Comcast faces a possible fine for not sending emergency alerts to all subscribers at its Florence, Ala., cable system, the FCC said Tuesday. A $16,000 notice of apparent liability from the Enforcement Bureau said a customer complained to the agency in January over not getting an emergency alert system message that was issued during a real emergency. Comcast in response acknowledged that some subscribers to the system didn’t get audio and visual EAS messages for several months because of an employee error, though most did get them, the bureau noted.
A new PBS emergency alert system pilot project using mobile DTV capability could be a model for a next-generation warning system, public broadcasting executives said in interviews. Over the next year, the system will be tested and evaluated with participation from WGBH-TV Boston, Alabama Public TV and Vegas PBS, said John McCoskey, PBS chief technology officer. The system requires devices that are common alerting protocol (CAP)-compliant and will use text, images and video to issue messages, he said. The project is part of a partnership with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and LG Zenith, both of which are helping fund the project, said McCoskey.
The FCC asked whether it should extend for a second time a deadline for all radio and TV stations and subscription-video providers to start using a new government standard for emergency warnings. In a long-awaited rulemaking notice released Thursday afternoon, the commission asked dozens of questions on certification of emergency alert systems as complying with the new standards from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, deadlines and what’s technically needed to trigger alerts. The FCC tentatively concluded that existing EAS equipment can be used for the new standards and expects to start an inquiry on broadband alerting later this year.
SCTE said Wednesday it has approved development of three standards designed to help cable operators deploy new products, reduce costs and provide services that comply with regulatory requirements. The new standards will cover stereoscopic 3D for cable, environmental requirements for equipment to be used within cable facilities; and recommended practices for emergency alert system upgrades for common alerting protocol compliance (CAP), SCTE said. The stereoscopic 3D project will be a two-stage effort with phase one defining video-related formatting, signaling and encoding parameters for frame-compatible stereoscopic 3D. Phase two will define requirements for full-resolution stereoscopic 3D video systems. The environmental requirements standard will address energy efficiency, recycling, air flow and quality, temperature, humidity, vibration and shock, electrical/power and electromagnetic compatibility. The emergency alert system compliance recommended practice is designed to help small operators meet the FCC’s Sept. 30 deadline for compliance with CAP regulations, SCTE said.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency said two emergency alert functions are being discontinued to make way for newer ones as the agency upgrades to the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System. IPAWS-OPEN allows “interoperable sharing of emergency alerts and incident-related data between systems that comply with non-proprietary information standards,” replacing the DM-OPEN system, FEMA said in an email reminder Wednesday. DM-OPEN will be retired June 30, as will the Disaster Management Interoperability Services toolset, FEMA said. “To remain functional, all third party software currently connecting to the legacy DM-OPEN application must be migrated to IPAWS-OPEN 2.0 by June 30.” Software developers that have agreements with FEMA on IPAWS-OPEN tests are at http://xrl.us/bkidtz.
The FCC and the Federal Emergency Management Agency said Tuesday they're working with major carriers on an early version of a system that will send emergency alerts to wireless devices. The Personal Localized Alerting Network (PLAN) will premier in New York and Washington by the end of the year, with deployment to follow elsewhere in mid-2012.
Monroe Electronics said it became the first company to have made a showing that its Common Alerting Protocol and emergency alert systems (EAS) encoder/decoder work with the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s integrated public alert and warning system. The company sells EAS equipment to cable operators and broadcasters, letting them encode and decode such warnings. Two of the company’s EAS products are listed on a Federal Emergency Management Agency website.
U.S. broadcasters need federal funds to help them update the emergency alert system, Tennessee Association of Broadcasters President White Adamson told the FCC as part of a panel discussion Tuesday on earthquake and disaster preparedness. The Federal Emergency Management Agency is working on the “next generation” of EAS technology, but the equipment is going to be expensive and broadcasters are already hard-pressed, Adamson said. He also urged the commission to require cellphone makers to add FM receivers on handsets.
Sage Alerting Systems’ Digital ENDEC Model 3644 emergency alert system completed FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System Conformity Assessment, Sage said.
The FCC is preparing a notice of inquiry asking how to integrate broadband alerts into next-generation 911, Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau Deputy Chief Jennifer Manner said Wednesday. The inquiry will be broadly worded -- focusing on such questions as what should be covered and how to coordinate with other agencies such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency -- and will come out in the late spring or early summer, Manner said. She spoke on a panel about the National Broadband Plan’s first anniversary.