SBE Calls for EAS Overhaul

The Society of Broadcast Engineers says the Emergency Alert System has passed the point where simple modifications are no longer applicable. In comments to the FCC, it has listed numerous recommendations for changes and improvement to the EAS.
The group has made some of these suggestions in a previous EAS inquiry, as reported here.
It calls for the creation of point-multipoint distribution systems for the distribution of EAS messages from their sources to those systems that transmit emergency messages to the public and for the elimination of the EBS-era daisy-chain system.
“Because of the critical need to provide text messages to existing television-based systems and a growing array of non-broadcast EAS participants, the SBE also called for the adoption of the Common Alerting Protocol as the vehicle for the distribution of emergency messages from their sources,” SBE stated.
“In addition, the filing calls on the FCC to create EAS performance standards, to eliminate broadcasters as an EAS origination source, to provide federal funding and training for a national system, and to mandate consumer electronic devices to have warning capabilities.”
In a statement, SBE Vice President Clay Freinwald, chair of its EAS committee, said, “It is the SBE’s view that the EAS has reached a point where simple modifications or band-aid approaches are no longer applicable. The most recent Report and Order augmenting the EAS is a clear call for the application of additional technology to not only correct existing issues, but make changes in the way the systems works in order to enable the EAS to move forward and serve more U.S. citizens via an ever-growing number of electronic communication systems.”