Action on ATSC 3.0 Alerting Needed to Prevent Future Mandate: Lawson

News directors and “broadcasters on the sidelines” need to get involved now in ATSC 3.0-enhanced emergency alerts to prevent a government mandate, John Lawson, executive director of the Advanced Warning and Response Network Alliance, said on a webinar Tuesday hosted by Sinclair's One Media. That way, “even if someday the federal government steps in, at least it’ll be our idea,” Lawson said, comparing the possible future of advanced emergency information (AEI) to what happened with wireless emergency alerts. WEA rules have been “a long struggle” between industry and the government, and broadcasters need “a voluntary system,” Lawson said. He advocated for agreements between broadcasters and their local emergency managers to discuss the production and use of the more fulsome emergency information and media that could be utilized with 3.0. Recent FCC rulemakings and the Reliable Emergency Alert Distribution Improvement Act “revitalized” state emergency communications committees but not too much of the discussion is focused on older emergency information systems rather than the newer tech, Lawson said. The FCC has open proceedings on making the legacy emergency alert system more accessible and improving it (see 2112140062). Pete Sockett, Capitol Broadcasting director-engineering and operations, said there’s a great deal of misunderstanding about the difference between the EAS and the supplemental, more detailed emergency information that's the focus of discussions about AEI.