Ready for the unexpected - on full alert
Published: 01 October, 2008
While doing everything in our power to eliminate industrial and public incidents, we can implement systems that detect the very first signs of combustion, intrusion, terrorist activity or other hazardous event.
However, detection alone is not enough. Once detected, it is the actual warning and instructions given to those affected that are critical in saving lives and minimising chaos.
Complex threats have recently prompted countries throughout the world, including the UK, to implement requirements for mass notification. A mass notification system (MNS) is designed to protect, alert and inform. It should provide real-time information to people in a building, area, or other site through voice messages as well as visual signals, communicating what to do in the event of an emergency.
We should not be relying on 50-year-old technology, such as sirens or tones to combat the more sophisticated and violent threats of today. The growing use of voice-based messaging shows how it is increasingly essential for imparting instructions when warning times are short or nonexistent. Cooper Fulleon has already responded to this trend with developments such as the “Voice+” technology which offers 16 of the most popular messages within a sounder, with the option for simple management and upgrading.
In the UK, the Disabilities Discrimination Act (DDA) has also highlighted some of the problems of relying on a single technology to communicate an emergency message. However concise a voice alarm may be, it is not going to have any impact on somebody unable to hear it – hence the importance of visual alarms such as LED beacons integrated within the sounder.
Sophisticated MNSs take this integrated approach a stage further, offering multiple communication systems that broadcast intelligible audible and visual communications.
A multi-layered MNS solution enables managers to deliver live or recorded, event-specific instructions within seconds to sirens, speakers and even mobile phones and computers. Existing fire and intrusion systems can be integrated to give better situation management and awareness.
For an effective MNS, systems should be multi-layered and not rely on a single method to reach all the people affected:
• First layer - mass notification systems
• Outdoor (giant voice) warning systems
• Indoor building notification systems
• Portable alerting systems
• Audible and visual notification devices
• Personal and regional alerting systems
• Desktop alerts
• Email notification
• Text messaging/sms alerting
• Automated dialing systems.
In the USA, MNS has already been widely adopted in a variety of applications including military and government facilities and the education sector. The latter has been a specific focus, primarily because of incidents of school and college shootings which have highlighted the need for mass notification systems on campuses. MNS is increasingly being recognised as an effective means of communicating to large numbers in an emergency situation, particularly given the number of ways in which we now communicate – phone, SMS messaging, voice-over IP, fax and e-mail to name but a few.
One UK project which demonstrates a mass notification approach to emergencies is HM Naval Base in Portsmouth. This is the world’s largest site-wide radio public address system. The system was commissioned by the Royal Navy’s facilities management company, from Fareham-based Sound Advice PA Installations. The requirement was for an audio/visual, personnel alerting system across the whole base including the site’s museum areas.
Extensive research was undertaken regarding the various signal distribution methods and a secure, wireless system proved to be the most economical solution. The system features three base stations, providing coverage over the entire 333 acres site. Some 255 digital radio transceivers and 570 loudspeakers allow pre-recorded messages and/or live speech to be transmitted to single units, pre-defined zones or the whole site.
The complex layout of the site which includes dockyard buildings, cobbled streets, rail tracks, dry docks and historically significant buildings, would have presented significant problems for a traditional approach. The disruption of extensive cabling, internal and external, was deemed to be unacceptable. Also, cabling costs of over £1m ($2m) alone, made a conventional solution financially prohibitive. By adopting a wireless system, significant cost savings were made and disruption to the site and its operations were kept to a minimum.
The military significance of the site with the heightened threat of terrorism, along with other potential breaches, were the focus of the new security system. By adopting a wireless approach, the main concern was the potential vulnerability of the radio signal. As scanners can be used to jam or interfere with signals, radio is generally used only as a backup to conventional cabled systems. However, on the Portsmouth site, Sound Advice employed a totally secure digital radio technology designed for battlefield communications. It transmits using a spread-spectrum, frequency-hopping signal, changing randomly up to 85 times a second to make jamming impossible. It is the preferred system for US military bases worldwide. Under circumstances that might compromise a conventional system, the radio signal will seek another active unit and continue to broadcast.
Cutting through the confusion
By taking an integrated approach and identifying who should be informed and by using the appropriate tools, the right message can be issued at the right time. And, this is no longer just confined to a given site. With the availability of SMS text messaging, phone-based call systems and e-mail, it is also now possible to notify personnel off-site.
Mass notification solutions provide the means to cut through the confusion that is one of the major contributors to the consequential losses caused by a major incident.
