FEMA Eyes Improved Audio Quality and Industry Help for Nov. 9 U.S.-Wide EAS Test

Issues in two previous statewide EAS tests in Alaska are informing the upcoming U.S.-wide test, officials involved in the coming simulation including Manny Centeno of FEMA said on the webinar. “We're also working on the national audio quality,” he said, “so that on Nov. 9 we have a much better, cleaner audio message going out to the rest of the nation.” Earlier tests had audio issues, where some couldn’t hear the warnings (CD Feb 3 p5). FEMA also seeks to improve “the clarity of the message,” said Centeno, the agency’s EAS test program manager. “What is the message? Why are we sending this message out” also could be areas for improvement, he said. An official with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said his agency is working on improvements to how it broadcasts messages to transmitters. “Sometimes distance from transmitter to receiver affects audio quality,” he noted.

It can be difficult to get EAS messages in rural areas, FEMA said in a draft best-practices guide that was discussed on the webinar. The agency sought suggestions to changes in the guide, which is targeted to be released Oct. 3, and has a webpage to collect such ideas at http://goo.gl/7jXo9. “It can be significantly more challenging to receive these important EAS messages in remote locations, rural areas, and locations that are susceptible to interference from man-made sources,” said part of the draft (http://goo.gl/CjV14). “In areas where there is a close relationship between emergency management agencies and EAS participants, the EAS does very well,” said another part of the document. “Where the strong partnership does not exist, the EAS has remained ineffective and underutilized."

There may be smaller tests in regions like New England before the nationwide event in November, Centeno said. “We're working with several states and broadcaster groups across the country.” He sought a “coordinated, targeted approach” to informing viewers and listeners of EAS participants and those industries about the test beforehand. Participants are all cable and DBS systems, radio and TV stations and satellite radio. Centeno asked webinar participants how consumers who get the simulation can hear more than the standard “this is a test” line over and over and instead can learn about how EAS works “to keep you safe.”

The event will last as long as 3 1/2 minutes, versus the 2 minutes for monthly EAS tests that participants now do on a local basis, Barnett said in a video message to broadcasters. It was distributed by the NAB (http://goo.gl/kfptq). “It is vital that the broadcasting industry help ensure the success of the national EAS test,” the association told members. On the FEMA webinar, executives from the American Cable Association and NCTA said their members would do their part, too. “We need your help” with the “first-ever top-to-bottom test” of EAS, Barnett told broadcasters. “We need a good diagnosis of systemwide performance."

"The purpose of this test is not to play ‘gotcha’ with broadcasters and other EAS participants,” Barnett said. “Rather, it is to assess what works with the national EAS, what doesn’t, and ... to fix any problems the test uncovers.” Barnett and officials on the FEMA webinar said the EAS test is important, even though that agency has developed the common alerting protocol (CAP) standard for alerts to be distributed by emergency managers online to EAS participants and eventually perhaps to wireless carriers and others. Putting CAP into place “will take time,” said Barnett, who’s leading the commission’s efforts to make new rules for EAS participants to adhere to CAP. “EAS will play a primary role in disseminating alerts to the public in the foreseeable future.”

The test of EAS will help improve that system, even before CAP is fully used, Centeno said.

"We're trying to lift the EAS and improve it as we go,” he said: Since “CAP is going to be running on top of EAS, and we need to improve EAS incrementally, so this whole thing we're doing with common alerting protocol can work.” He asked government and industry EAS participants about ways to improve the system. “The 700-pound gorilla in the room doesn’t always get asked” about, “which is how good” EAS is “as an emergency manager,” he said.

"It’s another tool in the toolbox” to alert people of disasters and such, replied Operations Chief John Campbell of the Missouri State Emergency Management Agency. “I'm not going to say it’s the only tool, but certainly it’s something we can use.” Don Miller of Washington State’s Emergency Management Division concurred. EAS is “one of the” main ways of getting word out of earthquakes or wildfire in Washington, he said. Centeno reminded webinar participants that EAS “shouldn’t be your only tool -- this should be an important tool in your arsenal,” which should also include billboards. A wireless alerting system is coming “very soon,” he said.

Other topics that came up at the FEMA webinar were letting EAS participants select which broadcaster to get emergency alerts from and overriding some EAS messages. The FCC Public Safety Bureau has been getting inquiries on such subjects, said Associate Policy Division Chief Greg Cooke. We hope to get a “greater and more specific understanding of what those problems are” on “selective override issues” because the bureau gets “calls about this all the time,” he said. “Hopefully” leeway for voluntary arrangements among EAS participants can be kept “in place,” he said. Centeno called overrides a “hot topic.” Stakeholders “need to come up with practical solutions to it at least incrementally until we get some longer-term solutions,” he added.

"Flexibility” is “important to the broadcast community,” said President Whit Adamson of the Tennessee Association of Broadcasters. “You look to whichever direction your weather is coming from” in an emergency, on getting alerts, he said. Some decisions on EAS are “in the hands of the cable operator” and should remain there, said Steve Johnson, a consultant to the NCTA. “We need to encourage the broadcasters and cable operators to work together, to see where it makes sense” on emergency overrides, he said. “I don’t think we need any kind of rule change to accommodate that.” Some cable systems have to accept whatever alerts come their way, ACA representatives said. “It’s not just a simple issue of choosing to override” a message, said President Matt Polka. “We have other obligations to meet,” he said: “And sometimes there isn’t someone there to receive” the message and choose to not pass it on.