In this letter, the author responds to the story “NAB Says Software-Based EAS Has Overwhelming Support.” Radio World welcomes letters to the editor on this or any story. Email [email protected].
Hope you’re well. I am against using a “software” based EAS system and the reason is simple. You actually published the reason recently, with your story about NOAA Weather Radio going down after an update.
The fact is that firmware-based applications will always be faster and more reliable than ANY software application. Since reliability is an absolute must for any EAS solution, a totally software-based solution cannot be an option. It will simply not be reliable.
When I first read about the software-based proposal, I laughed, thinking that whoever came up with the idea knew nothing about how things worked.
The current EAS system is not reliable enough. We should be thinking about how to improve its reliability. A software-based EAS system will be less reliable than the current version, due to the complexity of most software programs and inherent “bugs.”
— Gary Saber
Interested in this topic? Check out these stories: “SBE Backs NAB’s Software-Based EAS Proposal” and “Digital Alert Systems Warns of Risks in Software-Only EAS Proposal.”
