2 the emergency alert system – Kramer Electronics VP-773 User Manual

Page 43

Advertising
background image

38

VP-773 - The OSD Menu

6.8.2

The 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.

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-773 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.

i

Advertising