MagicBox and CentrAlert, Inc., announce the newest device module for the EOS Alert and Notification product line, for public and private television messaging alerts.

May 12, 2009

Corvallis, OR.- MagicBox, Inc. and CentrAlert, a privately held emergency communications company of Issaquah Washington, today announced a new device module for the CentrAlert® EOS™ public alert and notification system. This new module provides for video alert messaging via cut-in to public and/or private cable and television broadcasts.

MagicBox, Inc. provides the core alert hardware device through the industry’s best-in-class Aavelin® system—a rack-mounted, turnkey, digital signage and video messaging system. Scalable, the Aavelin® hardware systems can accept digital control command signals from the CentrAlert® EOS™ through serial port and/or Ethernet communications. These EOS™ commands, when decoded, instruct the Aavelin how to proceed with the cut-in to a video/television system for display of an alert message. In turn, the Aavelin® unit displays EOS™ horizontal alert and notification messages, as crawl and static regions, at the top or bottom of the TV or monitor screen. These alerts currently contain text, but are planned in the near future for small graphics as well.

The CentrAlert® EOS™ communications interface to the Aavelin® system(s) is provided via a special Aavelin® firmware EOS™ protocol interface, available for purchase from MagicBox dealers. For more information on the Aavelin® system and its distributors, please call Tom Searcy of MagicBox, Inc., at (541) 752-5654.

For example, an alert message could be sent via a cable TV broadcast at a large University and a local area television broadcast for a tornado alert (or terrorist event, or many other emergency scenarios, as required). This alert type takes place in parallel and simultaneous with many other types of EOS™ alerts including (but not limited to) sirens, text messaging, telephone calls, radio broadcasts, tone alert radios, etc. This benefits the emergency dispatch user, as it reduces a complex situation into a single integrated EOS™ graphical and map-based interface. What used to take several individual, non-integrated device interfaces, dispatchers and a much larger knowledge set is now a much more manageable and effective system solution. This also results in simpler training and on-going maintenance, as well.

Currently, CentrAlert, Inc. markets and sells the EOS™ and its Aavelin® device module through an authorized reseller program. The EOS™ system currently provides alert and notification protection for communities, schools, production facilities, and the military at several installations world-wide. "In other words, EOS™ is a complete emergency warning and alerting solution," said Jeff Whattam, President and C.E.O. of CentrAlert, Inc.

"There are several important reasons why a distributor, dealer or systems integrator would want to add CentrAlert products to its line card," said Whattam. "Our product suite is scalable, our margins are competitive, we have new products in the development pipeline, and we offer recurring revenue on certain products."

For more information on the CentrAlert, Inc. reseller program or EOS™, please call (888) 491-1638.

About MagicBox

MagicBox, Inc. has been manufacturing Character Generators and Video Messaging Systems, for CATV, CCTV, Satellite and Digital Signage applications since 1992. Customers have expanded from cable to include education, government, hospitality, medical, and corporate applications. Product development is focused on ease of use and integration with other systems.

MagicBox-Making Digital Signage Simple.