Madison, WI - Oct 27, 2010 - At the Oct. 26 meeting of the Society of Broadcast Engineers board of directors, the SBE board reaffirmed the Society's focus in its role with the Emergency Alert System to educate and inform its members, as well as serve as a technical resource to the broadcast industry regarding EAS.

Also at the meeting, the board created a new committee to carry out this mission. Called the SBE EAS Education Committee, SBE President Vinny Lopez, CEV CBNT, appointed Ralph Beaver, CBT, to chair this committee. Beaver's involvement with EAS began with his work in broadcast emergency alerting in the state of Florida in 1973 and includes his recent leadership of the SBE's former EAS Committee.

"EAS is about to undergo significant changes with the adoption of the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) and SBE members seek information about how to implement these changes and remain compliant with FCC rules," said President Lopez. "The SBE is in a unique position to gather and deliver this information through the work of this new committee. The SBE continues to serve as technical resource to the broadcast industry."

The SBE discussion e-mail list, called the EAS Exchange, continues to be an active resource of EAS information for SBE members and non-members alike.