Emergency Warning Broadcast System (EWBS)

Catastrophic events around the world such as the earthquake and tsunami in Japan have highlighted the value of EWBS. The ABU Technical Committee issued a declaration in 2010 supporting the introduction of EWBS and the launch of new broadcast digital TV platforms in Asia Pacific provides the opportunity to implement EWBS on broadcast TV at low cost using industry standard technology. It is expected that other forms of EWBS will also be deployed alongside digital TV to achieve multiple alert mechanisms.

MHEG-5 offers an EWBS implementation using an established standard. The advantages of this approach are many and include MHEG’s low technology cost, no IPR license fees, and a short time to market as MHEG is already included in most manufacturers’ receiver designs. In additional the receiver conformance test for MHEG is straightforward and well understood and it is simple for broadcasters to implement using standard broadcast head-end equipment.