Mvix Adds Real-Time Alerts From FEMA Warning System

November 18, 2021 by Dave Haynes

The DC-area CMS software firm Mvix has signed an agreement with FEMA, the US agency that deals with the aftermath of things like hurricanes and floods, to tap into the government’s public alerts and warning system to auto-trigger messages to screens.

The arrangement  allows emergency information to be disseminated and instantly displayed on networks running the Mvix solution, automatically acquiring alert messages from FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System – Open Platform for Emergency Networks (known as IPAWS-OPEN).

Established by FEMA in 2006, says Mvix in its PR on the agreement, IPAWS is a national system for local alerting that provides authenticated emergency and life-saving information to the public in the preservation of life and property. IPAWS combines the Emergency Alert System (EAS), Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA), and National Weather Service Dissemination Systems.

As per certain estimates, “the US has experienced 300+ weather disasters in the last 35 years equaling more than $2 trillion in damages.” With severe weather striking US businesses with increasing frequency every year, businesses need to ensure employee safety primarily by keeping them informed.

Beyond weather alerts, IPAWS also disseminates:

• Most Wanted information;
• Alerts to parents and students at schools of potential situations;
• Amber Alerts for missing children;
• Imminent threat alerts for public safety.

Public alerts sent to IPAWS will be disseminated to the IPAWS All-Hazards Information integration, at which Mvix will fetch the alert for customers to display on digital signage. With over 18,000 clients (which include hundreds of federal, state, local, territorial, and tribal organizations) that rely on Mvix’s platform to power hundreds of screens across campuses, Mvix will now provide emergency warnings to customers in the preservation of life and property. 

Alerts will also be filtered based on geographical area, event, and other factors applicable to customers and will be disseminated for 30 minutes or until they expire.

Mvix says it will begin providing emergency alerts through digital signage to customers in the next coming weeks.

Feeds for weather emergencies and things like Amber Alerts have been around a long time. There is even a Federation of Internet Alerts. I’ve seen content aggregators and publishers like Screenfeed and Data Call Technologies develop their own services that networks can subscribe to, while some CMS companies have done integrations with things like the Common Alert Protocol. However, I’ve not seen integrations with FEMA, other than one done for digital billboards by the media company Lamar.