SCTE 162 standardizes metadata elements describing emergency alert events to devices in a home network, for applications involving the delivery of Commercial Video Services into the home network. Commercial Video Services are sources of audio/video content provided as live or on-demand streams from a particular service provider. Other standards define emergency alert signaling for digital cable receiving devices (ANSI J-STD-042-A [2]) and for IPTV terminal devices (ATIS-0800012 [1]). Receiving devices in the home with access to Commercial Video Services may wish to place such content on a home network. SCTE 162 defines a metadata format usable by these receiving devices to notify client devices in the home network of emergency alert information including text, audio, and specific details about the alert (such as originator and event code, severity, etc.). Some types of alerts are urgent enough that they trigger client devices to immediately switch to another channel offered by that service provider which is a source of live audio/video describing details of the alert (the “Details Channel”). The metadata format described here provides a pointer to the Details Channel for such cases. When outputting live programming on a channel defined in the schema as an “Exception Channel,” client devices remain tuned to that channel to receive details of the alert.
ANSI/SCTE 162 2019