Digital Alert Systems Offers Translation for Emergency Alerts
Digital Alert Systems has introduced the DASDEC OmniLingual Alert Module software, which provides translation for the company's text and text-to-speech (TTS) DASDEC emergency messaging platform in a wide variety of languages.
The OmniLingual Alert Module allows broadcasters to transmit EAS alerts in multiple languages or automatically add non-English alerts as post-alert audio to serve audiences with limited English proficiency.
The DASDEC OmniLingual Alert Module currently provides support for Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Italian, Polish, and Lithuanian, among other languages. The module not only supports multilingual alert messages that are received by the DASDEC system but also provides a dedicated translation software package that incorporates both text and TTS translation.
"We understand that many broadcasters serve diverse communities, including audiences with limited English proficiency," said Ed Czarnecki, senior director of strategy and global government affairs at Digital Alert Systems, in a statement. "The DASDEC OmniLingual Alert Module was designed as a tool to assist broadcasters in reaching communities with critical emergency information in their native languages and to do so on a completely voluntary basis. The language translation function in our module is truly unique among emergency alert solutions."
The following are just some of the OmniLingual Alert Module's functions:
- Enables broadcasters to select languages for emergency alerts;
- Handles and automatically translates EAS alerts into user-selected languages;
- Translates English-only weather alerts from the National Weather Service into additional languages;
- Translates both conventional broadcast EAS as well as CAP EAS;
- Allows broadcasters to select their primary language for the standard EAS message and additional languages for a post-audio alert after the standard EAS message concludes;
- Enables both short EAS text translation as well as full multilingual CAP message support.
The OmniLingual Alert Module is currently being used in a major pilot program to provide automated alert translation into Hmong, Somali, and Spanish, and it will be available as an option in the upcoming DASDEC V3.0 software release.