Draft:Emergency Alert System
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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. This system was implemented in 1997.
EASyPLUS Screen (2004-2016?)
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Visuals: On a black background, there is white text in the VCR OSD Mono font. This text is in 3 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 early 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 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?)
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Required Monthly Test
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Tornado Warning
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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 rare 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 an EAS Decoder (like the EASy PLUS decoder).
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.
Legacy: Another common screen that has inspired many mocks.
