[sbe-eas] Polygons again (was Re: Complaints about alerts)

[Adrienne Abbott]

Of course, this all depends on having well-trained, well-equipped emergency
managers and first responders who can quickly assess a dangerous situation
and decide what areas need to be included in the alerting polygon and who
then get that information to the public via all the warning systems
available. What are the chances that someone will follow their first
instinct to warn as many people as possible, especially in today's litigious
atmosphere and thus defeat the purpose of targeted alerts? Then there will
be all the communities where the government simply can't afford the
equipment needed to generate a CAP message and all the discussions about
polygons, targeted alerts and warning appliances will mean nothing. 
Adrienne


"Radio burps, it cries, it needs to be fed all the time, it requires
constant attention, but we love it." Jim Aaron WGLN 


-----Original Message-----
From: sbe-eas-bounces at sbe.org [mailto:sbe-eas-bounces at sbe.org] On Behalf Of
suzanne at mab.org
Sent: Wednesday, July 14, 2010 6:30 AM
To: SBE EAS Exchange - a mail list for discussion about the Emergency
AlertSystem and other emergency communication issues.
Subject: Re: [sbe-eas] Polygons again (was Re: Complaints about alerts)

I don't see how there's a way to deliver targeted alerts through a
one-to-all medium like broadcasting (whether radio or TV).  Maybe one of you
smart engineers can tell me whether it's possible, in the digital realm, to
split a signal so that an alert gets delivered only to a west-northwest
polygon inside a big round signal area?  Otherwise, the debate about SAME
coding is moot, because we are BROADcasters.  But that's okay -- using Art's
AIR acronym, the power of broadcasting is that, not only can it Alert, but
it has the capability to provide the follow-on Information and Reassurance,
albeit that the message may be delivered to folks who don't want their
evening entertainment interrupted. -- Suzanne Goucher

-----Original Message-----
From: "Art Botterell" <acb at incident.com>
Sent: Tuesday, July 13, 2010 6:58pm
To: "SBE EAS Exchange - a mail list for discussion about the Emergency Alert
System and other emergency communication issues." <sbe-eas at sbe.org>
Subject: [sbe-eas] Polygons again (was Re: Complaints about alerts)

And of course the essence of that young lady's rant was that the alert
wasn't actually for her location.  Having polygons in the CAP messages will
give us the information to address that, but we still need the technology to
use them.

This is an issue that engineering and management and even sales could get on
the same side of.  Nobody benefits from having a targeted alert interrupt
the program for everybody.  It's just the way analog broadcasting works.
But in the digital realm I feel sure we could do better.  If ever there were
a forward-looking opportunity for SBE, NAB and possibly CEA, seems like this
might be one.

(In fact our friend Frank Bell has some interesting ideas on this point,
albeit perhaps embedded in somewhat more discourse than might be
effective...;-)

- Art

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