Fires, floods, power outages or other hazards: In exceptional situations, the population needs to be alerted quickly and in a straightforward manner. We ensure that people in Germany are always alerted to hazards in time.
To achieve this, we are operating a unique, fail-safe and temper-proof technical alerting infrastructure for the German Federal Office of Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance (BBK), the Modular Warning System (MoWaS).
In hazardous situations, the police, the fire brigade or public authorities can disseminate alerts through MoWaS. These are transferred to a great variety of connected alerting devices via satellite technology or terrestrial transmission. This means that the population is alerted, for example, via TV, radio, alerting apps, digital city billboards, passenger information systems or, directly through their own mobile phones, via Cell Broadcast.
The Modular Warning System is divided into three sections: triggering agents, transmission channel and alerting devices.
We transmit alerts via satellite technology and through a redundant wired connection. This makes the system fail-safe, tamper-proof and insensitive to power outages or failures of the terrestrial transmission channels.
We all remember the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, in New York. These events were the catalyst for the establishment of a nationwide population alerting system in Germany.
mecom was commissioned by the federal government to design and develop such a system. The “Satelliten-Warnsystem” – SatWaS for short – was born and already went into the first expansion stage by the end of 2001. In 2013, it was renamed “Modulares Warnsystem” or MoWaS.
Read here how MoWaS has evolved since its beginnings.
No more sirens: The nationwide siren network in Germany was dismantled after the end of the Cold War.
The terrorist attacks of September 11 are the catalyst for the conception of a population alerting system in Germany.
The German Federal Office for Civil Protection is commissioned to develop the alerting system. The core requirement is the fail-safe transmission of warning messages to the population in less than one minute.
The population should learn about warnings quickly. That is why alert multipliers are involved. Initially, the public service broadcasters participate. Other multipliers are added at a later stage.
At this point in time, mecom is already operating a satellite-based communication network for the news agencies in Germany. It is fast, tamper-proof and fail-safe. The federal government commissions mecom to realise the project of a warning system on this basis. SatWaS, later to be called MoWaS, is born.
In 2001, the satellite warning system SatWaS already starts to operate for the German Federal Government in its first expansion stage. Two years later, the federal states are also connected to SatWaS.
A new system with proven strengths: In 2013, the Modular Warning System (MoWaS) starts real-time operation, replacing SatWaS. MoWaS is also based on satellite technology. In 2017, a new web-based version is added (MoWaS v/SE), which enables use in a great variety of new locations with a less sophisticated infrastructure.
MoWaS is always up to date. The system’s architecture, maintainability and application design continuously set new standards for population alerts in a digital age. Further alert multipliers are constantly added and Cell Broadcast is integrated into MoWaS.
When something occurs that affects the population of entire federal states or even all of Germany, they should be alerted to it quickly and comprehensively. The media are an important channel to achieve this. And they are also connected to the Modular Warning System.
This is how MoWaS alerts are processed in media outlets:
Alerts are transmitted to the broadcasting stations via the MoWaS satellite network.
The Modular Warning System transfers the alert directly to the editorial system.
Im Redaktionssystem werden die Warnmeldungen priorisiert dargestellt.
On the radio, the editor on duty sees the prioritized message and instructs a speaker to read it out. TV stations often use onscreen text inserts for particularly urgent messages.
eilige Nachrichten.
The warning message is read out, displayed in an insert on the edge of the TV screen and often also communicated on the media websites. In this way, it reaches the population quickly and easily. In addition, other alert multipliers ensure that citizens are informed throughout the country.
Contact
You need support in the area of safety-critical communication? Regardless of whether you are a public authority, a media outlet or a company – we will develop suitable solutions for you.
Write to us or call us. We look forward to exchanging ideas with you.
mecom Medien-Communikations-Gesellschaft mbH
Mittelweg 143
20148 Hamburg
Zentrale
Telefon: +49 40 4113 32800
E-Mail: mail@mecom.de
Support
Telefon: +49 40 4113 32810
E-Mail: support@mecom.de
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