FOR CAMPUS SYSTEMS

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EMERGENCY ALERT SYSTEMS
EAS
FOR CAMPUS SYSTEMS
BY ... WENDELL WOODY EAS CONSULTANT
WENDELL D. WOODY ASSOCIATES KANSAS CITY,
MISSOURI
JUNE 27-30th, 2007
AHECTAS 10TH Annual Campus Cable
Conference HILTON HOTEL VANCOUVER, WASHINGTON
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I N T R O D U C T I O N
- Classic EAS was designed for only one reason-
National Emergency (Presidential Messages) over
Broadcast (Radio and TV), CATV, MMDS, and more
recently IPTV and Direct TV. That was it...
All other uses followed.- Alert switching was
done by one of four (4) methods COMB
Generator, IF Switching, Baseband Switching,
and Audio / Video Crawls.   - However, schools
want not only classic EAS, but also more.
Different inputs and the ability to deliver
messages to all students and faculty at once. No
small task. - Before anything is done there are
some extensive discussions that need to take
place, based on Who has access
What types of messages get sent out (too many and
nobody pays attention) How do the needs
of the schools messaging program interface with
the functions of the classic EAS.
What are the technical requirements (is it
possible) How much money (anything is
possible but at what cost) What
Communications means are currently available
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T E C H N O L O G Y
Technology The core of any Emergency Alert
System is a FCC certified Encoder/Decoder. Many
of these designs on the market today are older
(possibly 12 years) hardware-based products with
limited ability to address new requirements,
whether those are from the FCC, FEMA, DHS, or the
special needs of the educational facilities. The
CORE unit MUST BE ETHERNET WEB BASED! Only two
units are in that category the Monroe ONE-NET
is the newest design, with the most advanced
technology.
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S Y S T E M I N P U T S
Radios Currently can receive standard EAS
messages via the built-in AM/FM radios and
weather alerts through the optional internal NOAA
radio. Telephone Using the Model 988 Local
Access override, you can pass through a live
2-minute audio message accompanied by a standard
alert text message (i.e. tornado, civil emergency
etc.) Or, you can create, via IP, a short custom
text message in place of the Civil Emergency and
trigger this with a phone call, repeating the
audio/video for a preset period. IP - Currently
there is no standard EAS messaging protocol for
IP. However the One-Net has an optional software
package that allows custom messaging via the
Internet, via any browser, for custom text only
messages or text to voice conversion. This means
that you can type in your custom message and have
it automatically converted to voice.
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S Y S T E M I N P U T S
CAP (Common Alert Protocol) This is the near
future. FEMA is working on this standard and the
FCC has recently announced that all audio/video
providers, under their jurisdiction, implement
CAP within 180 days after FEMA announces the
final version. The goal is to provide universal
emergency communication protocol for all forms of
communication (radio, TV, Cell phones, email,
etc.). Monroe has already done work with this
protocol and will be able to receive CAP alerts
and translate them into the EAS format.
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S Y S T E M O U T P U T S
- Analog Baseband Audio/ Video - Contact
closures - Serial RS232C - USB-
Parallel - IP .txt (text only)
.txt and .wav (text and audio) Streaming
MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 SCTE-18 (data stream in a
MPEG packet) E-mail to limited number of
recipients CAP (The One-Net will be able
to encode alerts in the CAP, XML format)
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S Y S T E M I N T E R F A C E S

• Standard CATV (Analog) - Depending on the source
  and format of the analog signal you can either do
  full-screen replacement or crawl messaging.
• Digital CATV For the most part there are only
  limited ways to provide an emergency message on
  the digital feed.
• IPTV - Ethernet communications with the
  Middleware via EAS-Net.
• E-mail - The One-Net can provide an e-mail to a
  designated location and can be mass mailed via a
  system from either the institutions own server
  or via a program such as Front Porch.

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S Y S T E M I N T E R F A C E S

• Cell Phones - The most problematic of all the
  interfaces. Currently the cell phone companies do
  not have a way to address all the phones within
  an area. At least not that they are talking
  about. Those students that have WEB access could
  be sent an e-mail. In addition there are some
  companies that have systems, but typically they
  require a special phone. One of goals of CAP will
  be to address this missing link in the
  communication pathway. Meanwhile the One-Net has
  a variety of outputs and is ideally suited to
  provide standard or custom messaging to cell
  phones once a pathway is created.
• Public Address Systems - The variety of outputs
  should interface well with any PA system.

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