[EAS] Adding "open" set-tops to EAS

[Sean Donelan]

Chairman Wheeler has announced the latest set of "open set-top" 
requirements.

http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2016/db0908/DOC-341152A1.pdf

And Chairman Wheeler's Op-Ed in the Los Angeles times.
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-wheeler-set-top-box-rules-20160908-snap-story.html

Mr. Wheeler's proposal has an interesting Emergency Alert System (EAS) 
requirement.  I'm not certain, Mr. Wheeler understands the active role 
cable set-top boxes play in supporting EAS in cable systems.  It is not a 
passive device, which simply passes the pay-tv signal through unaltered. 
Cable set-top boxes actively participate in the presentation of EAS 
messages.

In the future with ATSC 3.0 and AWARN, Digital TVs will also actively 
participate in the presentation of EAS messages (or whatever the next-gen 
EAS system is called).

Mr. Wheeler's suggestion is not an impossible requirement.  As software 
program marketing folks like to say, its just a small programming change 
(500,000 lines of code later). Software libraries exist for processing 
SCTE-18 and ATIS versions of alerts on set-top and mobile devices.  But 
its not a matter of third-party devices "blocking alerts." Like WEA and 
smart phones, the third-party devices must actively process and present 
the alert messages to the user of the device.

And more variations public alerting variations that emergency managers 
will need to deal with.