Orders are flying in to dealers for EAS gear as U.S. broadcasters eye the approaching CAP compliance deadline. I’m hearing about various buys, on and off the record.
For instance dealer SCMS told me Bible Broadcasting Network had placed a big order of 22 Sage Digital ENDECs as part of its EAS buildout.
I asked BBN Network Engineering Manager Ron Muffley about it; he said that at present, the network has upgraded about 40% of its EAS equipment at its 35 owned stations. In addition to its order from SCMS, the company ordered 22 Sage boxes from Broadcasters General Store. Muffley intends to have its conversion completed by early August.
“One of our main considerations in upgrading to the ENDEC was the advantage of a ‘plug & play’ installation at all of our broadcast facilities,” Muffley continued.
“This was due to the fact that we were already utilizing ENDECs, and Sage maintained the same interconnect wiring design in the digital version. Thus far, the transition has been quite smooth and problem-free.”
I know of a number of other notable EAS purchases by broadcast groups and associations. Some are shy about confirming them so I can’t report all of them today for you; but RW has been covering these announcements, and I’ll let you know of others as I hear about them so together we can get a sense of how stations are doing at meeting the Sept. 30 deadline (and of course if that deadline changes again, we’ll let you know asap).
Give me a status report on your own company or state EAS conversion process. Write to me at [email protected].
