[SatNews] OmniBus Systems, in partnership with Trilithic Inc., has added fully integrated support for the U.S. Emergency Alert System (EAS) to the industry-leading iTX automation and transmission platform.

iTX software can now automate the airing of all national, state and county-level alerts received by the Trilithic EASyCAST™ Emergency Alert Solution. When an EAS alert arrives, the iTX operator is notified by a flashing signal on the iTX desktop. After reviewing the alert details, the operator can immediately invoke an on-air event sequence generated automatically by iTX, including the specific text message and audio tones delivered by EASyCAST. A unique capability of iTX allows the current on-air schedule to be placed on "hold" or to continue in a "roll-under" mode while the alert sequence airs. This provides the broadcaster with a choice of continuing the on-air schedule from the point of interruption, or joining-in-progress to maintain schedule timing. iTX integration with EASyCAST can be used in both single-site and distributed operations, such as multi-station hub-spoke deployments. In the distributed model, EASyCAST devices can be located at each spoke to receive local EAS broadcasts and relay them via wide-area network to an iTX transmission system at the hub for airing.