The Mobile Emergency Alert System (M-EAS) is an information distribution system that utilizes existing digital television spectrum and towers to provide information in emergency situations using

rich media Interactive media normally refers to products and services on digital computer-based systems which respond to the user's actions by presenting content such as text, moving image, animation, video and audio. Since its early conception, variou ...

. The system can push text, web pages, and video to compatible equipment, such as mobile DTV devices.TVTechnology: WRAL-TV to Demo Mobile EAS
/ref> M-EAS is different than existing 90-character Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) available to cellphones, as it allows video, audio, photos and graphics, too. Proponents of the technology point to modern reliance on mobile communication technologies and failures of the cellular network due to overload, power outage or other emergency-related damage. M-EAS does not rely on the network of cellular towers, instead making use of existing digital television broadcast equipment. M-EAS is being standardized by the Advanced Television Systems Committee as part of ATSC-M/H, the mobile digital TV standard.

WRAL-TV WRAL-TV (channel 5) is a television station licensed to Raleigh, North Carolina, United States, serving as the NBC affiliate for the Research Triangle area. It is the flagship station of the locally based Capitol Broadcasting Company, which h ...

in Raleigh, North Carolina, was the first commercial broadcaster in the United States to demonstrate the system in 2012. A similar system in Japan is credited with saving many lives ahead of the

2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami The occurred at 14:46 JST (05:46 UTC) on 11 March. The magnitude 9.0–9.1 (M) undersea megathrust earthquake had an epicenter in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Oshika Peninsula of the Tōhoku region, and lasted approximately six m ...

.Mobile Emergency Alert System Promises Flexible New Option for Emergency Managers and First Responders : PBS
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References

{{reflist Digital television in the United States 2012 establishments in the United States 2012 introductions