EAS-CAP in a Multiscreen World

The June 2012 deadline for implementing an Emergency Alert System (EAS) that complies with new Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) guidelines has come and gone. Among the ongoing issues for operators and EAS-CAP vendors is maintaining the capability to put the emergency messages on next-gen services and networks."Cable is in a transition period," said Adam Jones, senior applications engineer and sales engineer for Trilithic. "The biggest challenge for us is to effectively fit EAS in with whatever they go to next."One such area has been delivery to multiple screens. While the rules regarding emergency management and transmission of those messages to mobile devices are vague, operators want to be safe rather than sorry when it comes to compliance with the regulations, Jones said.Going one step further, operators have recognized that providing this type of emergency messaging has proven to be a strong suit, and by getting ahead of regulations, they will continue to be seen as offering an important service to consumers. "The hazy view of (future) regulations may give (operators) pause, but if you don't start working on it, you become less impressive to potential customers," said Bill Robertson, VP of business development for Monroe Electronics. "OTT and multiscreen viewing is not going to be fading away."In addition, taking the initiative may in the end prevent the need for FCC involvement. "(Operators) are advancing it such that hopefully regulations don't have to come on top of it if they get ahead and the FCC sees that the industry as a whole has already managed it well," Robertson said.The cable operators know when a consumer's device is in their footprint and attached to their network, so it becomes a matter of receiving an alert for a particular area then being able to turn around and push it out to those devices. Whereas in a linear environment, the EAS-CAP decoder would trigger downstream messages, in the multiscreen world, the information must be provided in a manner where it can also be sent back upstream for delivery to smartphones, tablets, etc. that are on the IP side of an operator's network, Robertson said.Specifically, the messages can be sent to the operator's middleware system, where they can be put in the appropriate format and pushed out to the various devices, Jones said. The other option is to insert the message in the video stream. However, this method can be used for targeted content as opposed to that which is broadcast throughout the entire footprint. Otherwise, a tornado warning for Washington, D.C. would be sent to subscribers in St. Louis, for example.Operators can determine how they would like the messaging to appear on the mobile devices. One such way could be a popup, similar to what mobile providers are offering their cellular subscribers, Robertson said. In the cable world, if someone is watching content or surfing the Internet, the alert could pop up briefly, giving the user warning and providing a link for more information.From the EAS-CAP vendor perspective, these capabilities are provided via a software license, Robertson said. On the operator side, each has to take its architecture into consideration and figure out what it takes to "move the ball from point A to point B" in order to push the message to the user devices.While each operator is different, Jones provided an example of one "major" MSO that deployed Trilithic's IP-based product. "It took them less than an hour to figure out how to parse the message and forward it on through the middleware. Implementation was beyond fast. It was easy for them to implement and begin testing before lunch."Monta Monaco Hernon is a free-lance writer. She can be reached at [email protected].