Press > Press Releases 2008
01.12.2008

Warning Module Replaces the Conventional Siren


Valabre, December 1, 2008. At a conference jointly organized by the European Commission and the PSC Europe Forum in Valabre, France, e*Message premiered its new public-warning module. Called the e*WM (for e*Warnmodul), the new module can be integrated in all kinds of user devices to make them personal sirens that work anywhere, any time.
 
Public warning in case of disasters was the theme of an international conference held in Valabre, France, on December 1 and 2, 2008. More than one hundred security experts from twenty countries participated in the event organized in cooperation with the European Commission.
e*Message made the first public presentation of its prototype public-warning module on this occasion. The economical, energy-saving e*WM is designed to make practically any electronic device into a smart siren. Depending on the type of host device, the warning information can be presented acoustically or on a display, or even transferred to another device for further processing.

Independent of Unreliable Telephone Networks and Power Grids

The new e*WM needs no SIM and is independent of unreliable telephone networks. Moreover, it is many times more precise and versatile in use than conventional sirens in stand-alone operation. It is mass-producible for a tenth of the cost of GSM modules, and its performance considerably exceeds that of the DCF77 warning device under consideration in Germany. The e*WM implements the technical warning standard TS 102 180 recently defined by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI).
As early as 2009, smoke alarms could integrate the e*WM technology and emit appropriate warnings depending on the message contents. Furthermore, the warning module could be integrated in the millions of personal weather stations that are already in use and receive weather forecast information over the independent e*Message paging network. Sirens could be more simply addressed in the same way, as is already being done in parts of Schleswig-Holstein.

e*WM Provides the Necessary Wake-up Effect

The e*WM can even be used to warn the public in specific areas, down to the street and house number, without any prior definition of warning regions, and with high independence of power mains. The new technology is suitable for warning the public specifically, 24 hours a day. Various studies performed in recent years underscored in particular the importance of nighttime warning: the new e*WM provides the necessary wake-up effect.