WASHINGTON—Silicondust, maker of the HDHomeRun and NextGen TV-capable HDHomeRun Flex and Flex 4K set-top boxes, is doubling down on its request to the FCC that station groups remove digital rights management (DRM) encryption before and during the Nov. 17 nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System (EAS).
In an Oct. 26 response to NAB’s ex parte filing with the FCC opposing the association's request, the company accused broadcasters of preventing viewers of ATSC 3.0 (aka NextGen TV) from receiving the EAS test, the first such nationwide test in three years.
“Broadcasters who choose to use encryption place EAS messages behind a private access barrier, preventing viewers with otherwise-capable ATSC 3.0 receivers from seeing or hearing emergency alerts on those services,” the company said in its letter to the FCC.
Silicondust told the agency that Congress directed that the public warning system be designed to provide alerts to the largest portion of the affected population that is feasible.
HDHomeRun Flex and Flex 4K are unable to decode ATSC 3.0 DRM encryption due to the refusal of the ATSC 3.0 Security Authority (A3SA) to certify the devices.
In an Oct. 20 letter to the FCC, NAB said the company’s request to turn off DRM before and during the test “would cut against” its purpose, which the FCC has said is to “assess the EAS ‘from top-to-bottom,’ from origination of an alert through reception by the public, and should replicate actual national alert conditions as closely as possible.”
Asking broadcasters to turn off encryption before and during the test doesn’t replicate how “stations would operate during an actual emergency,” NAB said.
In its response, Silicondust countered NAB’s assertion, saying the association's argument “treats a known failure of broadcast emergency alert delivery as something to preserve rather than correct."
Identifying the barrier to EAS reception prior to the test should be done to remove the problem “while there is still time,” Silicondust said.
“Silicondust limited its request to the period surrounding the nationwide test,” the company said. “This allows broadcasters to address a known barrier to emergency alert delivery without requiring an immediate, permanent decision about encryption of ATSC 3.0 service.”
The company told the FCC that broadcasters have advanced notice of the “access barrier,” a way to remove it and time to act. “A station that nevertheless retains DRM encryption must be prepared to explain why it knowingly maintains a restriction that prevents otherwise-capable receivers from presenting emergency information.”
