Outdoor Speaker System With Intelligible Full Live Voice
However, the most important reason that Georgia State University went with IML, according to Raderstorf, is because of the overall sound quality that they get from the IML SoundCommander – 360 Emergency Mass Notification Loudspeaker and Alert System.
“We have a very, very unique challenge in that our ambient noise level is 70 decibels on a 24/7 basis. The other vendors did not have the overall audibility and voice clarity that we need in an environment like ours.”
Implementation includes optimal decibel threshold assessment Rsderstorf has lots of experience with technology implementations. “I’ve worked with many companies and vendors to know that technical installation and engineering teams vary greatly in their level of competence. When we bought the IML system, I felt like we bought a whole staff that came with it. It wasn’t just ‘we’re going to install your system and walk away’.”
He was impressed that IML not only programmed the speaker arrays themselves, but their implementation team positioned the actual arrays on top of the buildings and then did the actual decibel testing. And during the testing process, the IML implementation team found something unique to Georgia State University.
“IML identified that we need a minimum of 10 decibels over the ambient noise to understand a live voice. And, simultaneously, it has to be 10 decibels over to ascertain that a horn is going off. That’s the threshold for us to make it work. That was a big point for us because we didn’t know that’s what we needed when we were testing other systems. IML not only made sure that our system is up and running and ready to use, but they made sure that can you hear it over the ambient noise in our situation.”
Horn Emergency Alert ‘Grabs People’s Attention’
Georgia State also needed an alert sound that is unique from the regular noise.
“We are right next door to Grady Memorial Hospital, so we hear sirens going pretty much constantly. The horns and sirens in your loudspeaker warning system need to be very distinct from the ambient noise around you. Many companies come with pre-packaged sirens, so when you activate the siren, it sounds just like a police siren. That not a good solution for us,” says Raderstorf. “Plus, we’re close to MARTA rapid transit trains so we need something unique that doesn’t sound anything like the MARTA trains. The Sound Commander’s horn sounds like a massive freight train. It’s an eye opener – and it definitely grabs people’s attention!”
Trust Live Voice
Georgia State University always uses both the horn and voice and does not use pre-recordings as part of their mass notification protocol.
“With some systems you can pre-record your warning message, but it doesn’t actually give you the ability to pick up a hand mike and say whatever you need to say,” says Raderstorf.
“We like our students to know that when we activate the system, there is somebody live on the other end giving important information. We also let them know that we will not utilize the outdoor speaker systems without following up with some other type of emergency communication.”
Raderstorf also noted that, “Using pre-recordings means that there is always a chance for a false alarm. You can’t have a false activation with live voice. We would always use siren and voice.”
Intelligible Live Voice Capability
Does Raderstorf have any recommendations for other universities considering implementing a speaker system?
“I’ve got a lot of colleagues that say, “hey we’re thinking about putting up a speaker system and we just want pre-recorded voice and siren. What are your thoughts about that?̶
1; Says Raderstorf
“It’s great if all you want people to do is look up and hear a voice or a horn or a siren. But you have to have someone behind it. You can’t train everybody to listen when they hear a siren and know that this is what you need to do. The siren and horn can mean different things on different days. One day, it could be a severe weather tornado warning alert, and the next day, it could be somebody running through campus with a weapon. The key component is the voice capability. I tell people, if you’re going to go with an outdoor speaker system of any capacity, make sure that it has full live voice capability.”
