With the U.S. “barreling toward” all-Internet Protocol networks, Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., said he worries that infrastructure isn’t up to the IP challenge. Networks may be insufficient to accommodate huge increases in video-content streaming and other changes, he said at an American Cable Association conference. That the FCC hasn’t closed its docket to apply Title II common-carrier telecom rules to broadband means “a proposed rulemaking is hanging over your heads,” which “alone slows down progress,” Heller told executives of small- and mid-size cable operators in Washington Wednesday.
DirecTV and Dish Network said they may have to discontinue The Weather Channel application if they find they can’t comply with requirements imposed in the proceeding on emergency accessibility programming rules. It would be truly unfortunate if the adopted rules “were so onerous that they resulted in the unavailability of emergency weather alerts for everyone,” they said in a joint ex parte filing in docket 12-107 (http://bit.ly/10i0obU). The application “does not have text-to-speech or aural notification capabilities,” Dish said. The companies also said the national feed they receive from The Weather Channel “does not itself include any textual emergency alert information that would be subject to the rules being considered in this proceeding.” The American Cable Association urged the commission to give the requested relief for operators of hybrid digital/analog and all-analog systems. There are some cable systems “that have yet to transition away from an all-analog platform,” ACA said in its ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/YhdNxK). Operators of these systems either have plans to offer some digital services in the future, or no plans to transition “because they see no return on such an investment,” it said. “Absent some significant change in the market or in their regulatory burdens, most of these all-analog systems will likely shut down in the future.” The FCC should refrain from requiring or precluding any particular technology for audio transcription, NAB said in an ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/X4bOmK). The commission shouldn’t require on-site station voiceover announcements for a variety of reasons, including “timely dissemination of emergency information” and “configuration of stations that may be operated in ‘cluster’ or ‘hub’ operations,” it said.
The FCC Enforcement Bureau issued forfeiture orders to licensees of three radio stations and a notice of apparent liability to an antenna structure owner for violating commission rules. Entertainment Media Trust was fined $8,500 for its failure to operate KZQZ(AM), St. Louis within the terms of its station authorization and to conduct required annual equipment performance measurements for the station, the bureau said (http://bit.ly/13I6Xcn). The bureau also said EMT’s public inspection files for KZQZ and KQQZ(AM), DeSoto, Mo., weren’t made available. The bureau said Inter-city Christian Youth Program must pay a $1,750 fine for failing to install and maintain an operational emergency alert system equipment at its low power FM station KCYP-LP in Mission, Texas (http://bit.ly/12xz7Yf). The bureau also said Paulino Bernal, owner of antenna structure number 1066001 in Tulia, Texas, is apparently liable for a $6,000 fine for not notifying the commission about a change in ownership information for the structure (http://bit.ly/13JqPvX).
Cybersecurity measures are needed from government agencies originating emergency alert system messages in a newer Web format, and from all participants in the EAS system, after last month’s unauthorized access sparked fake warnings, a Federal Emergency Management Agency official said. Manny Centeno from FEMA’s integrated public alert and warning system office showed participants in the agency’s webinar on IPAWS and that new format, Common Alerting Protocol, the FCC’s Feb. 13 “urgent advisory” to EAS participants. That warning on CAP was issued privately by commission staffers to associations that distributed them to EAS participants -- which include all radio and TV stations and multichannel video programming distributors (CD Feb 14 p8) . State and other officials involved in CAP recommended counterparts in other states start testing that format, and said shorter wireless emergency alerts on mobile devices won’t supplant EAS but complement it.
The government and broadcasters are working to improve the delivery and efficiency of emergency alert system messages using wireless capabilities, broadcasters and some FCC and Federal Emergency Management Agency officials said Monday during an emergency alert system meeting in Washington. The meeting was organized by NAB and the National Alliance of State Broadcasters Associations. Making the system more effective will involve improving cybersecurity and keeping pace with advancements in broadcast technology, they said.
The focus of the FCC in March is once again on public safety communications, with a rulemaking likely to force the agency to revisit whether to again impose backup power requirements on carriers. An NPRM for the March 20 meeting, which circulated late Wednesday, raises numerous questions following up on the commission’s January derecho report (CD Jan 11 p3).
NPR Labs plans to work with manufacturers to develop “text-based radio receivers,” which will be used in a pilot project aimed at delivering radio emergency alerts to the deaf and hard-of-hearing community. The project “concentrates on reaching deaf and hard-of-hearing populations through new implementations of conventional FM broadcasts,” said Rich Rarey, manager of strategic technology applications at NPR Labs. NPR Labs was awarded a contract from the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to develop the project. It will be funded by FEMA for more than $360,000, and it’s contracted for one year, Rarey said in an email. The pilot effort will target people in the Gulf Coast and deliver alerts through local public radio stations and the Public Radio Satellite System, NPR said in a press release (http://n.pr/13kSdjZ). The deaf and hard-of-hearing volunteers “will be alerted to the message by a flashing indicator on their radios or a bed-shaker triggered by their radios, to ensure the message is received day and night,” NPR said. NPR Labs is in the process of refining requests for proposals for the receivers, Rarey said. The public radio organization said it will work with DHS and FEMA to identify 25 public radio stations in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas to participate in the pilot. Some stations have already expressed interest in participating, Rarey said. Mississippi Public Broadcasting in Jackson said it’s excited about the opportunity “to expand the emergency broadcast services MPB provides to Mississippians.” The program “complements the work we are already doing and we are pleased to have another method for helping Mississippians during times of disaster,” MPB Executive Director Ronnie Agnew said in an email. NPR Labs plans to select participating stations by the end of March, Rarey said.
It’s too early to say whether “graduated response” mechanisms are better for fighting copyright violations than regulation, speakers said Wednesday at a panel at the UNESCO First World Summit on the Information Society+10 review meeting in Paris. Speakers representing ISPs, access advocates, the World Wide Web Consortium and the U.S. government disagreed on the necessity for, and potential benefits of, industry self-regulation against digital infringement, but all agreed any solution must involve all stakeholders, be subject to the rule of law, be transparent and accountable, and respect the Internet’s openness and architecture.
Partners in the mobile emergency alert system effort are nearing the end of the technology standardization process and moving toward commercialization of the equipment and implementation of the system, said Harris Broadcast, Mobile500 Alliance and other partners. Commercial and noncommercial broadcasters have demonstrated the technology and are planning to take it up, they said. The effort began as a pilot project headed by PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting aimed at distributing emergency alerts to the public using video, text messages and other media (CD June 6 p11). Mobile EAS uses the mobile DTV equipment infrastructure.
The FCC issued a $4,800 forfeiture order against North County Broadcasting Corp., the licensee of KFSD-AM in Escondido, Calif., for Emergency Alert System (EAS) equipment violations, an order from the Enforcement Bureau said (http://bit.ly/15iwnN9). Following an investigation, the station acknowledged its EAS equipment was not functioning properly between December 2009 and April 2010, the order said.