FCC Seeks Comment on Problems Identified After First Nationwide EAS Test
The FCC Public Safety Bureau is seeking comment on the time of release code, audio accessibility and other technical issues identified after the 2011 nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System (EAS). The public notice follows a Public Safety bureau report that said the EAS distribution architecture is basically sound, but the test revealed equipment problems and problems with the emergency action notification (EAN) (CD April 16 p5).
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The bureau invited comment on the application of the EAS header code elements to a presidential alert, visual crawl, the national test event code and the impact of the national test length on EAS equipment, it said in a public notice (http://bit.ly/19ByIBD). The test showed different manufacturers’ brands of equipment “did not recognize and process the various Header Code elements in a uniform manner during the test,” it said. The bureau asked how design differences in EAS equipment may affect how the public sees or receives an EAS alert during an EAN activation, it said. Commenters are urged to note the reasons why equipment delivering an EAN “should recognize and adhere to the specifics of any, all, or none of the Header Code elements."
There’s some concern about the audio quality after the first test, said Adrienne Abbott, chair of the Nevada State Emergency Communications Committee. “If the audio quality is as poor as it was last time, you really have a big credibility issue.” She said she expects manufacturers to weigh in on unresolved issues around equipment and the EAN. Those issues “haven’t been resolved yet and you're going to have to hear from manufacturers to provide some kind of uniformity” because their equipment already has been type-approved by the FCC, she said. “It’s all supposed to act the same way, but in reality it doesn’t ... People aren’t willing to go buy new EAS equipment.”
The bureau also requests information on whether the daisy-chain process of EAS message distribution makes it technically infeasible to base uniform broadcast of the EAN on the Time of Release Code, the public notice said. The public notice highlights that the visual text crawl was unreadable in some cases, “because it scrolled across the screen too fast or was in a font that was not easily readable,” it said. The bureau is seeking suggestions on how specifications for presenting text crawls should be crafted for all text crawl elements, it said.
The inquiry hits the technical issues that affect all EAS participants, said President Suzanne Goucher of the Maine Association of Broadcasters. It’s aimed more at the manufacturers, but questions about time of release and others certainly affect broadcasters’ ability to make sure that they're in compliance with the law by issuing an EAN alert immediately, she said. “To the extent that the manufacturers could all get in a row on how that should be handled, that would help the participant community."
Broadcasters are proud of their successful participation in the nationwide EAS test, said NAB. “We appreciate the FCC’s effort to consider the lessons learned during the test, and we look forward to working with the commission as it reviews the EAS test,” a spokesman said.
If there will be another test using the EAN code, “it would be nice to have a text crawl that matches up to the audio” indicating that it’s a test, Goucher said. “Otherwise the text crawl says the president of the U.S. has issued an alert. ... We don’t want people seeing the limited information in the text crawl and thinking it’s a real alert."
The bureau also asks commenters to address whether operational requirements are needed for National Periodic Test (NPT) code activations and whether priority should be given to EAS messages containing the NPT. Comments are due Oct. 23, with replies due Nov. 7, it said.