In the over 40 years I've known lots of broadcast engineers, it's hard to remember times when they showed much enthusiasm and satisfaction over anything...especially the Emergency Alert System (EAS). They are just not an outwardly enthusiastic group. Well, I found one who's wearing his enthusiasm and satisfaction quite brightly. He's Larry Wilkins, state EAS coordinator for Alabama. Alabama has upgraded its statewide EAS system, which Wilkins says is unlike any other system in the country and he's clearly proud.
The new system does a number of things differently - all designed to make sure EAS alerts are heard and seen by the public faster and that they contain more information. One of the things Wilkins is particularly proud of is the new system's use of the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP). He says it provides important new capability for public safety officials to create messages that can contain much more information than the old way including pre-recorded audio messages (say, recorded by the governor or other officials), digital attachments (say, pictures of Amber Alert victims), and text-to-speech messages (without counting on dispatchers to be announcers). Plus, he says, capability will be enhanced even more through the new system's ability to work with IPAWS, the federal alerting initiative.
Even with the new capabilities, Wilkins says public officials will have fewer activation steps through the system Alabama bought (called GSSNet Alert Studio). He says the two tests conducted so far were "100% successful both times", and public safety officials were enthused about how simple it was.
Wilkins says they were able to build the system statewide for around $60,000 which was financed by the Alabama Broadcasters Association at no cost to local officials or radio and TV stations. Wilkins says ABA felt strongly that they really needed to get the system running soon to have something more reliable than the old system.
Wilkins says the old "daisy chain" system formerly used in Alabama and currently used in most other states is "not really reliable because of potential breaks in the system". When it breaks at a single point, no one downstream gets the message. Through the new system, says Wilkins, the messages are delivered "first hand" to broadcasters.
No doubt about it, Wilkins is enthused. He said it was a "real treat to get it working". I'm sure he wouldn't mind talking to public safety officials elsewhere outside Alabama who have questions. And we sure wouldn't mind putting you in touch with him.
All the best,
Rick
www.galainsolutions.com
