[EAS] Should digital audio files be prohibited in CAP?

[Bill Ruck]

I think we are all missing the point.

The purpose of EAS / CAP / IPAWS / CMAS is to get an emergency 
message to as much of the public as fast as possible.

Having a post production house voice an emergency message with a 
Neumann U-87 and 96 kHz sampling 24 bit words that gets delivered 
three days later does not help anybody.

In my view of the future, the Incident Commander pulls up a template 
on his/her CAD / MDT / Personal Digital Wireless Device, fills in the 
blanks and touches SEND.  Seconds later all media gets the message 
and the public gets the information.  And the IC can go back to 
solving whatever Bad Thing happened.

That is, in my warped view, the beauty of CAP.  It is a simple 
standard text based protocol that can be quickly transmitted over 
almost any system.  And quickly and automatically converted to any 
delivery system.

If the public receiving media is text based they see the text.  If 
the public receiving media is sound based they get a Text To Speech 
version.  It might sound artificial but if the message is "Duck and 
cover" and they save their skin then so be it.

Bill Ruck
Curmudgeon
San Francisco