Cooper Notification announces new feature for Roam Secure Alert NetworkTM
LONG BRANCH, N.J., June 11, 2013 – Cooper Notification, a leading supplier of Life Safety and Mass Notification System (MNS) solutions, announced today that its customers now have the ability to send alerts directly from their Roam Secure Alert NetworkTM (RSANTM) to the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS) and next generation Emergency Alert System (EAS). CMAS, part of FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS), is the government’s latest development to communicate to the public in an emergency by sending specially formatted text messages to all devices capable of receiving the alert in a specified geographic area.
Using modern day technology, CMAS can send Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA), short alert messages to mobile devices, even devices owned by individuals who have not signed up to receive alerts. The WEA are distributed through cell towers for regional geo-targeted alerts. CMAS can send three types of alerts: presidential, Amber Alerts and notifications of imminent life-threating situations. Alerts can be sent by the president, state or local emergency managers, or the National Weather Service.
State and local emergency managers, who have been approved by FEMA and their state, can now send imminent threat alerts from RSAN to CMAS. Once the alert is created, RSAN sends it via Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) to the IPAWS-OPEN aggregator, the federal gatekeeper for messages created by FEMA and the FCC. FEMA reviews the incoming message based on three criteria. The message must be urgent, severe, and certain. If the alert meets these requirements and the agency has been trained and approved, the message is then sent to targeted cell towers in a specific geographic area. All devices that are registered on the towers and capable of receiving the message are then alerted. EAS broadcasts that are sent over TV and radio channels can also be activated from Cooper Notification’s IPAWS compliant platform. In addition, RSAN allows customers to check the status of messages that they sent to FEMA and to retrieve CMAS and EAS messages from their region’s Collaborative Operating Group (COG), which can be distributed to their recipients.
“The ability to connect to IPAWS allows our authorized customers to reach the public at their current location, not just where they live,” said Scott Hearn, President, Cooper Notification. “For example, Benton County, Arkansas Office of Emergency Communications and the District of Columbia Homeland Security & Emergency Management Agency will be able to communicate to business travelers and tourists who are in their area temporarily. IPAWS won’t replace other notification systems, but it will complement other systems like RSAN allowing end users to have as many channels as possible to communicate in a crisis.”
Cooper Notification: Delivering Critical Alerts when it Matters Most
Cooper Notification, the industry’s most comprehensive, multi-layered Mass Notification System (MNS) supplier provides critical, emergency communications for communities and facilities worldwide. With 500 MNS systems around the globe, installations include U.S. military sites; major metropolitan areas such as Washington, DC, Philadelphia and Houston; state and federal agencies; university and college campuses; airports; and hospitals. Integrated with one simple-to-use interface, Cooper Notification’s reliable and effective MNS solutions allow emergency officials to send event-specific instructions to multiple communication channels, including voice-sirens, indoor and outdoor speakers, digital signage, text messaging/SMS alerting, automated dialing systems, desktop alerts and email notifications. These systems play an important role in emergency alerting and information sharing among government leadership, first responders, critical infrastructure providers, businesses and citizens.
