Back In Time To The 1980s: This Is An Emergency Alert

In this era of students incessantly text messaging on the latest handheld devices, it's not often that a solution provider seeks to advance the cause of campus safety by tapping into a relatively 1980s-era standard of communications. But that's exactly what Jackson, Miss.-based Global Security Systems is doing with its Alert FM solution.

Taking advantage of the Warning, Alert and Response Network (WARN) Act passed by Congress in response to communications failures during Hurricane Katrina and other disasters, Alert FM allows the nation's wireless carriers to dispatch emergency alerts over public and commercial radio stations on the FM dial. The congressional act paved the way for such a solution, as it called for a vastly improved, nationwide emergency broadcast system. Global Security Solutions is marketing its product to college campuses now, and Fairfax, Va.-based George Mason University recently signed on to Alert FM as part of its campuswide emergency communications package.

With Alert FM, information is broadcast over the data subcarrier of existing FM stations, allowing delivery over the radio within a minute. The actual Alert FM receiver can be a fixed unit, just like a radio, or a USB-attached unit that plugs into a computer. The emergency information can be delivered campuswide or filtered to specific recipients, like campus police or the college president and his or her support team. Starting price is $15,000.

"There has been demand for emergency-notification systems of all kinds in the last 10 years," said Robert Adams, CEO of Global Security Systems. "Some institutions are buying these systems for the first time, and the demand for our FM radio-based solution is getting the attention of institutions due to its speed and pricing structure."