[EAS] Multilingual support for CAP messages

[Ed Czarnecki]

Adrienne:  

Spanish is definitely the majority-minority language here, but there are
probably a dozen different versions of Spanish spoken here and that in
itself is a problem. 
A. >> See my separate posing on Spanish dialects.  A common denominator can
be used (just stay away from Chilean or Argentine!)

How does a station carry an EAS activation in more than one language? 
A. >> per the ECIG guidance, the station can select a language for its
primary EAS message (i.e. the voice between the header and EOM), and can
append an additional language as "post alert" audio.  This is what we showed
at last year's NAB show (FEMA showed it too at their booth at NAB).

Should an EAS message in English be repeated in a second language like
Spanish in the same activation? 
A. >> That is a practice I would suggest considering, particularly if the
station knows it is serving bilingual audiences.

Our state and local officials are able to issue CAP EAS activations but the
two-minute time limit means there wouldn't be much detail in either the
message or the text but it would get the message to the audience in the
quickest, easiest manner possible.  
A. >> The ECIG methodology does NOT impact the two minute length of the
message.  One language in the EAS message (up to 2 minutes) second (or even
third) languages may be played afterwards.

What happens if the EAS message is issued twice, once in English and once in
Spanish on the same station? 
A. >> That should not be necessary if using post audio.

Can an EAS unit be programmed to automatically run an English language EAS
activation, followed by the Spanish (or other language version)? 
A. >> Yes the DASDEC can do this.

How do you keep an audience around long enough to hear the details that
couldn't fit into the two minute EAS time limit or updated emergency
information when a station has to run 5 or 10 minutes worth of EAS
activations in 2 or three languages? 
A. >>  I think common sense needs to weigh in here.  Most EAS messages do
not run close to 2 minutes in duration.  Most stations likely are not
looking to play out more than two languages (most, frankly would choose a
single language).

What do you tell the program director who is concerned about the tune-out
factor from a single, English EAS message, much less a second or even third
EAS activation in different languages?  
A. >> First, this is OPTIONAL.  Second, the alert duration is likely not
going to be the full 2 minutes, plus another 2 minutes.  Third, there should
not be multiple EAS activations, each in a different language.  There should
be one EAS activation, and the broadcaster should be able to select which
language(s) they want to relay.

We have English language TV and radio stations with second and third
channels or streams in Spanish and those stations have a need for both
English and Spanish messages or even activations in a third language. What
is the best way to issue separate English and Spanish EAS activations so
those stations can provide the activations in their Spanish or other
language streams? 
A. >>  Don Heppelman from TPT could probably weigh in on this, since this is
what he is doing over his multiple channel streams.  The DASDEC allows
language selectivity on different channels (e.g. English on one,
Spanish+English on two, Somali+English on the third stream, and
Hmong+English on the fourth).  TPT is pioneering a lot of neat stuff here.

Can a single Sage or DASDEC ingest both English and Spanish EAS activations
and send those to the appropriate streams at the same station or would the
station need to install separate EAS units for each language or stream? 
A. >> Yes, a single DASDEC can accomplish the above (may require
Multistation to be enabled).

Does the EAS equipment see the English and Spanish versions of the same EAS
activation as separate activations or as the same activation? 
A. >> Again, there should not be multiple EAS activations for the same
event, just in different languages.  CAP messages can contain multiple info
blocks, each with a different language.  EAS (an assumption) is single
language in the daisy chain.  This is what is useful about the post audio
approach. If you are an LP station, you can play the English as the EAS
message, and then a second language as post audio.  The LPs audience will
hear the second language, but the daisy chain will not relay it (since it is
outside the header).  This way, stations downstream are not forced to
transmit a language that is not relevant to them.

Is there a risk that the EAS equipment would ignore either the English or
Spanish version of the same messages as an activation already received? 
A. >> See answer above - there should not be multiple activations for the
same event.

Like everywhere else, these stations are in "Auto Forward" mode because they
don't always have staff available to manually forward EAS activations.  
A. >> A design consideration we explicitly factored in.

With these limitations, how do we add EAS activations in a third, fourth or
even fifth language? 
A. >> Again, some choices have to be made.  Carrying that many languages is
just going to run on, and on ...  Stations know what their audiences are,
and what languages they use.  It does not do much good for a station to play
an alert in Uzbek, if their primary audience is English, and perhaps Spanish
too.

How does the EAS equipment distinguish between the different dialects and
not see the activation as one that was already received? 
A. >> The CAP message includes a language parameter.  Lang = en-US for
English, and es-US for the dialect of Spanish most commonly used in North
America ("Mexican").  

Do we label them Spanish 1, Spanish 2 or Spanish 3?
A. >> I think this is getting too granular.  But, since you asked, these are
labeled by ISO code ...
es-AR =	Spanish (Argentina)
es-BO =	Spanish (Bolivia)
es-CL =	Spanish (Chile)
es-CO =	Spanish (Colombia)
es-CR = Spanish (Costa Rica)
es-DO = Spanish (Dominican Republic)
es-EC =	Spanish (Ecuador)
es-ES =	Spanish (Castilian)
es-ES =	Spanish (Spain)
es-GT =	Spanish (Guatemala)
es-HN = Spanish (Honduras)
es-MX = Spanish (Mexico)
es-NI =	Spanish (Nicaragua)
es-PA =	Spanish (Panama)
es-PE =	Spanish (Peru)
es-PR =	Spanish (Puerto Rico)
es-PY =	Spanish (Paraguay)
es-SV =	Spanish (El Salvador)
es-UY =	Spanish (Uruguay)
es-VE =	Spanish (Venezuela)

We have two Asian language stations in the Nevada Operational Area so we are
concerned about being able to serve those communities as well as our other
significant foreign language communities. Wouldn't the messages in these
languages have to be separate EAS activations?
A. >> No.  These languages could be included in a CAP message (to which
these station's EAS gear could be programmed to the language code), or the
station's EAS gear (depending on brand) could take an English message and
provide some selected language output).

What's the best way to serve our tourist communities? The hotels provide TV
programming in multiple languages on their internal cable channels. How can
we get the hotel systems EAS information in those languages? I hate to say
it, but I don't even know how the hotel TV systems here handle EAS
activations. The hotel security centers have EAS equipment and
communications systems to reach guests on the casino floor and in the
restaurants as well as in the hotel rooms. 
A. >> I did some work related to this a number of years ago.  It is a huge
mix of systems and options at each hotel ...  I can talk with you about this
offline.

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

Here in Nevada we are also looking at ways to support foreign language EAS
activations and after some preliminary discussions, I have a couple of
technical questions that maybe some in the group can answer. Spanish is
definitely the majority-minority language here, but there are probably a
dozen different versions of Spanish spoken here and that in itself is a