Identifying The Benefits Of A Next Generation Voice Alarm
The world is beginning to re-familiarise itself with the routine of working from an office building and gathering in large spaces but dispelling any lingering safety concerns is important if this return is to gain momentum. Next generation voice alarms can help achieve that goal, explains - Paul Moorghen, Voice Alarm Business Development Manager – Honeywell Fire, Western Europe.
The measures taken to contain the spread of COVID-19, such as social distancing and hybrid working, have permanently and radically transformed how we interact with our building environment. Yet things are changing again – old patterns are re-emerging as people start to re-familiarise themselves with office buildings, educational establishments, concert arenas and large public spaces such as shopping centres.
This turnaround in behaviour needs to be supported by a proportionate and consistent approach to safety management to dispel any lingering concerns around personal well-being and welfare. It also needs to take into account the unique operational prerequisites of a given setting and be compatible with any pre-existing life safety and smart building technology.
The Voice Of Change
An essential part of that response is the use of voice alarm systems, which are becoming increasingly important in the management of a wide range of building environments. Despite being an often-unseen aspect of a building, they can have a big impact. A voice message that informs occupants exactly what to do in an emergency is proven to be more effective than a conventional tone sound, especially during an evacuation.
Research reveals that people that receive a voice alarm with instructions are more likely to evacuate a building.1 Additionally, people who only hear a tone signal take more than 11 minutes, on average, to evacuate a building if it’s familiar to them.2 The same occupants will vacate in around four minutes if they hear a recorded message. Live announcements produce a response time of less than two minutes, partly because they reinforce the seriousness of the situation and communicate the required action of the occupants, which helps dissipate a ‘false alarm’ mind set. Similarly, a shelter-in-place alert is more effectively delivered through a voice alarm system with its ability to provide specific instructions.
The top-line benefits of a modern voice alarm system will provide:
- Clear safety instructions for people in the building;
- Detailed directions for people unfamiliar with the surroundings; and
- Pre-recorded messages in multiple languages.
Importantly, voice alarm infrastructure can also be used for daily public address and entertainment needs rather than solely as an emergency evacuation system. Combining public address and voice alarm (PA/VA) from multiple manufacturers can prove problematic where there are older installations as many legacy systems are deployed across incompatible platforms.
The best approach, which delivers the most comprehensive and powerful solution for a wide range of applications, is to migrate to a secure and redundant IP-based network. This will deliver a range of advantages, not least the ability to digitally couple fire alarm systems with the voice alarm systems to deliver location-specific voice notifications during emergencies – an important safety benefit for larger, complex environments where there may be visitors unfamiliar with a building’s layout.
Flexible And Scalable Solutions
The ideal system will need to be scalable and modular so it can quickly and efficiently adapt to changes in use and shifting patterns of demands over time, such as the adoption of hybrid working. It should also support a large number of evacuation and/or paging zones to ensure it can manage complicated evacuation strategies in the event of an emergency. In this way, endangered areas are automatically informed via the PA/VA system, while at the same time the fire alarm control panel activates fire protection systems; for example, fire doors, air-conditioning and ventilating systems, lift controls and smoke dampers.
This combination of voice alarm and fire alarm technology not only offers a range of functional advantages – evacuation times are significantly and safely reduced – it also delivers financial benefits as well. The quicker the occupants evacuate the building, the faster emergency services can deal with the emergency, therefore proving more of a chance to save the property itself and the equipment within, saving both valuable time and money.
A Fully-Featured System
There are a number of features that building owners and facility managers should stipulate when selecting an IP-based PA/VA system to deliver ease of integration, improved operational effectiveness, reduced risk and cost of ownership and a future-proof upgrade path.
First, choose a system that uses digital signal processing (DSP) and premium audio components to deliver clear, clean sound with low distortion and high intelligibility assisted by using voice alarm specific high quality loud speakers. This will result in improved communication and emergency responses thanks to the clear and intelligible message delivery.
It should also have power sharing amplifiers, which make the system more reliable while reducing power consumption. This will not only decrease the risk of system downtime, it will also make the system more affordable and facilitate lower maintenance cost, all while minimising space requirements.
Next, it is important to select a system that uses common audio protocols as this will enable it to be more easily integrated with other on-site systems, such as Dante A/V and SIP communication, without additional hardware or interoperability issues. Once installed, a fully integrated solution will enable faster response times to potential issues as safety and security staff can monitor and quickly understand overall system status via a unified interface.
Finally, the chosen system should be built around a flexible architecture, based on standard protocols, so that it can be configured to the specific business needs of the building or environment. Importantly, the resulting scalability this provides will ensure it can be expanded and future-proofed to address potential changes to site requirements.
Optimum Safety And Compliance
In order to make sure their voice alarm system offers maximum flexibility, while providing optimum safety and compliance with relevant fire alarm specifications, building managers should work with a supplier that is able to facilitate broad integration across all systems and have a network of reliable systems integrators, providing advanced fire safety consultancy, as well as ongoing regulatory assessments.
This combination of skills and experience will help ensure that the chosen PA/VA system is not only cost-effective but it is also capable of meeting the needs of building occupants and building managers, now and into the future.
1 American Psychological Association, Fighting fire with psychology, L. Winerman, Sept. 2004.
2 Equinox study.
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