Garbled weather warning alert confusion continues

Ponoadflkna. Ladoiemaod. Can you identify these Alberta locations? Neither could CBC listeners. 

Last week an emergency alert was broadcast on TV and radio stations across Alberta, including CBC, warning of tornado activity in Ponoka and Lacombe, but the automated voice made the message incomprehensible.

• Environment Canada automated tornado warning hard to understand

The reason for the garbled wording is about as clear as the warning itself, but centres on the growing pains of a new national alert system — Alert Ready — which broadcasters have been required to carry since March 31 of this year, and the transcription software used by the media outlets.

"The one that the federal government is using is not as robust yet, and to be fair they've recognized the inconsistencies and technical difficulties around the sound quality," said Tim Trytten, the coordinator fo the Alberta Emergency Alert and Geographic Information System.

The new national system duplicates the existing provincial system that Trytten represents, and which sent out proper alerts last Thursday. 

Trytten said his organization is working with Alert Ready on system issues.

Weather alerts for the new system are created by Environment Canada, which sends out a text warning. That text is then picked up and distributed over the system by Pelmorex, which is responsible for "the distribution infrastructure behind Alert Ready."

"We are not involved in the selection of the text speech system," said Paul Temple, senior vice-president of regulatory affairs at Pelmorex.

Both he and Ken McDonald with Environment Canada lay the blame for the garbled place names squarely at the foot of broadcasters and their respective software, but the issue should not have come as a surprise. 

Last year, the broadcasting council expressed concerns over the new national system, saying they wanted recorded messages and not text alerts because they were concerned about mispronounciation. 

The CRTC responded to the concerns last August, but said that cooperation between Pelmorex and the broadcasters would lead to a solution.

According CBC communications, the network is "working closely with the emergency service partners to fix this issue as soon as possible" and "are looking into improving the quality of the voice delivering the message."

There is no clear direction on who is responsible for fixing the system and ensuring clear messages.

Until that time, keep your heads up Tkasnoiuasd.