[sbe-eas] Contents of sbe-eas Digest, Vol 241, Issue 8

Fri Jan 26 18:06:45 EST 2024

Sounds like a great idea, till one finds how difficult and expensive the "enhancement" costs.
How long would an EAS alert last with 14 different languages (assuming one alert after another 14 times).

Regards:

Bill Lee
Director of Engineering
GEB Network/ KGEB-TV
918-495-6450 Office
blee at oru.edu<mailto:blee at oru.edu>

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Subject: sbe-eas Digest, Vol 241, Issue 8

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Today's Topics:

1. Re: FCC Proposes Multilingual Alerting (Dave Turnmire)

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Message: 1
Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2024 15:52:18 -0700
From: Dave Turnmire <eassbelist at gmail.com<mailto:eassbelist at gmail.com>>
To: sbe-eas at sbe.org<mailto:sbe-eas at sbe.org>
Subject: Re: [sbe-eas] FCC Proposes Multilingual Alerting
Message-ID: <b04af722-3008-4177-992b-b49d601ed2cb at gmail.com<mailto:b04af722-3008-4177-992b-b49d601ed2cb at gmail.com>>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"; Format="flowed"

I find it interesting that the latter third of the document is labeled
"Non-Public Draft"? ?

Other comments/observations after a quick read:

* Does existing EAS equipment have the storage capacity to accommodate
these templates & associated audio files?It would appear that some
amount of TTS would be required as the ?templates? wouldn?t include
key info such as location.The EAS equipment would thus require
having the hardware and software resources to provide TTS for those
14 languages.Or alternatively, that different versions of ?firmware?
be provided by vendors for each of the 14 languages to support
broadcasters? primary language.But what of broadcasters that
broadcast primarily in one language, but broadcast in another
language for significant periods of time?Presumably their EAS box to
support more than one language (presumably not more than 2 or 3),
for either ?simultaneous? broadcast or language triggered by automation

The FCC suggests as an alternative, that the templates leave out the
location entirely and say something like ?/A wildfire alert has been
issued for your area. *Please contact local authorities* or check
local news sources for more information./?.Hard to imagine that the
?local authorities? would like everyone in their community calling
them to ask IF the alert applies to them.Seems more likely that
often the public will just ignore the message.
* Does current cable system technology allow for sending out more than
one version of an alert? English for most channels, but other
languages for some?
* EAS is NOT WEA.WEA is inherently limited in the amount of
information that can be provided to the public EAS can provide much
more(at best 360 characters, vs @1800). But that also will likely
make it more difficult to come up with a template based alert that
is as effective as the human generated alert? in the case of English.
* Would originators be allowed to use a complete/accurate English
version, while using the closest approximate for templates in other
languages?Hard to imagine a template would provide as effective
communications as a human generated version? albeit it would be
better than the common scenario where there are NO non-English
alerts.But the NPRM /appears/ to indicate that templates must be
used for English as well as non-English.
* Would the FCC provide legal protection to Government agencies for
initiating alerts that they are unable to vet for accuracy?
* We are STILL waiting for one prominent EAS product vendor to release
software updates for the last FCC rule making.This one would appear
to be much more complicated.It calls into question whether there are
resource limitations at the equipment vendors that would make this
an impractical change.And the commission seems to looking primarily
at the labor costs for EAS Participants to install updates.It
ignores the fact that broadcasters are already seeing sharply
increased ?costs of ownership? passed on by their vendors who are
passing on the development costs imposed by the FCC.
* Will these templates be updated/corrected by the FCC as rapidly as
they have approved ARS submissions??

Dave

On 1/26/2024 7:59 AM, Walke, Larry via sbe-eas wrote:
>
> The FCC has published a draft NPRM that proposes to increase the use
> of multilingual EAS alerts using language templates. Any initial
> thoughts on the technical feasibility, cost, etc of the FCC?s proposal
> would be appreciated.
> https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DOC-400038A1.pdf<https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DOC-400038A1.pdf>
>
> **
>
> *Larry Walke*
>
> Associate General Counsel
>
> Legal & Regulatory
>
> National Association of Broadcasters
>
> ...
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