Emergency Alert System 2016- Are You Ready For The Test?

The Emergency Alert system was put into place in the United States on January 1, 1997. It is a National warning system designed to enable the President of the United States to communicate with the people of the United States within 10 minutes. The people are warned of local weather emergencies using EAS. Tests are conducted on a regular basis to determine and make sure that all the systems are in order and the country is prepared for emergencies. The most recent test is on September 28th, 2016 at 2pm.

It is mandatory that all EAS Participants have to take part in the EAS test. They need to review whatever information they have submitted in the EAS Reporting system to make sure no changes are required. In case any alterations are to be made, the last date to do this is September 26th. On the day of the test, all the EAS participants will be asked to submit an initial report regarding their experience with EAS. They need to confirm that they have received the EAS signals from the respectively assigned monitoring sources. The participants should also convince the Committee that they have responded in accordance with FCC rules.

Yet another report has to be submitted by the participants before November 14th.The Post-test reports i.e. Form three asks for information as to how the EAS Participant has performed during the test. It serves as a better platform to know if there were any complications during transmission of signals or any other aspects of the Test.In May 2016, e-cigarettes and other electronic nicotine delivery systems have been declared as tobacco products. The new guidelines prohibit advertisements of E cigarettes which target minors. Also, advertisements exhibiting health benefits of E-cigarettes have been banned. Hence all broadcasters should immediately scrutinize the content of the promotional materials and make sure that they comply with all FDA rules.

A Giant Leap In The Radio Industry, Welcome “Digital Expansion “

The UK Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, the Right Honorable John Whittingdale MP launched an exciting venture called “National Retune” initiative. This was hosted by talkSPORT presenter, Colin Murray. The program was held at an industry conference, Drive to Digital: National Now. The initiative aims at major expansion of coverage of digital radio stations for over 20 million households in the UK. They are also being given a major selection of choice. This is indeed a great significant leap in the radio industry.

The function included an official switch-on by John Whittingdale MP of the UK’s second national DAB digital radio multiplex network. Steve Holebrook, managing director of Arqiva Terrestrial Broadcast and chairman of Sound Digital, was also present during the switch on. Listeners were asked to retune their digital radios to enjoy all the services provided.
The new network will have 18 digital radio stations including the current ones. The population coverage will also be greater and more people will be able to enjoy all the services. Over 10 million people and 10,000 kilometers of roads will come into coverage by the end of the year as per reliable sources. Almost all the residents of UK have welcomed this new venture which will bring more channels for their entertainment.

Did you know that some parts of Earth still have no access to the internet?

Can you imagine a life without internet? Believe it or not, even today there exists a part of the population in the world who are unaware of or unable to access the magic network called the Internet. The other part cannot survive with accessing internet and its facilities. If you are in that part of the world that cannot pass a day or maybe a couple of hours also without internet, then consider yourself to be one of the lucky few.

According to The State of Broadband, which is a report released by The UN Broadband Commission, 57 percent of the population still has no access to the internet. This includes 90 % of the people who live in underdeveloped nations. As per this report, countries of Asia and the Middle East have the highest household broadband penetration.

Ranking

The Republic of Korea has 98.5 % of homes with internet facility. Next, comes Qatar at 98 percent followed by Saudi Arabia at 94 percent. The lowest ranking goes to Guinea, Somalia, Burundi and Eritrea where less than 2% of the population have access to the internet.

The report was so shocking to the rest of the world who enjoyed using the net as they realized that it can also be called as one of the luxuries in life. Facebook decided to collaborate with the French satellite operator Eutelsat so that they could provide broadband internet to sub-Saharan Africa. Both the companies formed a multiyear agreement with satellite communications firm Spacecom. They plan to use AMOS-6 satellite which will be useful in beaming internet connections across Sub-Saharan Africa. The entire project is to be conducted and brought into operation very soon. The satellite is expected to start functioning by the second half of 2016. So keep your fingers crossed and expect the sub-Saharan regions to come online at the onset of the New Year!