[BC] EAS, another perspective

[Rudman, Richard A]

I want to add my comments to the thread on the EAS message that went  
out in error in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties and respectfully  
take issue with the subject line of the posting, " Another Example of  
Why EAS Is a Farce."

The story was a factual account of what went wrong, what was done  
about it, and that steps will be taken to avoid similar situations in  
the future. It was not in my opinion an example of "Why EAS is a Farce."

What the story did not say was that the CapCom EDIS decoder box is  
the heart of enhanced EDIS for California. It relies on the Common  
Alerting Protocol (CAP) open non-proprietary international standard  
subset of the XML language to be the protocol to manage information  
that eventually appears as EAS events.

As the California SECC Vice Chair, I personally contacted the CapCom  
equipment designer to make sure this will not happen again with the  
statewide CapCom rollout. I know my SECC Chair and our contact person  
at State OES are both on top of this too.

EDIS serves one state with a population of nearly 34 million. A  
privately marketed system that is committed to CAP and all it can add  
to warnings is EMnet. EMnet serves a number of states in the  
Northeast totaling roughly 86 million people. Since the US population  
is roughly 296 million, 41% of the population might be enough of a  
market to attract receiver and set top converter designers to start  
creating products.

EDIS enhanced with CAP will be our state's path to warnings that go  
to all digital services, including broadcast digital for radio, TV  
and cable. CAP will make it possible for smart receivers and set top  
converters to become warning appliances. This could go a long way to  
reducing EAS program interruptions by displaying warning information  
on a receiver or converter display. EDIS has proven itself even in  
its pre-CAP form to be a great mechanism to distribute ancillary  
information for AMBER and other EAS events, including sound files and  
pictures. It also allows NOAA, USGS and other warning centers to  
provide content that can go out to the public as non-EAS advisories  
and watches or EAS warnings. It also allows targeted warnings to just  
those affected, and other benefits.The California SECC has gone on  
record that CAP enhanced EDIS will become the front end for all EAS  
activations by government officials.

For more information on EDIS, go to:

http://edis.ca.gov

Richard Rudman
California SECC Vice Chair