What is Emergency Mass Notification? Previously the standard was focused on fire and the fire alarm to get people to leave a building. Now, due to severe weather, terrorist, biological, chemical, and other threats, there is a need for people to receive instruction as to where to go and what to do — not just evacuate.

Initial Mass Notification requirements were developed for the Department of Defense after the Kandahar Towers bombing, where many lives could have been saved if the guards on the street level could have had the ability to tell people simply to go to the back of the building. After the Virginia Tech shooting, it was determined that better communication could have saved lives.

Fire Alarms - How many have you ignored?

The study on the left shows that people are still in buildings after 11 minutes of the alarm sounding! When the alarm is combined with a live voice providing instruction, after 30 seconds, people were out safely!

NFPA–72 2010 — the National Fire Alarm and Signaling Code requires a live paging system to override the fire alarm. In addition, it requires that the speakers meet INTELLIGIBILITY standards. And this is for any building that holds more than 300 people.
In order to meet these new requirements, a single, networked, paging system that can be monitored and has built–in redundancy is critical to cover the entire facility.

Paging, voice evacuation, fire and life safety systems are no longer just components and wires, but networked mission critical systems, which simply have to work wherever and whenever needed because peoples’ lives and livelihoods depend on them.

We are certified with a solution that was designed from the ground up to facilitate compliance with the latest voice evacuation standards. Let us work with you to determine whether your facility is in compliance or what is needed to bring your facility up to the national standard.