[EAS] Best and Worst of New CAP EAS Rules

[Mike McCarthy]

I read Harold Price's comment about bad speech conversion being less 
preferred to no speech at all.

Upon a little reflection, I think that issue in part might have been an 
underlying concern and they opted for now at least to stop the TTS train 
from leaving the station.  Recall, the last major TTS deployment of that 
scale was met the with frequent reference of "drunken Sweedish sailor".  
And nothing can be worse than conflicting voices or poorly pronounced 
wordsin a critical situation.

I realize the vocoders of 2012 are vastly superior to the vocoder chosen 
early last decade by the NWS. However, something got the FCC's attention 
front and center for them to take such a drastic step when the train up 
to that point was rolling strong with a spoken component as part of the 
plan. And by this action, they're defining a breathing period to seek a 
satisfactory resolution.

Once they're satisfied with whatever solution is defined and ratified by 
consensus of the stakes-holders, they'll let that train roll again.

MM

On 1/18/2012 4:47 PM, Ed Czarnecki wrote:
> No, I think there is actually less to the story than some might think.
> Whether or not FEMA actually wanted voice converstion for ADA compliance,
> several disabilities groups put information in the record that argued
> against text to speech and speech to text.  Others have been pressing the
> point at the Commission level on high.
>
> Also, I disagree with a suggestion that was made that the record didn't
> reflect reliance on TTS by state systems.  CSRIC briefings, in fact, did
> discuss that point (not the current CSRIC, but the prior council I served on
> over a year ago).  Plus, FEMA had been providing regular briefings to the
> FCC on its activities.
>
> Something got miscommunicated, to say the least.  But it can be fixed.
>
> Ed
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: eas-bounces at radiolists.net [mailto:eas-bounces at radiolists.net] On
> Behalf Of Mike McCarthy
>
> You know....with all the teeth gnashing about the text to voice conversion
> prohibition, let me add one possible thought.