At NAB 2010 (Booth C3651) Digital Alert Systems, a provider of emergency alert systems (EAS), will exhibit its new DASDEC-II, an IP-based EAS encoder/decoder set that is compatible with the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP). The DASDEC-II system provides flexibility for local and remote EAS monitoring and control.
As a CAP-compatible system, the DASDEC-II is engineered to help broadcasters easily meet current FCC emergency alert regulations while also having the flexibility to respond to future requirements and alert delivery mechanisms. The system's modular software provides a scalable EAS platform that helps broadcasters reduce clutter, cost, and complexity by integrating several key functions, including MPEG encoding.
The DASDEC-II platform can be used as a replacement for existing EAS encoder/decoder sets and supports a broad range of physical connection and interface protocols, including simple GPI/O, serial, USB and IP networking. This makes easy for broadcasters to integrate a wide variety of third-party character generator, crawl display, master control and station automation systems. With a nonvolatile memory bank, DASDEC-II automatically logs FCC alert compliance.
The system's MPEG encoder option can encode emergency alert video and audio into MPEG-1, MPEG-2, or MPEG-4 streams for Ethernet output. This simplifies alert management by allowing broadcasters to distribute and deploy emergency alerts in the specific format already in use by the station, without the need for additional encoding equipment.
Broadcasters also can purchase the EXP-3NIC option to gain access to an additional three 10/100 or 10/100/1000 Ethernet connections for a total of four ports. With this option, a station could segment its emergency alert network and improve network traffic flow, with dedicated links to automation systems, character generators and the Internet. Alternatively, specific EAS users, such as the news department, weather team and IT administrator, can each have their own direct Ethernet connection.
