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VP-770 - The OSD Menu
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.
For more details on CAP, go to https://www.oasis-
open.org/committees/download.php/6334/oasis-200402-cap-core-
1.0.pdf.
The VP-770 intercepts 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.
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