The original CAP compliance deadline was March 31, 2011. In response to a petition filed by NAB and others, the FCC extended that deadline to September 30 2011. On Friday September 16, 2011, the FCC released an order further extending the deadline to June 30, 2012.

This requirement was reaffirmed in the most recent FCC EAS Report and Order (EB Docket No. 04-296) released January 10, 2012. In this Fifth Report and Order (5th R&O) the FCC further revised its Part 11 EAS rules to specify how broadcasters and other EAS Participants must be able to process CAP-formatted EAS alert messages. The R&O also formalizes the integration of EAS with FEMA's IPAWS infrastructure and detailed the requirements necessary for broadcasters to receive and process federal alert messages. In addition, the rules adopted in the 5th R&O require all broadcasters to interface with and monitor FEMA's Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) server for those federal CAP-formatted EAS messages. However, because IPAWS monitoring will be largely conducted via an Internet connection, the FCC will consider, on a case by case basis, applications for waivers from this monitoring requirement based on the physical lack of availability of broadband.

The 5th R&O also requires that effective June 30, 2012 broadcasters must use the enhanced text data in CAP-formatted message - when available - to create the visual display elements (i.e. text crawl) of an EAS alert. It further allows for the use of intermediary devices that receive and convert CAP-formatted messages into SAME format messages that would be inputted into a station's legacy EAS equipment for broadcast over the air. However, the rules require an intermediary device to meet the CAP-related obligations with respect to use of the enhanced text capability no later than June 30, 2015. The 5th R&O also shortens the duration of the EAS 2-tone attention signal to eight seconds.

The 5th R&O is available here. The order extending the CAP compliance deadline is here.

Times, They are a-Changing

Whenever the International Bureau of Weights and Measures decides that the current offset of Coordinated Universal time (UTC) is too far in error with respect to International Atomic Time (TAI), a correction is made. It has been decided that a positive leap second will be introduced at the end of June 2012.

Since A/65 contains an adjustment for the offset between the GPS time (which is kept in synch with TAI) and the UTC time, the GPS to UTC offset will need to be changed from the current 15 second value to 16 seconds. The user interface to control the setting of the GPS_UTC_offset field of the System Time Table varies by make and model of PSIP generator, so if it is not clear what to do, please contact your equipment vendor.

The sequence of dates of the UTC second markers will be:

Ideally the offset change should take place in synch with the UTC second markers, but receivers being in error by one second for a while should have no significant impact.

While most GPS receivers use the time offset in the GPS message to develop a UTC output, verification that your GPS receiver does so is recommended. Those stations not using GPS as the source for their UTC should verify that the UTC is correct after the change.

IEEE Broadcast Technology Society Issues Call for Papers