is all about transmission of emergency alerts.  But there’s an additional process involved in how alerts are received, processed, and filtered.  Most people may not realize that there more than 100 different types of weather alerts, for example.  Someone, or some department, at the station has to determine what does and what doesn’t go out on-the-air to viewers.  We’ve learned a lot about the importance of the local newsroom and station meteorologists, which are usually the broadcast decision-makers on emergency matters,” said Jay Adrick of Harris Broadcast, who chairs the Mobile-EAS Implementation Team.

The M-EAS Implementation Team is working on information that will be useful for development of a Mobile EAS “content manager,” and we’re hoping that at least two or three companies might end up building equipment to help stations determine what to transmit.  Equipping stations in hurricane-prone and tornado-prone areas with Mobile EAS capability will help us understand how the technology can be expanded to reach more stations,” Adrick added.

If you’re interested in participating in the Mobile EAS Implementation Team, contact ATSC President Mark Richer (MRicher@ATSC.org.) for more information.

Posted in ATSC News