Leon County Public Schools Deploys viaRadio Warning System

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 12/08/08

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Florida's Leon County Public Schools has activated an emergency warning system from viaRadio Corp. The viaRadio receivers, known as HEARO, are now in the county's 24 elementary schools, nine middle schools, six high schools, six special/alternative schools, five charter schools, and various administrative offices. The school district plans to use the warning system to inform the schools' administration of lock downs, weather emergencies, and other pertinent information. It can also be used for internal communication among employees.

"Our decision to incorporate viaRadio's HEARO alert system was based on our ability to control the outgoing messages themselves through viaRadio's Web interface," says Robert Tricquet, coordinator for the department of safety, security, and emergency management.

viaRadio's local alert system consists of a network of radio receivers, which display informational text messages in English and Spanish. It carries National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration weather warnings and other public safety text alerts and works even when power, phone and Internet are out through the FM radio infrastructure. The radios have a 60-hour battery life in case of power outages.

Florida's Brevard County Public Schools has been using the system for about a year.