viaRadio Corporation, an emergency equipment manufacturer, announced the live activation of their Emergency Warning System in Florida’s Leon County Public Schools this week. The viaRadio receivers known as HEARO are now in the County’s 24 elementary schools, nine middle schools, six high schools, six special/alternative schools, five charter schools and various administrative offices.

By placing the HEARO receivers in schools and all district facilities, Leon County Public Schools plans to inform the schools’ administration of lock downs, weather emergencies and other pertinent information.

“Our decision to incorporate viaRadio’s HEARO alert system was based on our ability to control the outgoing messages themselves through viaRadio’s web interface,” says Robert Tricquet, Leon County Public School Coordinator for the Department of Safety, Security and Emergency Management.

viaRadio works with other school systems around the country including Florida’s Brevard County Public Schools for more than a year. Currently, schools use the systems for internal communication among employees.

viaRadio’s local alert system consists of a network of radio receivers. The radio receiver displays informational text messages in English and Spanish as well as notifies local residents in an emergency in a matter of seconds. The viaRadio receiver carries NOAA weather warnings and other public safety text alerts. Using FM radio infrastructure, the viaRadio emergency warning system works even when power, phone and Internet are out. The radios have a 60-hour battery life in case of power outages.

viaRadio Corporation provides warning systems to governments, school/university systems, emergency managers, hospitality organizations and other large organizations in the U.S. and Caribbean. The systems include user-friendly software systems designed to trigger instantaneous text alert messages to HEARO receivers. Systems in operation provide warning and post-event information for natural weather phenomena including tornado, hurricane, fire and volcanic activity. Founded in 2005, viaRadio Corporation along with its parent Germany-based 2wcom are worldwide leaders in RDS/RBDS equipment and data systems. For more information about viaRadio or the HEARO, visit www.viaradio.com.

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A new partnership between the City of Palm Bay and viaRadio, an emergency broadcast technology manufacturing company located in Melbourne, offers Palm Bay residents an opportunity to connect to an emergency radio system that will alert of impending danger much more quickly than other systems currently in place. The HEARO local alert system is a specially designed FM receiver that gets messages from a local Emergency Warning System network. Through the City’s new partnership with viaRadio, HEARO will connect with police, fire, emergency management and City officials in order to provide critical non-filtered emergency information directly to the citizens. “We really need something that we can localize within the City and notify the population of any kind of emergency situation,” said Mary Schultz, Emergency Preparedness Coordinator for the City of Palm Bay. “This product will be able to notify those residents that are at risk very quickly.”

Palm Bay is the first City in Florida using the system. The HEARO doubles as an FM clock radio, and has the ability to display long text messages in Spanish and English, and alert very loudly when emergency messages are being sent by the City. “It doesn’t matter what station you are listening to, this radio will alert whenever the City sends a message,” said Bill Marriott, President of viaRadio and designer of the system in conjunction with viaRadio’s German engineering team. “We can literally alert every single radio in the area, even if there are 100,000 or more, in about 10-seconds.” The radios can also be retrofitted to accommodate the special needs of the deaf and blind and have a battery life of 60-hours.

Beginning November 14th, citizens can purchase the radio through the City of Palm Bay Store located inside City Hall at 120 Malabar Road SE or at the following locations:

• Ace Hardware of Palm Bay, 6755 Babcock St. SE
• Ace Hardware, 160 Malabar Road SE (Palm Bay West Plaza)
• Hurricane Product Warehouse, 807 East Hibiscus, Melbourne

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The Caribbean nation of Montserrat has completed installation of a viaRadio All Hazard Alert System for alerting residents of volcanic activity. The system utilizes RDS (Radio Data System) technology to trigger alerts and pass critical text and voice information to targeted groups of receivers at homes, schools and agencies that may be at risk during an eruption.

The RDS data is broadcast by two of Radio Montserrat’s transmitters which reach the entire population of the island.

The Disaster Management Coordination Agency in Montserrat also have their own STL to Radio Montserrat so they can trigger the viaRadio receivers to display a text message and tune them to Radio Montserrat and then break into normal programming with audio information if necessary.

“This volcano can erupt suddenly with very dangerous pyroclastic flows so we need to be able to immediately warn the public anytime day or night.” said Captain Horatio Tuitt, Director of the Disaster Management Coordination Agency. “The viaRadio system can alert specific areas or the entire island in just a few seconds – even if mains power is lost”

The viaRadio System
The viaRadio system uses RDS Open Data Applications (ODA) to send encrypted text information to special receivers that then alert the user and display the message on the screen. Receivers feature rechargeable battery backup and dual tuners so they will always alert no matter which FM  station they are tuned to.

Founded in 2005, viaRadio Corporation along with its parent 2wcom are worldwide leaders in RDS/RBDS equipment and data systems. viaRadio has 20 warning systems active in 5 US states and 2 in the Caribbean.

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Brevard Public Schools’ emergency alert system functioned properly Feb. 12 while severe weather struck Brevard County.

Officials said schools received emergency notifications from the system even after NOAA weather radio experienced transmitter problems.

“Our Emergency Warning Receivers are another layer of protection for our schools, and we’re pleased that they functioned as advertised,” said Andrea E. Alford, director of BPS District and School Security, in a news release. “The tornado warning that was issued (Feb. 12) was picked up and appropriately transmitted to all of our campuses, insuring that school personnel had the information they needed to protect our students.”

Officials placed the desktop receivers in the front offices of its 85 schools, and in many district offices, last fall. The receivers alert school officials about situations that affect school safety.

- Compiled by Tony Judnich, Jenet Krol and Gretchen Sauerman

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Auglaize County is in the process of implementing a new emergency notification system.

County and City of Wapakoneta officials met this morning to learm more about the viaRadio system that will be installed throughout the county.

The system consists of a computer that will be set up at the Auglaize County EMA Office and dual-purpose receivers that function as both standard fm radios and emergency warning receivers.

WGLE 90.7 fm donated the use of its tower for the system and local civic groups donated money for the purchase of 13 receivers.

Auglaize County EMA Director Troy Anderson says viaRadio will be more efficient than the current method of calling local media to broadcast emergency warnings.

The Auglaize County EMA Office is encouraging Auglaize County residents to purchase the radio receivers for their homes.

The cost is about $100 dollars.

For more information, call the EMA office at 419-739-6725.

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