A Message for the Masses

Mass notification systems enhance life safety

• By David George
• Jan 03, 2008

Towering high-rises, sprawling college campuses and mass transit hubs can all have hundreds or thousands of people occupying them at any given moment. When a crisis emerges, it’s critical to protect lives, and that job becomes difficult when people are spread throughout a facility or across a wide area. Mass notification systems are becoming an integral part of both emergency and non-emergency communications for organizations of all sizes and in all industries. To fully understand the entire scope of life safety, it’s important to understand what mass notification truly entails.

An Unknown Need
The concept of mass notification systems was born out of the collective inability to maintain communications and direct building occupants to safety during the events of Sept. 11, 2001. This crisis prompted the Department of Defense to develop a set of Unified Facilities Criteria that, among many other things, mandates the installation of MNS in all DOD facilities worldwide.

The objective of the UFC program is to streamline the military criteria system by eliminating duplication of information, increasing reliance on private-sector standards and creating a more efficient criteria development and publishing process. In short, since 2004, mass notification has been required in all DOD construction, as well as in leased buildings, additions, and expeditionary and temporary DOD structures.

Early in the implementation phase of MNS, the military’s fire protection engineers realized the inherent value, intelligibility, reliability and survivability of emergency voice alarm communications systems (EVACS), which would support the objectives of mass notification. Consequently, the most recent edition of UFC 04-021-01 requires combination voice alarm and mass notification systems.

More recently, President Bush signed an executive order to create a National Public Alert and Warning System to enhance the nation’s ability to respond during a crisis by interfacing public- and private-sector MNS. If there is a silver lining, it is that quantum leaps in communication technology offer a wide array of means for the delivery of timely, detailed information to facility personnel, occupants and emergency responders— whether across town or across the globe. From a suburban apartment complex to the far-flung offices of an international corporation, developing and maintaining an effective MNS is not just a hopeful ideal, but a reachable goal.

A Balanced System
There’s a great deal of misinformation about what constitutes a mass notification system. Thinking of MNS as a gigantic public address system that provides prerecorded or live voice communication to personnel over a wide area by use of a highly secure encrypted wireless network is misleading, and it’s only one aspect of mass notification. True mass notification systems involve a lot more than text messaging and intercoms. They involve integrated response to emergencies at every level of the organization—a communications and emergency management tool.

The UFC that is used by the DOD defines MNS as a communications and emergency management tool that provides real-time instructions and information to building occupants or nearby personnel during an emergency event or situation. But a mass notification system also has an antiterrorism purpose. As an example, an emergency situation may call occupants to duck and cover or shelter in place, not evacuate the building.

The reality is that every MNS is unique. There is not a one-size-fits-all solution for each situation. But there are similar aspects that serve as the common denominator in a complete system. The balanced MNS needs to include protection systems, alerting systems and action plans.

Protection systems must be able to detect dangerous situations and assist first responders to quickly take control. Systems such as fire detection, fire suppression, security surveillance, building automation and weather alerting are a few that can be used in the overall MNS.

Alerting systems need to communicate to occupants by giving real-time information and even instructions during an emergency.

“Mass notification needs to provide a means for the security staff to be able to notify the occupants—via strobes, voice messaging, alarms—and give instruction,” said Ed Graves, president of Antronnix in Silver Spring, Md. “Many times, the message is not to evacuate, because the threat could be outside, such as a nuclear or biological threat.”

This is where the newer computer technology can deliver recorded messages to large numbers of people in a short time. Voice evacuation and wide-area networks play a large role in communicating. Often, messages are sent through multiple communications channels—not just telephone, but also e-mail, pager, fax, PDAs, computer pop-ups and other channels. They are faster, more accurate, more effective and less expensive than manual systems.

Efficiently integrating fire, security and communications provides emergency notification to occupants of a building, throughout multiple buildings, in much larger outdoor areas or in virtually any other venue. It’s also possible to network indoor and outdoor components into a fully integrated, campus-type emergency notification system.

In order to prevent the emergency from affecting a large number of occupants, an action plan needs to be in place that will assist on-site emergency management staff with the response and handling of the situation until authorities arrive on the scene. Creating a master plan verifies that all fire and life safety, security and notification systems are integrated and ready should an emergency arise. Emergency preparedness is a vital component to the overall MNS. Vulnerabilities and threats can be evaluated on an ongoing basis by considering what could possibly happen, where you want people to go and where the safe areas are.

To prevent accidental activation or misuse of an MNS, appropriate security measures, such as multi-level passwords and encryption, should be used. Any emergency condition should first be validated as a real emergency before the communications system is deployed. These systems also should include self-monitoring capabilities for failures or disruptions of service. Additionally, new systems must be able to automatically report any failures or disruptions to a central station and/or remote stations.

New Requirements
The applications for MNS are numerous and influenced by many agencies. For example, OSHA, EPA and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission are heavily involved in the petrochemical and power industries. FEMA is involved in natural disaster-type applications. The NFPA 2007 edition includes guidelines in Section 6.8.4.7.

Mass notification also will become an essential part of NFPA 72 2010 Edition (Appendix G). The change in the UFC 04- 021-01 instigated the integration of mass notification concepts with existing requirements in NFPA 72. It addresses how to maintain code compliance and test existing fire alarm systems while allowing mass notification to have a higher prioritized operation. The final decision on MNS code requirements is up to the authority having jurisdiction.

In actuality, fire alarm systems incorporating voice communications capabilities have been used for decades to provide mass notification to warn building occupants of fire conditions, as well as other emergency situations, such as severe weather alerts and chemical spills. The underlying premise behind this practice is that it enables the code-driven reliability and survivability of fire alarm systems to be used to deliver multiple types of communications. This results in high-level system performance and avoids the additional costs of installing and maintaining multiple systems.

Innovative Solutions
Voice-enabled fire detection systems’ inherent nature already provides mass notification to warn building occupants of emergency situations. The regulated and code-driven reliability of a fire detection system makes it a highly effective platform for a mass notification solution. The rules, testing procedures and installation practices are already established. Also, first responders are already familiar with the fire detection equipment, many with years of hands-on experience.

Some fire and life safety systems have expanded their voice messaging to incorporate mass notification features. The system has the ability, via LAN, WAN or the Internet, to send real-time emergency messages to multiple remote locations simultaneously. In essence, workstations that are connected to the fire and life safety system can send emergency messages to one or many.

A wide variety of technologies and devices can be integrated into an MNS, including amplifiers, speakers, electronic digital message displays (all monitored for integrity), computer interfaces (e-blast and pop-up messaging), reverse 911, commercial radio broadcast, cable TV, PDAs, cell phones and pagers. The most advanced solutions use a wireless network or a fiberoptic network capable of simultaneously transmitting audio and digital communications over a single fiber-optic strand.

The benefits of mass notification already are being applied by organizations to increase revenues, cut or avoid costs and minimize the loss of human life. Mass notification systems prove their worth during catastrophic events. Whether responding to a homeland security alert or warning people about a water main break that can affect building operations in numerous ways, these systems can save valuable time and allow crisis managers to focus on high-priority tasks.