Messages with “Extreme” and “Severe” headers appear nearly full screen and cover any other content. Messages with lower levels of severity appear as text crawls along the bottom of the image. The new Kramer line of presentation switchers only requires an Ethernet connection to the appropriate campus network.
Emergency alert messages are composed and transmitted using the XML-based Common Alert Protocol (CAP) application. This allows a warning message to be consistently disseminated simultaneously over many warning systems to multiple proprietary applications and devices. These CAP alerts can include specifics about weather (hurricanes, flooding, storms, etc.), safety and security, as well as secondary functions, such as alert tones, horns, buzzers, and sirens.
The system complies with the official national warning system standard in the United States, the Emergency Alert System (EAS), which works in coordination with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and a number of U.S. national emergency agencies.