Page 38 - Security Today, November 2017

The New First Responder
How integrated paging and emergency solutions automate mass notification and communication tasks, reducing security workloads and human error
BPy L. William Nattress III
eople are constantly on the move—particularly in busy transit hubs—and passengers need to know where they should be and by when. While visual displays play a critical role in communication, verbal pages can assist in last-minute updates or station changes that
may be missed if conveyed only on digital signage.
Minimize Confusion
Couple those needs with the requirement to disseminate critical and emergency messaging while maintaining a high level of visual surveil- lance, and transportation security and communication centers have an ever-increasing level of responsibility to ensure passenger safety, reduce the opportunities for accidents, and minimize confusion dur- ing a crisis.
Until recently, much of this work had to be done manually, and despite new technology capabilities, security and life safety officers were burdened with how to respond to incidents in a timely and ef- ficient manner. However, with today’s integrated paging and emer- gency communication systems (ECS), the number of decision points can be reduced to help automate the process.
The biggest factor contributing to that burden is that life safety, fire alarm, voice evacuations and paging solutions have long been disparate systems. Each system worked independently and had to be
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monitored separately. Add to that, security operations in mass transit are primarily driven by video analytics, with information coming in from hundreds of video cameras and sensors. The main goal of video analytics is to reduce workflow through programmable functions that automate as many actions as safely possible. Now, with changes to the National Fire Protection Association’s (NFPA) NFPA-72 code that allow for fire safety and ECS to use the Ethernet as a viable transport, paging and ECS can be integrated with other systems to permit interaction and automation of these monitoring tasks.
As the needs for mass notification have evolved, the integrated paging systems used for ECS have had to keep pace with new require- ments and security measures, taking into consideration the type of audience and its needs. With the changes in the NFPA code, these systems play an integral role distributing critical information and alerts within the four different layers that these systems must address:
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In-building ECS. Allows rail station personnel to send pages to specific platforms at a specific station and to specific areas within a building.
Wide-area mass notification system (MNS). Permits personnel to use the system to address people inside and outside a station. Distributed-recipient MNS. Allows the system to send personal notification to mobile devices registered with the public transit authority.
TRANSPORTATION SECURITY