The Alert Ready system took over every TV, radio, and compatible moble phone in Manitoba yesterday to broadcast a test of their system. Good news: it worked like a charm.
Kurt Eby is the Director of Regulatory Government and Affiliate Relations with Pelmorex. They're the company that runs and manages the National Alert Aggregation and Dissemination System, which is the tech responsible for taking over every broadcast during alerts. He said tests like the one on Wednesday in Manitoba are one of the many ways they make sure they're always ready.
"Public tests have a number of objectives and purposes...at the starting end, the emergency management officials like the ones in Manitoba, it gives them an opportunity to login and issue a live test, that's important in particular if they haven't done one in a while, depending on what type of situations may have been happening in the province...it tests our system, and then it tests the technology of all the distributors on the other end just to make sure that what they have in place to distribute the alerts to the proper geographic areas is working, and everything like that," said Eby.
The benefits don't just lie with Pelmorex and governments who would need to issue alerts. Eby said one of the most important groups that benefits is the general public. He said it's gotten to the point where they get more messages and complaints if people don't receive the alert.
"It lets people become familiar or maintain familiarity with what the alert looks like and sounds like, and we know it's very jarring, intentionally so," said Eby.
Behind the scenes, the tests look a lot different than you'd expect. Eby said it relies on a lot of phone calls, and put an even bigger emphasis on good communciation.
"We open a phone bridge with out counterparts for every test, and we're on to make sure that [the alert] is getting out, they'll say we got it, we got it, we got it, and it's gone, it's gone, it's gone, and so just to do that all live," said Eby.
The National Alert Ready System usually holds live public tests like this twice a year, once in May and once in November.
