[EAS] ALL USA FIPS CODE; converter boxes

[Ed Czarnecki]

Adrienne and Clay - thanks for the kind words.  It is appreciated.

Sean - I can't (or won't) speak to the first point about the old boxes, but
we have sample legacy units in our lab, and there are different behaviors.
Some apparently won't know what to do with a 000000 at all.  So, "crash and
burn" might be a relative statement (compared to "sit like a brick").

A few OTA systems (broadcast TV) do have middleware in place downstream of
the EAS device that needs to be checked.

NCTA noted the timeline and challenges in implementing the 000000 code in
the cable environment, as did we regarding cable and IPTV in our various
comments to the commission.  Other issues, such as changing the NPT to an
unlimited duration message, present even greater issues in these
environments.

Edward Czarnecki, PhD 
Senior Director – Strategic Development & Global Government Affairs
585-765-2254 ext. 122 | fax 585-765-9330
100 Housel Ave. | Lyndonville | NY | 14098

-----Original Message-----
From: eas-bounces at radiolists.net [mailto:eas-bounces at radiolists.net] On
Behalf Of Sean Donelan

Even very old boxes used by over-the-air broadcasters are unlikely to
crash-n-burn with "000000".  Exactly how they handle every header code
combination is less clear, because the FCC hasn't defined the correct
behavoir in some corner cases.  But no one is expecting (except by accident)
those corner cases.