[EAS] CMAS

[Ed Czarnecki]

Ken - 

CAP EAS manufacturers support text length of up 1800 characters for output
to character generators.  Industry organized around this guideline based on
various requirements, including buffer limitations in character generators
and other display devices, and the two minute audio time limit for EAS
messages (how much text could be rendered into speech for a two-minute
message).

These CAP EAS guidelines provide a fair amount of textual output for
on-screen display.  In addition, CAP could provide additional textual and
multimedia information, which a broadcaster could use for "rip and read"
purposes.

CMAS is a different animal.  The cell carriers are not using CAP directly,
but a derivative format.  The character length for CMAS was limited to 90
characters, based on the least-common denominator of what a device might
handle.  

Edward Czarnecki, Ph.D.
  Senior Director - Strategy, Development & Regulatory Affairs
 Monroe Electronics / Digital Alert Systems
www.monroe-electronics.com
www.digitalalertsystems.com

-----Original Message-----
From: eas-bounces at radiolists.net [mailto:eas-bounces at radiolists.net] On
Behalf Of Otto, Ken

I have been reading all these postings lately with interest.  Some of the
recent postings center around the lack of "message" within the "Check Local
Media" Amber alerts.

Aren't our EAS boxes to which we were forced to add IPAWS CAP limited on the
number of characters such that it was thought "Check Local Media" would be
far better than an incomplete message about an Amber alert?

Twitter, Facebook, Google, Yahoo and MSN are a better delivery system for
Amber alert messages to be read and understood compared to texting those who
opt in to emergency messages on their mobile devices.

Kenneth Otto, WBCC-TV
Broadcast Operations Engineer
Brevard Community College
1519 Clearlake Road
Cocoa, FL 32922
http://www.wbcctv.org/

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