Next FEMA-IPAWS Webinar on EAS Standard


WASHINGTON: Federal Emergency Management Agency officials involved with the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System plan to hold another webinar this Wednesday at noon Eastern.

Gary Ham, system architect of IPAWS-OPEN Platform for Emergency Networks 2.0, will provide an update of the system and an illustrated description of Common Alerting Protocol to EAS translation.

OPEN, which stands for Open Platform for Emergency Networks, enables the interoperable sharing of emergency alerts and incident-related data among systems that comply with non-proprietary information standards. It also serves as the message aggregator for the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System.

The webinar is intended primarily for third-party IPAWS-OPEN developers and testers.

In a previous webinar this month, FEMA-IPAWS officials discussed lessons learned from the EAS tests in Alaska.

At the NAB Show last week, FEMA and FCC officials said they would provide broadcasters regular updates as the clock counts down toward the Sept. 30 deadline by which CAP-compliant EAS encoders/decoders must be purchased, installed and operational in advance of a national EAS test. Officials said last week it’s unlikely the deadline would be extended.

— Leslie Stimson, Radio World