[sbe-eas] Arco spot audio

[Harold Price]

SBE needs to correct its web page, some stuff is just wrong, and some 
we now know more about.

The header tones are not being played fast.  They are at the expected 
bit rate, which is 520.83 bits per second.  The alert sounds fast 
because each header has been shortened, resulting in an invalid EAS header.

Unless anyone has evidence to the contrary, the "tripping" of EAS 
units affects only one manufacturer.

Unless anyone has evidence to the contrary, the manufacturer in 
question unmutes the local speaker, and prints a message with a 
partial alert on its printer, but does not relay the alert on air.

At least Sage and Trilithic have checked in with word that their 
units are not effected.

The cause for concern here is primarily one of false or deceptive 
alerts transmitted to the public, over a medium where the public 
would normally expect real alerts to be delivered, desensitizing the 
public to actual alerts. The confusion with speakers unmuting and 
printers printing is limited to one manufacturer and is an annoyance 
to radio station personnel, but has no risk of going out over the air 
and into the daisy chain relay system, and there is no risk that 
anyone would take the "alert" as an actual alert.

Note that, in this instance, the alert was invalid, perhaps made 
intentionally so by the authors of the ad, but equally likely to have 
simply been shortened for ad length.  The next time, someone might 
use an actual valid alert, which could case larger amounts of grief 
depending of the contents of the eas header used.

This is clearly a "teachable moment".

Harold





At 10:22 AM 9/10/2010, Chriss Scherer wrote:

>There are several sources posting the Arco spot now, including the 

>SBE website. The SBE site also additional information.

>http://www.sbe.org/pub_sc.php#BPCommercial

>

>

>Chriss

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