6.8.2The Emergency Alert System
The Emergency Alert System (EAS) is a unique, versatile feature for immediate text overlaying, with flexible options such as the inclusion of an audio alert siren and the choice of displaying an emergency notification via either a text crawler or a text window.
The EAS provides the ability to have a site-wide notification immediately displayed when an emergency situation develops that could affect the health and welfare of the people attending the site, whether that site is an educational facility, a corporate site, a stadium or any other location where large groups of people come together. Messages can include specifics about weather (tornadoes, hurricanes, high winds, flooding, storms and so on), Amber and Silver alerts, safety and security, and also general advisories.
Emergency alert messages are composed and transmitted using the Common Alert Protocol (CAP). CAP is an XML-based application that allows a warning message to be consistently disseminated simultaneously over many warning systems to many proprietary applications and devices. By using XML, messages can be composed, transmitted, and received across a broad range of proprietary AV and other devices.
Generally, CAP format alerts can also trigger secondary functions, such as alert tones, horns, buzzers, and sirens. They can be used to switch on AV equipment to display alerts. The system also complies with the Emergency Alert System (EAS) standard, an official, national warning system in the United States, which works in coordination with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and a number of US national emergency agencies.
iFor more details on CAP, go to https://www.oasis- open.org/committees/download.php/6334/oasis-200402-cap-core- 1.0.pdf.
The VP-770intercepts XML files over the Ethernet in the CAP format via the dedicated EAS port from the alert generator server (for example, a FEMA server or a proprietary CAP message generation application) for immediate alert message triggering.
