Page 12 - Campus Security & Life Safety, July/August 2022

"Being able to clearly and accurately hear instructions could make the difference between life and death, demonstrating the connection between critical emergency communications and the everyday public address system."
By Gina Sansivero
Why Any Well-Executed Campus Emergency Plan Must Leverage Public Address
The complexity and frequency of school safety threats has steadily increased over the last decade—and not only in the ways we’ve come to expect.
Unfortunately, the mind immediately goes toward the horrors of school tragedies–of which there were 549 incidents between 2013 and 2019, according to Everytown for Gun Safety. But that is hardly the only type of terrible event that could upend a school day at a moment’s notice, and not all threats occur inside the building.
Natural disasters have also been increasingly prominent, sending students to seek shelter with little to no warning. In 2021 alone, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported 20 separate billion- dollar weather and climate disasters in the United States, second only to the record- setting weather events of 2020.
New threats to the safety and security of school campuses have been steadily emerging from both inside and outside the campus, with no signs of slowing down, and educational facilities have had to increasingly focus on the integrity of their emergency alert apparatus just to keep up. In particular,
mass communication systems have become a key component of administrators’ life-safety plans.
Tapping into Security Budgets
to Upgrade Outdated Systems
Most times, schools will have a public address system in place for relaying morning announcements, paging and triggering bells that signal the start and end of a classroom period, and a separate system for emergencies that uses a horn or siren, along with flashing lights, but not voice.
Those emergency alerts are not typically tied into the public address system, and maintaining that antiquated separation no longer meets the needs of today’s emergency preparedness. Being able to clearly and accurately hear instructions could make the difference between life and death, demonstrating the connection between critical emergency communications and the everyday public address system.
Unlike other areas of the school budget, security is never underfunded—and for good reason. Combining those two systems can also help facilities tap into their security budgets to fund critical upgrades that had
previously been neglected.
Loudspeakers are often tucked into the
ceilings and subsequently forgotten until the day they malfunction. The gradual decline in audio quality becomes almost imperceptible to those listening to announcements day after day, but as fidelity decreases, so does safety.
As dwindling school budgets push administrators to adjust their priorities, the sound they consider “good enough” ends up remaining the status quo. In moments of true emergency, however, “good enough” just won’t do.
Bridging the gap between public address and emergency alerts means those new components that seemed out of reach are affordable across every part of the campus.
Harnessing the IP Network
for Expanded Setup and Control
Even with expanded budgets, the idea of completely overhauling antiquated public address systems is a daunting one. By investing in strategic hardware and software updates, IP endpoints provide a valuable starting point for upgrading and integrating public address and emergency alert systems.
There is no environment that should not be covered by a campus mass communication system—including walkways, locker rooms, restrooms, and outdoor athletic fields—and reaching those areas that may have previously been overlooked now becomes easier by adding IP endpoints to every classroom and public space.
Leveraging Voice over IP technology, the digital system (including head end hardware, software, phone interfaces, and IP endpoints) deftly combines PA, intercom, visual messaging and cues, and audio alerts using the existing IP infrastructure. Additionally, hardware (known as gateways) can distribute the signal to analog speakers, typically used
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Emergency Preparedness
12 campuslifesecurity.com | JULY/AUGUST 2022