At the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials Conference in Minneapolis, Minn. last week, Campus Televideo, a provider of custom cable TV, ResNet data and other telecommunications services to over 230 colleges and universities nationwide, announced its has launched the country’s first EAS (Emergency Alert
System) integration service for colleges and universities connecting cable TV to existing EAS platforms.
The goal is to provide emergency information to students and faculty across the entire campus as quickly as possible. Jon Stewart, Campus Televideo‚s senior director of business operations, said the technology allows them to relay a consistent message across multiple device types on campus.
Working with Monroe Electronics and e2Campus, Campus Televideo said it successfully beta tested and launched this new service at Misericordia University in Dallas, PA. Using Monroes’ One-Net— an analog and digital EAS encoder/decoder that is fully compatible with the new FCC and FEMA Common Alerting Protocol [CAP] mandates—and e2Campus’ specialized emergency alert distribution software Campus Televideo is able to tie separate EAS platforms together, creating one, single point of message delivery.
The e2Campus service is owned by Omnilert, a Washington, D.C.-based company that develops and markets unified mass notification systems for sending time-sensitive information to large groups of people. With e2Campus, a single person can communicate important information to thousands of people anywhere, anytime, on any device.
This new integrated solution will allow safety administrators to enter a single message and deliver it consistently across multiple EAS platforms to multiple devices (television, cell phones, emails). Previously, safety administrators had to manage separate login and messaging processes for each platform, introducing complexity and slowing delivery.
“This kind of innovative approach to serving our university needs is why we’ve been with Campus Televideo for nearly fifteen years and e2Campus for five years,” said Mark Reboli, Misericordia University. “Although you never hope to have a need to reach your campus in an emergency situation, this integrated system adds an important piece to the University’s emergency notification plan with a valuable, direct, and simple way to reach our students throughout the campus without safety personnel performing additional work.”
