Bosch Communications Systems

The challenge for Schools to meet increasingly stringent duty-of-care responsibilities means that you now have to consider more that just evacuation for the safety of your students and staff. Situations can occur where the safest course of action may be to lock down part or all of the school and keep students in their class rooms, away from potential harm. You may also need to communicate with areas of the school individually so that a specific set of instructions can be issued depending on proximity to the problem.

To meet these requirements, schools are now investing in smarter technology for their Pulic Address/Emergency Sound systems. Using these systems, clear and intelligible instructions can be issued through pre-recorded messaging triggered by hazardous events, and live speech announcements can be made to selected/all areas of the campus. The new breed of digitally controlled sound systems are convenient, cost-effective and simple to use; they meet the modern-day needs of schools for paging, recorded-message play, time signals, music distribution, emergency evacuation & lock-down.

Based on an 'all-in-one' unit, these systems have a built-in amplifier powerful enough to drive the loudspeakers in most small to medium size schools. The good news is that they will work with most existing speakers, creating an affordable upgrade of the system to benefit from modern technology.

An in-built digital recorded message player facilitates day-to-day announcements, emergency tones and messages. These can be automatically played for routine messaging, and for relaying clear instructions during an evacuation or lock-down of the school. Individual paging zones allow the school to be divided into areas for selective paging, emergency messaging and chime-signals.

Modern systems have the facility to provide automated time signals for 'ringing' the school bell. There are even software packages that allow you to program your time signal in an 'Outlook' style calendar. This way the term, or even the whole year, can easily be programmed, with the flexibility to allow for exclusions or changes to the schedule for holidays, sports days and other special events. Paging microphone stations can be added to the system as required, simply linked to the main controller by using a Cat5 cable. For larger schools, the system can easily be expanded up to 60 zones with a maximum of 8 Paging stations.

When considering which solution to invest in, keep in mind that your new system should at least meet the stringent requirements of IEC60849, the international standard for Emergency Sound Systems (and its national equivalents). Ideally it should include all essential functionality such as full system supervision, spare amplifier switching, loudspeaker line surveillance, a built-in recorded message manager, provision for battery back-up, and comprehensive but simple-to-use controls and indicators. Choose a compliant emergency sound system to meet your requirements and contribute to a safer school environment and world for the public at large.