Narrative:

I was the r-side at sector 73 during a fairly busy session; and ZJX was also on day 2 of a 72-hour eram run. Aircraft X was descending into nbc; from 160 to 110. Aircraft Y departed off of chs to the south; and was traveling the same direction as aircraft X. On initial contact; I issued 'aircraft Y turn 20 degrees right; once established on new heading climb and maintain FL230'. This turn should have been enough to clear the path of the aircraft X flight. While this was happening; another flight was flashed to me from the high side but in coast track. The problem began when one of the eram personnel came over my shoulder; and hurriedly pointed at the radar screen loudly telling me ''tag that guy up! He needs a new squawk! There's some problem with him.' because I was in the midst of working the traffic flow and separating other aircraft; it was extremely distracting to have this person try to interject with what I was doing. The aircraft the eram person was referring to was a low priority. It was at this point I noticed aircraft Y climbing but not separated from the aircraft X flight. Aircraft Y was at 230t131 and aircraft X at 110t133 when it was apparent that there was not 5 miles of separation. I issued a 250 heading to aircraft Y to turn him further away from aircraft X. Although it was entirely my responsibility to ensure separation for all aircraft; the eram person was an enormous distraction. Eram personnel need to be cognizant that their priority of fixing 'bugs' and helping with technical problems should not be interfering with the safe operation of a sector. Later on; another eram sme approached the person who was the distraction and alerted them that their behavior was unnecessary and problematic.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: ZJX controller describes a loss of separation while using ERAM and a distraction from an ERAM SME while working traffic.

Narrative: I was the R-side at Sector 73 during a fairly busy session; and ZJX was also on day 2 of a 72-hour ERAM run. Aircraft X was descending into NBC; from 160 to 110. Aircraft Y departed off of CHS to the south; and was traveling the same direction as Aircraft X. On initial contact; I issued 'Aircraft Y turn 20 degrees right; once established on new heading climb and maintain FL230'. This turn should have been enough to clear the path of the Aircraft X flight. While this was happening; another flight was flashed to me from the high side but in coast track. The problem began when one of the ERAM personnel came over my shoulder; and hurriedly pointed at the radar screen loudly telling me ''Tag that guy up! He needs a new squawk! There's some problem with him.' Because I was in the midst of working the traffic flow and separating other aircraft; it was extremely distracting to have this person try to interject with what I was doing. The aircraft the ERAM person was referring to was a low priority. It was at this point I noticed Aircraft Y climbing but not separated from the Aircraft X flight. Aircraft Y was at 230T131 and Aircraft X at 110T133 when it was apparent that there was not 5 miles of separation. I issued a 250 heading to Aircraft Y to turn him further away from Aircraft X. Although it was entirely my responsibility to ensure separation for all aircraft; the ERAM person was an enormous distraction. ERAM personnel need to be cognizant that their priority of fixing 'bugs' and helping with technical problems should not be interfering with the safe operation of a sector. Later on; another ERAM SME approached the person who was the distraction and alerted them that their behavior was unnecessary and problematic.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.