ATSC 2.0 will emerge as a new candidate broadcast standard early this year with a goal of deploying it in CE products by year-end, Richard Chernock, chairman of the ATSC technology and standards group, told us. The candidate standard designation is a precursor to formal implementation of ATSC 2.0, he said.

CMA Communications it is still working on getting broadband connections at 14 of its cable system headends in Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana in order to comply with FCC Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) requirements for Emergency Alert System (EAS) participants. It already asked for a six-month extension to bring its systems into compliance. “CMA Communications had originally planned to shut down the systems, however decided to continue to operate the systems with standard EAS equipment installed, provided that the Commission grants the waiver,” it said (http://xrl.us/bn8xbr).

Charter Communications asked for a temporary waiver of new Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) requirements for Emergency Alert System participants at 28 small systems. The company already got a waiver in June for 32 systems where it was still installing the Internet connection needed to be CAP-compliant. Those systems are now connected but the cable operator said it has since identified another 28 headend facilities where broadband is not available (http://xrl.us/bn8xbc). It expects it can use DSL connections at 12 facilities, but the rest are too far from the nearest DSLAM for that technology to be of use, it said. It’s still testing whether DSL will be viable at another six and installing satellite Internet service at the other 10, it said.

Suddenlink Communications asked the FCC Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau for extra time to comply at some of its systems with new Common Alerting Protocol requirements for Emergency Alert System participants. The cable operator’s 12 “most remote systems” have no broadband access at the headends and recent field research by Suddenlink’s staff “indicates there is still no viable means to bring these very remote systems into immediate compliance,” it said (http://xrl.us/bn8b3z). It planned to use satellite Internet connections at seven of the sites and DSL at the other five, it said. But it learned that the five planned DSL sites are too far from the closest digital subscriber line access multiplexer to receive an effective broadband connection. Furthermore, satellite connections have proved problematic at all 12 sites, it said. It asked for another six months to comply with the requirements.

Comcast asked the FCC to extend a waiver from the government’s Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) requirements at some of its smallest and furthest-flung cable systems. In a letter to the agency’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau chief, the country’s largest cable operator requested another two months beyond the six it already got before it must comply with the requirements at those systems (http://xrl.us/bn77tk). The waiver is to expire Monday and covers about 0.2 percent of Comcast’s total subscriber base, it said. Comcast said the systems at issue still lack broadband hook ups, which are needed for CAP-compliant Emergency Alert System (EAS) connectivity. It said it has installed the necessary equipment -- Communications Laboratories’ Emergency Management Communications Network satellite system -- but it discovered interoperability and software problems while testing the system. Its EAS equipment vendors are already working on a software update, but “out of an abundance of caution, Comcast requests further time so as to accommodate any final unanticipated complications,” it said.

The Open Mobile Video Coalition published a document laying out use cases for non real-time broadcasts using the mobile DTV standard. The document (http://xrl.us/bn4y5x) describes how the mobile DTV standard can be used for clip-casting, VOD, creating a Web “microsite” with pre-defined content, delivering out-of-home digital signage and content, and apps and firmware upgrades. The document also described commercial applications such as power grid management and traffic control systems, as well as mobile emergency alert systems. “This is a natural evolution of the Mobile TV standard,” said Sterling Davis, chair of OMVC’s technical advisory group.

The National Weather Service issued 17 wireless emergency alerts (WEA) during superstorm Sandy, and one NWS/National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration official said Wednesday that feedback from East Coast residents who received the text alert messages on their mobile phones was mostly positive. “We've had numerous reports of messages being sent within seconds, and only one or two reports of delays,” said Michael Gerber, NWS/NOAA Emerging Dissemination Technology Program Lead. The WEA broadcast system will need improvement in other areas of the country, particularly the West, but results on the East Coast are positive, he said during a FEMA webinar on its Internet-based integrated public alert and warning system (IPAWS).

The FCC Enforcement Bureau ordered Richards TV Cable Co. to pay $10,000 for its “failure to install emergency alert system equipment at its cable systems in Jerusalem, Ohio,” a forfeiture order released Friday said (http://xrl.us/bnxnty). A February notice of apparent liability said the cable operator did not have such equipment during multiple inspections after 2008 (http://xrl.us/bnxnt2).

Hurricane Sandy began pounding the East Coast with high winds and rain this week, causing several governors to declare states of emergency and triggering widespread concern of outages. State commissions began watching as telcos, 911 centers, county officials and cable operators braced for the impact. The storm was expected to continue Tuesday, and the Office of Personnel Management said federal offices in the Washington area would for a second day be closed to the public (http://xrl.us/bnwozb).

The Federal Emergency Management Agency said it’s temporarily suspending its monthly integrated public alert and warning system webinars for practitioners and developers due to a change in support personnel at the project management office. “The current plan is to resume the programs during November,” an e-mail from FEMA to the webinar mailing list said Thursday.