Page 87 - Security Today, September/October 2022

By Kelly Lake
"It is meaningless to install an intercom and communications system if the audible announcements and messages being delivered can’t be heard or understood in every situation. It’s time to embrace a solution that offers audio and voice technology that allows people to hear, be heard and be understood, in every situation."
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on what to do or where to go, or hear that help is on the way? As humans, we instinctively respond more quickly to real-time voice and audio compared to images on signs or written instructions.
Overall, what safety and security risks are not being identified when a security guard, students, staff, and visitors can only see or be seen, but cannot be heard or spoken to?
When it comes to security technology, it’s easy to say, “I’m using everything to its full potential,” or “Everything works just fine.”
But in today’s risk environment of schools, is your communications technology really being used to its full potential? Are you com- municating clearly to every corner of your campus? Today’s IP intercoms and public address systems allow you to provide crystal clear communications that extend through- out the campus and out to the perimeter.
Getting to Clear Communications
In recent years, the use of IP communica- tions for safety and security has steadily increased. As intercom and PA systems evolved into IP network-based technology, audio clarity and intelligibility has increased, and new systems can adapt to any environ- ment, no matter how noisy. IP intercoms, speakers, and horns can provide protection and address security concerns in new ways.
Early intercoms in schools were about con- venience and used only for easy communica- tion to classrooms. They made it easy for school administration to communicate with teachers and students. Remember the cam- pus-wide announcements that started each school day (and still do), or a student being called to the office? Some schools also began using intercoms for rudimentary visitor man- agement, to ensure that only authorized visi- tors entered a school and then received an ID badge to move to a classroom or other area.
Intercom usage today, however, has become more critical than ever to ensuring the safety of our schools. It has advanced to protecting exterior and interior doors with a combination of audio and built-in video, to providing a known location to get assistance in emergency stanchions, and to enabling instant contact (and communication) to and with security personnel.
IP communication platforms have also evolved to fully integrate with video cameras, access control, visitor management systems, and other security technologies. For exam- ple, at a school entrance, intercom solutions with HD voice and video can be used to identify unknown visitors or vendors and help school staff and security teams quickly determine whether the individual should enter the school. Video intercoms can also be integrated with facial recognition, ensuring that a parent or caretaker can be recognized as someone who is authorized to be there.
Moving out into a school’s outer areas, IP- based public address speakers are easy to install and offer excellent two-way commu- nications, in all conditions. Using video sur- veillance, school security teams can see an individual trying to enter the school perim- eter and either determine, through audio, why they are there, or direct them to leave. School staff also gain the ability to communi- cate to outdoor areas like student drop-off zones or athletic fields and playgrounds.
Exterior fences and gates may still be on school property but located quite a distance away from a school’s buildings. Intercom solutions with HD audio and video can be mounted on the fence or wall near these entrances to school grounds so that school security teams can identify individuals from a distance. Security teams can also protect areas that are more difficult to patrol, such as garages, parking lots and stairwells, in addi- tion to secondary or external doors that are not used as often.
Emergency stanchions don’t have to only be used for emergencies. They can be employed to provide a visual and audible indicator outside of a school’s entrances and
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