Draft:Emergency Alert System

Credits

Descriptions by
jrStudios
Lappy4861

Compiled by
jrStudios

Editions by
Gilby1385

Background

The Emergency Alert System is the USA's national warning system. Designed originally under the Emergency Broadcast System to allow the President to speak on all TV and radio systems in case of a national emergency, the EAS was an upgrade allowing for better localized alerts. SAME tones were introduced to help transmit data to encoders, to identify locations of any event. There are over 90 event codes. This system was implemented in 1997.

EASyPLUS Screen (2004-2016?)

• 

  Most common variant of the EASyPLUS.

• 

  The 2011 National Test variant. This would also hypothetically what an actual Emergency Action Notification would look like.

Visuals: On a black background, there is white VCR OSD Mono text. This text is in 4 lines, the top reading "EMERGENCY ALERT SYSTEM", the middle line displaying the alert sender, the next to bottom line reading "issued a", the bottom line displaying the alert. Between the first and second line, a scroll line reads "[ALERT SENDER] has issued a(n) [ALERT] for the following counties/areas: [LOCATIONS]. Effective until [TIME].

Variants:

• Some cable providers used a gray background with white text.
  • A few used black text to go along with the gray background as well.
• Some cable systems changed where the scroll goes, often to the middle of the screen.
• During the 2011 EAS test, under the Emergency Action Notification code, the top header read "NATIONAL ALERT". This would likely be protocol for all EAN alerts and Emergency Action Termination (EAT) alerts.
  • Dish used another CG layout where it would clearly alert the listener that the alert was a test, repeating TEST in the screen many times.
• The Local Access Alert variant is all caps, on a very dark gray background. The top text reads "LOCAL ACCESS ALERT", the 2nd line reads "A LOCAL AUTHORITY", the 3rd line unedited except it is in all caps, and the bottom line reading "DIRECT COMMUNITY ACCESS". There is no scroll text.
• There was a variant in use with TV station slides and the DirecTV 2011 EAS Test slide where the EASyPLUS generated a black bar with white scrolling text.

Technique: Chyron effects generated on the Trilithic EASyPLUS, EASyIPTV, or EASyCAST Character Generator/EAS Encoder.

Audio: The SAME tones, followed by the EBS alert tone, then the audio message, then the EOM tones. For Local Access Alerts, only the audio message would play.

Audio Variants: On some weather alerts, the 1050Hz tone from NOAA Weather Radio system plays, often because the EASyPLUS monitors weather radio channels to relay alerts.

Availability: Used by many cable providers from 2004 to the mid 2010s, this was a common screen to come by, being retired around 2016 in favor of CAP compatible EAS encoders. Dish and Comcast were some examples of cable providers with these encoders.

Legacy: As the most common EAS screen during the late 2000s and early 2010s, this had a major impact on EAS enthusiasts, often many of them creating EAS "mocks" with this screen.

Texscan-MSI (1999-2013?)

• 

  Required Monthly Test

• 

  Tornado Warning

Visuals: On a blue background, there is white text "EMERGENCY ALERT SYSTEM". Below it is the alert being issued. A bar appears after a few seconds, with the white text: "[ALERT SENDER] has issued a(n) [ALERT] for the following counties/areas: [LOCATIONS]. Effective until [TIME]", scrolling to the left.

Variants:

• On Required Weekly Tests, the text at the top is replaced with "Broadcast or Cable System HAS ISSUED A"
• The color of the bar can vary, if a Test is issued, it would be green. Otherwise, it would be red.
• Sometimes, especially on RWTs, the scrolling bar doesn't appear.
• The text on the scrolling bar can be in mixed case or entirely in uppercase.
• If a Child Abduction is issued, the top text "EAS ALERT" appears above the scrolling bar, now moved to the top. The warning type is shown below, and the text "BROUGHT TO YOU BY COMCAST" is below.
• Usually, due to conversion issues, parts of the right side of the screen contain garbled symbols.
• A version has the screen in black and white, the bar at the top, and the text "EAS ALERT" below it.

Technique: Chyron effects generated using a Texscan-MSI SpectraGen CG, hooked up to a TFT 911 EAS Encoder.<ref>https://cg-wiki.org/texscan_msi/z-series<ref>.

Audio: The SAME tones, followed by the EBS alert tone, then the audio message, then the EOM tones.

Availability: Used by some cable broadcast systems, beginning in around 1999. It is rumored that a Comcast provider in Ohio used this until 2013, but this is yet to be conformed. Was likely discontinued in favor of CAP-compatible EAS Encoders around 2010.

Legacy: Another common screen that has inspired many mocks.

Keywest Technologies/Video Data Systems 800 Series/MHZ-SubAlert encoders (1997-) (Largely decommissioned by 2012)

Visuals: On a red, yellow, or green background, there is white Helvetica text. The top line reads "Emergency Alert System", the middle reading the alert name, and sometimes the bottom line reads the alert name in Spanish. Text would scroll on the bottom as well. The red background was used for warnings, yellow for watches, and green for tests.

Variants

• Sometimes there was a tune to channel screen, often having "Emergency Alert System" on the top, the text reading "Tune to channel [x] for emergency message" in the middle, and the bottom reading the alert.
  • A specific variant was spotted where the text stated that there was a local emergency in Fairfax County.
• The VDS-830 was only able to generate scrolling text, and therefore would only generate a red, green, or yellow scroll with alert details. Stations could also configure the VDS 840 into a scroll-only mode as well.
• The MHz SubAlert was able to mimic the font of the EASyPLUS, likely because both used the same CG graphics processor.

Technique: CG effects generated by the VDS 800 series, mainly the VDS 840 and VDS 830. Some also used the MHz SubAlert, which was the same CG but with a different graphics package.

Audio: SAME tones, followed by the EBS alert tone, then the audio message, then the EOM tones. For Local Access Alerts, only the audio message would play. The tones were often distorted somewhat.

Audio Variants:

• For the Tune To screen, it was either silent, the EBS Attention Signal, or a live voice reading "The Emergency Alert System has been activated. Please tune to channel (x) for more details".

Availability: Once prevalent during the early 2000s and late 90s, the CG and EAS encoder system was discontinued by 2008, as Video Data Systems was bought by KeyWest Technologies. By this time, most cable providers switched to alternate encoders, like the DASDEC or EASyPLUS. By 2012, only a few local stations were using the system, and as of 2024, only WVCY-TV uses the VDS 840. It is hard to find a VDS 840 or VDS 830 CG nowadays.