Nebraska Public Media is deploying Digital Alert Systems' DASDEC Emergency Alert System (EAS) messaging platform at all of its radio and television stations as part of its effort to implement IP infrastructure and prepare for the transition to ATSC 3.0. The organization is in the midst of installing about 20 DASDEC units to provide redundancy and regional capabilities for emergency messaging. As a result, the broadcaster will better serve the people of Nebraska during critical events.
“We’ve been redesigning our signal distribution out to all our sites, and part of that redesign was to move to an IP workflow. We’ve also got ATSC 3 on our horizon. We knew our old equipment wasn’t up to the task,” said Al Krause, network operations manager at Nebraska Public Media. “Not only are we future-proofing our system by going with all DASDECs into the future, but we’re gaining function and efficiency that we never would have had with our old gear. The plan going forward is to do more regionalization, which will enhance the precision and relevance of emergency communications across our 500-mile-wide state. I think that’s going to be easier to do with the DASDEC if for no other reason than the IP connectivity.”
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The DASDEC platform gives Nebraska Public Media more flexibility in sending alerts and targeting specific regions. In the past, the broadcaster could only trigger events across the entire state. Now, the broadcaster can not only send statewide messages, but also use DASDEC units at specific radio transmitter sites to regionalize emergency alerts. For example, if a tornado warning is issued for Chadron in the northwest corner of the state, the DASDEC at that site can broadcast the alert to a specific four- or five-county area, ensuring only affected listeners receive the warning instead of interrupting the entire state.
Besides message regionalization, the DASDEC system made it possible for Nebraska Public Media to add a satellite-redundant mode for Emergency Action Notification (EAN) coverage in the event that the IP network—the broadcaster’s primary method of alert delivery—fails. In this scenario, the DASDEC units serve as backups for delivering critical emergency alerts. DASDEC devices installed at each FM site can receive alerts via SiriusXM, a secondary source of presidential alerts and EAN messages independent of the IP network. Linking this with the DASDEC ensures continued primary alert delivery, thereby eliminating the IP network as a single point of failure.
Nebraska Public Media appreciates the DASDEC’s ease of use and many other qualities compared to its previous emergency messaging system, including internal tuners, modern audio connections, programmable GPIO, and a streamlined user interface, which makes the system much easier to program and includes a test mode to ensure the settings will perform as intended.
“I have to sing the praises of DASDEC because it’s so much more efficient and flexible. My favorite thing is the alert node simulator. I can check to make sure that the filters are set correctly and that it’s going to fire off the right message at the right time. There’s also the programmable GPIOs. Unlike our previous system, which was pretty much just open/close, with the DASDEC you can program those GPIOs to do so many different things,” said Phil Gebers, broadcast engineer at Nebraska Public Media. “I've also really liked working with the internal tuners. The less external gear you have to buy the better, and with the DASDEC, we get three tuners built right into the box. Just plug in an antenna, set the frequency, and off you go. I love that so much. No extra power supplies, no extra rack space, and no extra cabling.”
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“Nebraska Public Media’s implementation of DASDEC across its network is truly impressive,” said Bill Robertson, vice president of business development at Digital Alert Systems. “Relying on the DASDEC boxes for network redundancy and regional alerting is a great use of the system, especially in a state that has so many weather events. They've created a robust and responsive alert network on the radio side, and we expect that when the time comes, they’ll elevate the TV side in much the same way. We’re so pleased to support their continued innovation and their eventual transition to ATSC 3.0.”
In addition to the DASDEC units, Nebraska Public Media has also purchased a Digital Alert Systems HALO enterprise-level EAS device management system, which it will implement after the DASDEC rollout is complete.
