[EAS] Getting rid of the daisy chain

[Alex Hartman]

Of course not. But suggesting everyone listen to NPR when they're on
the sh*tlist of most politicians isn't a good idea either. However, it
might just be their saving grace.

*But*.... (there's always one)

There may not be an NPR affiliate nearby any given station. This would
also "lock out" other broadcasters from being an LP or PEP station as
well if it's an NPR based system. Trust me, after dealing with PRSS
and the weirdness of that, you don't want NPR running that ship. You
might as well be talking to a brick wall. (Or your congressperson for
that matter)

I sat in a PREC meeting with the PRSS / IDC folk over the new
satellite boxes they commissioned, 60 of us public engineers *yelling*
at them about how absurd it was to have hard drives in streaming
decoders. *When*, not if, the drive fails, the box is a $4500 brick,
instead of adding an $8 USB thumb drive or small flash drive to hold
the OS to keep the stream decoder going in the event of a drive
failure just was not comprehend-able to them. The equipment is, shall
we say, a little less than reliable. (We're not even out of the beta
test with them and i've already had one box go TU on me, less than 5
months out of the factory)

The daisy-chain system, again, works as best it can. There doesn't
seem to be a "magic bullet" here to make anyone happy, let alone
everyone. Figuring out how to get everyone the same message after the
fact is not impossible, but very difficult, and requires very careful
planning, especially if they're doing it via IP (landline, satellite,
etc).

Also, 99.9991% of the EAS activations in this country originate
locally, not nationally. Worry about the back yard before you worry
about the whole city, so to speak. If you can get one state to go with
an idea, test it, see it work, then you start mirroring it in other
states, find the flaws, solve them, and move on.

The broad side of this barn simply cannot be hit with one shot.

--
Alex Hartman

On Mon, Nov 28, 2011 at 10:10 AM, Barry Mishkind <barrym at oldradio.com> wrote:
> At 09:02 AM 11/28/2011, Alex Hartman wrote:
>
>>95% on a "new system" when the "old system" reaches 99.5% of america?
>
>        Repeat after me:
>        One size does not fit all.
>
>        The audio from the conference bridge through
>        all the the processors sounds horrid - if the
>        audio even gets there.
>
>        An audio diversity system with a a variety
>        of inputs, from Ku to NPR, to Internet
>        to daisy chain, to 700 MHZ, *based on
>        what works in any given area.*
>
>        Small states are not the same as big states.
>        Large flat areas are not the same as
>        mountainous regions with multiple weather
>        pockets.
>
>        One size does not fit all.
>
>        [echo]
>
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