273 Branchport Avenue
Long Branch, NJ 07740
Phone: (800) 631-2148
Fax: (732) 222-8707
www.coopernotification.com
News Release
Contact:
Marla Moran
(941) 487-2318
marla.moran@cooperindustries.com
Cooper Notification Now Offers Connectivity to the Federal Emergency
Management Agency’s Commercial Mobile Alert System and Next
Generation Emergency Alert System
LONG BRANCH, N.J., June 11, 2013 – Cooper Notification, a leading supplier of Life Safety and Mass
Notification System (MNS) solutions, announced today that its customers now have the ability to send
alerts directly from their Roam Secure Alert NetworkTM (RSANTM) to the Federal Emergency
Management Agency’s (FEMA) Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS) and next generation
Emergency Alert System (EAS). CMAS, part of FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System
(IPAWS), is the government’s latest development to communicate to the public in an emergency by
sending specially formatted text messages to all devices capable of receiving the alert in a specified
geographic area.
Using modern day technology, CMAS can send Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA), short alert messages
to mobile devices, even devices owned by individuals who have not signed up to receive alerts. The
WEA are distributed through cell towers for regional geo-targeted alerts. CMAS can send three types of
alerts: presidential, Amber Alerts and notifications of imminent life-threating situations. Alerts can be
sent by the president, state or local emergency managers, or the National Weather Service.
State and local emergency managers, who have been approved by FEMA and their state, can now send
imminent threat alerts from RSAN to CMAS. Once the alert is created, RSAN sends it via Common
Alerting Protocol (CAP) to the IPAWS-OPEN aggregator, the federal gatekeeper for messages created
by FEMA and the FCC. FEMA reviews the incoming message based on three criteria. The message
must be urgent, severe, and certain. If the alert meets these requirements and the agency has been
trained and approved, the message is then sent to targeted cell towers in a specific geographic area. All
devices that are registered on the towers and capable of receiving the message are then alerted. EAS
broadcasts that are sent over TV and radio channels can also be activated from Cooper Notification’s
IPAWS compliant platform. In addition, RSAN allows customers to check the status of messages that
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they sent to FEMA and to retrieve CMAS and EAS messages from their region’s Collaborative Operating
Group (COG), which can be distributed to their recipients.
“The ability to connect to IPAWS allows our authorized customers to reach the public at their current
location, not just where they live,” said Scott Hearn, President, Cooper Notification. “For example, Benton
County, Arkansas Office of Emergency Communications and the District of Columbia Homeland Security
& Emergency Management Agency will be able to communicate to business travelers and tourists who
are in their area temporarily. IPAWS won’t replace other notification systems, but it will complement
other systems like RSAN allowing end users to have as many channels as possible to communicate in a
crisis.”
Cooper Notification: Delivering Critical Alerts when it Matters Most
Cooper Notification, the industry’s most comprehensive, multi-layered Mass Notification System (MNS)
supplier provides critical, emergency communications for communities and facilities worldwide. With 500
MNS systems around the globe, installations include U.S. military sites; major metropolitan areas such
as Washington, DC, Philadelphia and Houston; state and federal agencies; university and college
campuses; airports; and hospitals. Integrated with one simple-to-use interface, Cooper Notification’s
reliable and effective MNS solutions allow emergency officials to send event-specific instructions to
multiple communication channels, including voice-sirens, indoor and outdoor speakers, digital signage,
text messaging/SMS alerting, automated dialing systems, desktop alerts and email notifications. These
systems play an important role in emergency alerting and information sharing among government
leadership, first responders, critical infrastructure providers, businesses and citizens.
Editor’s Note: For additional information, contact Mike Petrasek at (412) 394-6611 or
michael.petrasek@bm.com.
Cooper Notification is a unit of Cooper Safety, part of the electrical business of Eaton. Eaton acquired
Cooper Industries, plc in late 2012. Cooper Notification is a leading source for notification solutions
supporting fire, security, hazardous area, mass notification, voice evacuation and industrial signaling
applications. For more information, visit the web site at www.coopernotification.com. For information
about Eaton, visit www.eaton.com.
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