Never again - Emergency Alert System (EAS)
Ibwalkn
Enthusiast - Level 2
My daughter was watching TV last night and FIOS interrupted programming with some Emergency Alert System message that was painfully loud and temporarily damaged her hearing. We could not disable it when it happened. If this ever happens again, we're through with FIOS TV.

I can't believe that anyone would do this not knowing the potential damage it can incur.


Re: Never again - Emergency Alert System (EAS)
KenAF
Specialist - Level 2

@Ibwalkn wrote:
My daughter was watching TV last night and FIOS interrupted programming with some Emergency Alert System message that was painfully loud and temporarily damaged her hearing. We could not disable it when it happened. If this ever happens again, we're through with FIOS TV.

I can't believe that anyone would do this not knowing the potential damage it can incur.

Why not mute or reduce the volume on the TV?

All providers are required to passthrough EAS messages.  Providers are not permitted to provide the customer a means to hide or disable EAS messages.

Now, obviously a EAS message should not be loud enough to damage your hearing.  That sounds like a bug in the software.

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Re: Never again - Emergency Alert System (EAS)
Ibwalkn
Enthusiast - Level 2

It was painfully loud and unexpected.  By the time my daughter could reach the remote to turndown the sound, it had alreay gone off a few times.  The volume level was dramatically higher than normal programming.  No, it is not required to interrupt all programming for some missing child message.  Even so, they could have put it on the bottom of the screen similar to weather warnings.  Certainly they shouldn't have interrupted virtually all programming and recording for several minutes.

This was a bad decision implemented poorly.

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Re: Never again - Emergency Alert System (EAS)
SQUIDWARD360
Enthusiast - Level 2
I think most people have a concern for a missing child.  {please keep your posts courteous} 
Message Edited by KaLin on 02-07-2009 08:56 PM
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Re: Never again - Emergency Alert System (EAS)
Ibwalkn
Enthusiast - Level 2

{please keep it relevant}  My child was affected and I never volunteered for receiving messages from an unproven program forced down my throat by a provider that never asked for my permission.

Verizon was wrong and responsible for this action.  I sure hope that their strange method of entering numbers in the sys info menu actually do something and make the messages go away.

Message Edited by KaLin on 02-08-2009 03:03 AM
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Re: Never again - Emergency Alert System (EAS)
prisaz
Legend

@Ibwalkn wrote:

{please keep it relevant}  My child was affected and I never volunteered for receiving messages from an unproven program forced down my throat by a provider that never asked for my permission.

Verizon was wrong and responsible for this action.  I sure hope that their strange method of entering numbers in the sys info menu actually do something and make the messages go away.

Message Edited by KaLin on 02-08-2009 03:03 AM

It is manaded by law for Verizon to provide service anouncments from the emergency system. If it was a missing child announcement, I would hope they do the same for my child.  I agree with you on the fact it should come though at the same volume level, and I am sorry for the issues it has caused you. I guess it would be good if Verizon could implement a volume limiting feature on the government feed. Would be good if they could also levelize the comercial feeds also. I hate when the stupid buy me things come up so loud you can hear them in the kitchen. Was your daughter wearing headphones?
Message Edited by prisaz on 02-08-2009 08:29 AM
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Re: Never again - Emergency Alert System (EAS)
Ibwalkn
Enthusiast - Level 2

Yes, my daughter was wearing headphones and it did damage her hearing.  If the missing child messages are required by law (I've never heard that they are.  I do understand that real community emergency messages are required such as weather alerts, etc), maybe they can:

1) keep the volume level at a similar level to the regular broadcast

2) scroll a message across the bottom of the screen as I've seen everywhere else.

They not only damaged my daughter's hearing but the also interrupted the programming we were watching where we lost several minutes of the show and the recording had to be manually restarted.

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Re: Never again - Emergency Alert System (EAS)
prisaz
Legend

@Ibwalkn wrote:

Yes, my daughter was wearing headphones and it did damage her hearing.  If the missing child messages are required by law (I've never heard that they are.  I do understand that real community emergency messages are required such as weather alerts, etc), maybe they can:

1) keep the volume level at a similar level to the regular broadcast

2) scroll a message across the bottom of the screen as I've seen everywhere else.

They not only damaged my daughter's hearing but the also interrupted the programming we were watching where we lost several minutes of the show and the recording had to be manually restarted.


Look here

http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/eas.html

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Re: Never again - Emergency Alert System (EAS)
Justin46
Legend

ibwalkn,

First, I am sorry your daughter's hearing was damaged, I hope it really is or was temporary. Having said that, however:

a) It is required by law to broadcast those alerts, as you have already been informed about and provided with a reference.

b) I think the alert really has to be louder than the normal programming to get the viewer's attention (but obviously not so loud as to damage someone's hearing).

c) I think it also disrupts your viewing to get your attention, just like the sound volume. I don't think there is a program being broacast that you cannot afford to miss a minute or two of. Now, as to having to restart the recording, I agree, that really should not be required. As far as I can tell, the FiOS DVRs record programs based on the program info provided in the Guide; I am guessing that perhaps the emergency broadcast temporarily causes the DVR to lose the program info, and thus it stops recording. That would seem to me to be something Verizon could fix, if that is in fact the reason it stops recording. 

d) Although my kids are long, long gone from our house, I fully support the current implementation. It is a good thing, and only a minor irritant, and pretty rare at that.

I don't know how old your daughter is, but if it were her that was missing, I suspect you would have a different outlook on this (again, except for the hearing damage).

There are certainly some problems with FiOS, but this is not one of them, IMO.

__________________________________
Justin
Verizon FiOS TV, Internet, and phone
IMG 1.6.0, Build 06.89
Keller, TX 76248

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Re: Never again - Emergency Alert System (EAS)
DMZ
Newbie
What pisses me off about these random Emergency Broadcast tests is that Verizon has the propensity to occasionally do them during prime time instead of only in the middle of the night.  I too have had recordings interrupted because of this.  VERY ANNOYING !!
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