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Smarter Ways to Improve Emergency Alerts

Posted: 18 Apr 2022 07:39 AM PDT https://www.radioworld.com/columns-and-views/guest-commentaries/smarter-ways-to-improve-emergency-alerts


Radio World’s “Guest Commentaries” section provides a platform for industry
thought leaders and other readers to share their perspective on radio news, technological trends and more. If you’d like to contribute a commentary, or reply to an already published piece, send a submission to radioworld@futurenet.com.


Groups representing deaf and hard-of-hearing people have asked the FCC to mandate that emergency alerts appear on wireless devices. They also
recommended that streaming services like Netflix and Hulu carry them as
well. The groups were commenting in an FCC’s inquiry into how to improve emergency alerting.
Dan Gunter is the owner and broadcast engineer of Alabama Broadcast
Services. In this guest commentary, he shares his thoughts in reply to the article “Disability Groups: Streamers Should Carry Emergency Alerts.” 

I speak from a combination of perspectives: I am a broadcast engineer, I am
a “cord-cutter” and I am classified as disabled, with a condition that most of the time severely limits my mobility and, in turn, my ability to work
and realize income that I could if I didn’t suffer from a physically disabling condition.
Dan Gunter, owner and broadcast engineer of Alabama Broadcast Services and author of this guest commentary

Like many others who subscribe to streaming services, I watch little “over the air” television. When I do tune to any of the relatively local
television stations, it is usually via streaming service using cellular or satellite-based internet streaming service, and that is rarely; when I do, their EAS alerts are usually included in and available via their online streams.

As for radio, I listen to local stations both at home and on the road. I
have SiriusXM service but primarily listen to over-the-air FM and AM
stations when traveling, so I have their EAS alerts available over the air. 

If I am aware of any potential severe weather nearby, I make it a point to
stay “weather-aware” and listen to local over-the-air, broadcast media outlets.

Issues of concern

The technical logistics that would be required for streaming-based services
to make EAS alerts available to subscribers — regardless of what virtual channel, network, application, etc. they might be tuned to — would require
a lot of technical “rebuilding” and financial investment on the service providers’ end. 

It also could necessitate redesign of many of the physical devices and
software from all the vendors involved in building their networks and
services.

First, they would need a way of knowing each subscriber’s location at any moment. That would be “guesswork” much of the time, since cell- and satellite-based internet service is likely to erroneously pinpoint a subscriber’s geographic location (based on their assigned IP address); it could be one or more states away from their actual location. 

Most subscribers to YouTubeTV, as an example, have had to deal with the headache where YouTubeTV asks the subscriber — who is tuning in from their home, which has not jumped up and relocated itself to another location — whether they are “just visiting” or whether they have moved. The service continues to warn the subscriber that their local affiliates are not
available at the time because they are out of their home market. 

This occurs because their ISP has dynamically changed their IP address or
for some other reason the location of their IP address now appears to
YouTubeTV be in a different location, often far from their stationary home.

One can only imagine the havoc such errors in IP address location could
cause: A subscriber whose IP address appears to be in a different state
would likely end up getting misleading or irrelevant severe weather alerts, Amber alerts, etc., potentially causing confusion or unnecessary panic and stress.

Wiser approach

A better solution is to continue expanding and improving the geographically targeted Wireless Emergency Alerts system incorporated into all modern cell phones.

Also, more investment should be made in improving the number and quality of NOAA Weather Radio transmitters across the United States. 

While the vast majority of people are within range of a NOAA Weather Radio transmitter with ample signal strength to provide reliable signals to inexpensive NOAA Weather/All-Hazards type radios, expanding the network for higher density coverage would be a good investment. 

Follow that up with improvements in that network such that all types of
alerts (severe weather, Amber, local law enforcement, national or
presidential, etc.) are included and geographically targeted for the
applicable NOAA transmitters. The system would be even better — and I
contend it is already light years better than anything we had just a few decades ago.

[Read More Guest Commentaries Here]

I suspect that the majority of disabled (including income-limited) persons
own a working cell phone, thanks in part to government programs that help
make them affordable (if not free) to low-income individuals.

As for NOAA Weather Radio/All-Hazards alert receiver radios, these have
long been available at a one-time investment of $50, often much less when retailers offer promotions. 

Being an avid weather enthusiast, SkyWarn area coordinator and former
public safety professional, I am adamant that NO home, place of business, school, church or any place where people are present should be without at
least one of these inexpensive, potentially life-saving radios. 

I keep at least two at separate locations in my home so that we can hear an alert anywhere in our residence at any time. 

If I can afford some sort of internet service plus subscriptions to
Netflix, YouTubeTV, Hulu and other streaming services along with cell
service, I should be able to justify spending $49 or less for a good NOAA Weather receiver/radio that requires no ongoing subscription fees, and only
the cost of keeping fresh batteries in it to cover power outages.

Mandating that streaming services be forced to work with all the other
players in the EAS system to devise an entirely new and complex system for including EAS alerts would be far more expensive to develop and deploy, and extremely less reliable in terms of “geographic targeting” and accuracy for subscribers.

On the flip side of this record, the best solution in terms of public
safety and reliability would consist of ongoing (if not greatly increased) investment in further expanding the existing cell-based, WEA and NOAA transmitter coverage and alert inclusion. 

Personal investment

We broadcast engineers are well aware of the significant advancements and improvements that have been made in EAS alerting, which radio and
television stations have had no choice but to invest in and implement over
just the past couple of years. We play an ongoing role in assisting to help stations stay legally compliant and support public safety and service.

Forcing streaming services to include EAS alerts could cost billions of government dollars promulgating new rules and legislation and funding the
FCC and other agencies to make sweeping technological changes.

A more reliable and better improvement in public safety would be for the government to spend the money to make a free, good NOAA Weather receiver available to every household in the U.S.

We engineers can’t help putting a lot of thought into such matters; we also like to know that we ourselves can count on receiving alerts when we might
be affected by weather or other hazardous situations. That’s all the more incentive for us to work hard in assisting clients in making sure their EAS equipment is reliable and functioning so that it will do its job if and
when an alert is issued.

The post Smarter Ways to Improve Emergency Alerts appeared first on Radio World.


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Lets Talk About Mono

Posted: 17 Apr 2022 04:00 AM PDT https://www.radioworld.com/columns-and-views/guest-commentaries/lets-talk-about-mono


Radio World’s “Guest Commentaries” section provides a platform for industry
thought leaders and other readers to share their perspective on radio news, technological trends and more. If you’d like to contribute a commentary, or reply to an already published piece, send a submission to radioworld@futurenet.com.


The advent of Talk FM stations has caused me to question: Why are they broadcasting or streaming in stereo? Many FM stations and streamers have monaural programming. This includes most talk and sports formats (yes, some sports are done in stereo or immersive, but lets not talk about that). The prime goal is to send strong audio programing out with the least interference.  

Many FM broadcasters are sending the programming out on both the left and
the right channel, plus lighting the FM pilot. Why? They can send the audio
out as mono and not have the penalties of L – R. Reception in the Grade B contour would be improved. Nothing would change RF wise, but you would have
a stronger signal. You have half the audio chain to deal with! No phase
issues!

Streaming is also an issue. The other day while listening to mono
programming, the streamer went to a local ad that was obviously in stereo,
but out of phase. Why will a mono stream want the commercials to be in
stereo? You do not want the ads sounding more inviting than the
programming. The stream will require half the infrastructure.

My friend Robert Orban says: “Streaming mono instead of stereo eliminates
the bitstream overhead required to encode stereo. For a given bitrate, mono therefore provides higher subjective quality with fewer audible codec artifacts.”

Controlling the audio is more simple with mono as well.  You have half the controls to deal with.  No phase issues, no balance issues either.

[Read More Guest Commentaries Here]

For over the air broadcasts, there is no benefit to lighting the stereo
light anymore. With FM talk becoming more prevalent, a strong signal
matters. We are no longer spinning the tuning wheel and stopping when the stereo beacon lights or at the loudest thing on the dial. Guess what, a
good clean mono audio signal will sound louder than a stereo signal.

By eliminating the stereo signal which is AM modulation, the pure FM signal will generally be receivable cleanly over about 1/4 more area.  Note — it’s
not turning off the pilot that makes the difference, it is getting rid of
the stereo difference signal. The 19kHz pilot is just to notify the
receiver to look for the difference signal and turn on the stereo decoder inside the radio.

Many of us have used a 19 kHz audio signal generator to turn on the stereo light when we had to pull out a stereo generator for repair. Yes, this
turns on the light and sends the same mono audio to both the left and right channels.  This can also introduce noise. Is there still a need for the
stereo bacon to be lit? Does the audience even know it is there anymore?
Talk radio should not be stereo.  A human only has one desirable audio
output — the mouth. True mono will sound great for talk radio and improve your coverage, what better argument do you need.


David Bialik is a consultant; co-chair of the AES Technical Committee for Broadcast and Online Delivery; and chair of the Metadata Usage Working
Group at the NRSC. He is former director of stream operations for CBS Radio
and Entercom. His commentaries appear regularly at Radio World.

The post Let’s Talk About Mono appeared first on Radio World.

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