August Newsletter

AEN Achieves A Major Presence in South Florida

Residents of one of the nation’s most hurricane-vulnerable regions soon will have easier and more reliable access to emergency management messages, as America’s Emergency Network finalizes arrangements with South Florida’s two largest counties and two largest newspapers.

AEN recently installed its system in Broward County, Florida’s second most populous county, and installation is expected soon in Miami-Dade County, the state’s largest county. Together, they have 4.2 million residents.

In addition, South Florida’s two largest newspapers – The Miami Herald and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel – are joining AEN’s alert distribution network.

“We’re thrilled that emergency managers, other officials in South Florida, and major elements of the media appreciate the value of our network and have decided to partner with us,” said Bryan Norcross, AEN’s president and chief executive officer. “This certainly provides further validation of our system, and we look forward to serving many more people in many more places in the near future.” Chuck Lanza, Broward’s emergency management director, said he was pleased that AEN selected Broward County as an additional test bed for its system.

“It’s in beta test mode and we saw how well it worked during previous tests at the state level,” Lanza said. “It has a lot of potential for getting information out to the public, both when we have good Internet connections and when we have problems that only satellite transmission can resolve. This will give us two ways to reach and help the public.”

Broward’s emergency updates, news conferences and other information will be broadcast over AEN’s satellite-based network and will be directly available to affected residents – and anyone with an Internet connection – through the websites of the Sun-Sentinel and Miami Herald.

AEN To Present at AT&T Mobility Conference

America’s Emergency Network has been selected to make a presentation at AT&T Mobility’s LBS Day conference, a major gathering of companies involved in location-based services. LBS refers to all programs that use the geographic position of the phone, as determined by the GPS chip, to provide information that is relevant to the user’s specific location.

One of only 20 companies to be selected, AEN will demonstrate its AEN Mobile application on August 19 during the conference at AT&T’s offices in Atlanta. Several of the applications presented that day are likely to be chosen by AT&T for inclusion in its menu of cell phone-based services.

“This is a real honor and a great opportunity,” said Bryan Norcross, AEN’s president and chief executive officer. “Cell-phone distribution is an important extension of our network and we look forward to demonstrating our real-time AEN Mobile alert and video display system to AT&T’s executives and engineers.”

AEN Newsletter

This newsletter is produced by American’s Emergency Network, the nation’s first comprehensive emergency alerting and communications system. It is published monthly, along with occasional special editions to report important developments at AEN and within the field of emergency communications.

America’s Emergency Network:

Chairman of the Board:
Robert Adams

President & Chief Executive Officer: Bryan Norcross

Chief Technology Officer:
Chris Bennett

Senior Executive Vice President of Governmental Relations:
Max Mayfield

Senior Executive Vice President of Marketing: R. Matthew Straeb

AEN Newsletter:

Design: Chris Bennett
Production: Matt Sampson
Editor: Martin Merzer

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Investor Relations

America’s Emergency Network, Inc. (AEN) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Brampton Crest International, Inc. (OTCBB: BRCI)

AEN Broadcasts Florida Terror/Pandemic Drill

For the second time in recent months, America’s Emergency Network streamed real-time events during a state-wide preparedness drill conducted this week by Florida’s Division of Emergency Management in Tallahassee.

Capping an emergency preparedness drill,
Florida Gov. Charlie Crist conducts a news
conference streamed live by AEN.

Emergency managers throughout the state, as well as other viewers, were able the watch Florida Gov. Charlie Crist’s news briefing in real time. Prior to the installation of the AEN system, this was not possible.

The Terrorism/Pandemic Drill originated at the division’s emergency operations, and the post-event new conference was transmitted through AEN’s state-of-the-art satellite and Internet network.

“It’s important for us to always be prepared, be vigilant and be ready,” the governor said during the news conference carried by AEN. “It’s always about teamwork when we’re talking about these things.”

During a three-day statewide hurricane response exercise conducted In June, AEN also streamed live media events and a situation report from the Division of Emergency Management operations center in Tallahassee.

AEN Alerts Already Conform To Federal Protocol

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has announced it will adopt a technical standard for all emergency alerts – a protocol already selected and in use by America’s Emergency Network.

Known as Common Alerting Protocol 1.1 or CAP, the format for transmitting emergency alerts allows federal, state and local agencies to distribute their messages simultaneously over various systems.

“When we designed and built AEN, we chose CAP because we believed it was the best available format for emergency bulletins, and the protocol most likely to be selected by FEMA,” said Chris Bennett, AEN’s Chief Technology Officer.

“We clearly chose the right one,” Bennett said, “and we’re pleased to report that if you use AEN’s system, you’re automatically compliant with the new federal standard.”

FEMA officials say they officially will adopt the CAP protocol early next year and all participants in the Emergency Alert System – including broadcasters and emergency managers at all levels – must be in compliance within 180 days of that announcement.

New Emergency Managers In Place

Several new emergency managers are in place as the 2008 hurricane season approaches its peak weeks. Among them:

Chuck Lanza is now emergency management director for Broward County in South Florida. Lanza spent many years with the Miami-Dade County Fire Rescue Department, rising to deputy chief and serving as that county’s director of emergency management. He also has served as director of Broward County’s Department of Fire Rescue and Emergency Services.

Tony Spencer is the new emergency services director of Carteret County, North Carolina. He had served for four years as Hyde County’s emergency management coordinator.

Paul Rasch has taken over as emergency management coordinator of Hilton Head Island, ending that town’s long effort to fill the position. For the last nine years, Rasch has been a regional coordinator for the Illinois Emergency Management Association.