GSS is involved in a venture called America’s Emergency Network.
Former National Hurricane Center Director Max Mayfield and CBS News/WFOR(TV) Hurricane Analyst Bryan Norcross are working with Global Security Systems to create what they say is a nationwide emergency alerting and communication system. WFOR is based in Miami.
Components include a Web site for the public containing video and bulletins issued by emergency management offices and other government agencies, and a TV channel carrying new conferences and other feeds.
Norcross plans to have AEN operational on the Internet later this year, with AEN(TV) on the air in early 2008.
AlertFM from Global Security Systems is another piece of the system. As reported here earlier, it uses subcarriers from local FM stations; messages can be sent to a community or targeted to neighborhoods or individuals using GSS technology. Alerts also can be sent to specific mobile phones as text or voice messages and by email.
The organizers said any government agency with emergency-management responsibilities for a community would be able to access the secure AEN system to distribute information.
Mayfield will work with emergency management agencies to help them use the system. “No newspaper or TV station can possibly send reporters to cover all the emergency operation centers,” stated Mayfield. AEN will fill the gaps in the nation’s emergency communications system, he said.
