The Digital Emergency Alert System (DEAS) was a system managed by the
Federal Emergency Management Agency
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), initially created under President Jimmy Carter by Presidential Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1978 and implemented by two Exec ...
(FEMA) and designed to alert first-responders and civilians in the event of a national emergency. It was based upon and supplemented the
Emergency Alert System
The Emergency Alert System (EAS) is a Emergency population warning, national warning system in the United States designed to allow authorized officials to broadcast emergency alerts and warning messages to the public via Cable television, cable ...
(EAS) by sending out text, voice, video, and other digital messages to mobile phones, pagers, radios, and televisions.
Although the Emergency Alert System and its predecessor, the
Emergency Broadcast System
The Emergency Broadcast System (EBS), sometimes called the Emergency Action Notification System (EANS), was an Emergency population warning, emergency warning system used in the United States. It was the most commonly used, along with the Local ...
and an even earlier predecessor
CONELRAD
CONELRAD (''Control of Electromagnetic Radiation'') was a method of emergency broadcasting to the public of the United States in the event of enemy attack during the Cold War. It was intended to allow continuous broadcast of civil defense informa ...
, have always allowed the transmission of both video and audio, there have been limitations that would be eliminated by the DEAS. For example, the DEAS allowed the ability to broadcast "bottomless" audio messages (i.e. a message with no definite ending) and streaming video. It also allowed near-instantaneous transmission without the delays that occur as EAS alerts trickle through the system.
History
In 2004,
Las Vegas
Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...
'
PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...
member station,
KLVX
KLVX (channel 10), branded Vegas PBS, is a PBS member television station in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. It is the flagship outlet of the KLVX Communications Group, a subsidiary of the Clark County School District. KLVX's studios are loca ...
, was the first station in the United States to demonstrate what digital television has to offer in times of emergency.
In 2010, the DEAS project was terminated in favor of FEMA's IPAWS Open Platform for Emergency Networks (OPEN). IPAWS OPEN is a set of securely hosted Web services that enable the routing of standards-compliant emergency messages between disparate third-party applications, systems, networks and devices. As stated by FEMA, reasons for terminating DEAS included concerns over the stability and reliability of some of the underlying products, and the proprietary nature of many of the systems used within DEAS.
However, responding to a mandate included in the WARN act, FEMA continues to utilize a variant of the DEAS architecture for
Wireless Emergency Alerts
Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA), formerly known as the Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS) and, prior to that, as the Personal Localized Alerting Network (PLAN), is an alerting network in the United States designed to disseminate emergency a ...
, also known as the Personal Localized Alerting Network (PLAN). In 2007 and 2008, the
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains j ...
proposed and adopted the network structure, operational procedures and technical requirements for the
Personal Localized Alerting Network (PLAN) system.
[{{cite news , last=Wyatt , first=Edward , title=Emergency Alert System Expected for Cellphones , url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/10/us/10safety.html , access-date=2011-05-26 , newspaper=]The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
, date=2011-05-09 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110515095230/http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/10/us/10safety.html?_r=2 , archive-date=2011-05-15 , url-status=dead
See also
*
Personal Localized Alerting Network
*
Common Alerting Protocol
The Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) is an XML-based data format for exchanging public warnings and emergencies between alerting technologies. CAP allows a warning message to be consistently disseminated simultaneously over many warning systems to m ...
*
Commercial Mobile Alert System
Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA), formerly known as the Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS) and, prior to that, as the Personal Localized Alerting Network (PLAN), is an alerting network in the United States designed to disseminate emergency a ...
References
External links
Government Video article on DEAS
Emergency Alert System
Disaster preparedness