Mass Notification Meets IP

• By Steven Titch
• Aug 05, 2008

There was a time you could set your watch by it. Throughout the Cold War years, every Friday at 1 p.m., towns across America tested their air raid sirens. It was an exercise in basic mass notification.

Mechanized sirens and large public address systems -- so-called “great voice” platforms -- remain the model in many communities today, in most cases for natural emergencies such as tornadoes and tsunamis. And fire drills are still de rigeur in schools and offices.

But as modern threats take in more than large cataclysms that require evacuation or movement of a large group of people, emergency planners and responders are looking at the flexibility and pervasiveness of IP networks as a robust vehicle for mass notification.

The National Fire Protection Association is accepting comments on a revision of NFPA 72, the section of the national fire alarm code that covers the integration of mass notification and fire alarm systems. The new code, known as Chapter 12, would set the procedures that would allow emergency responders to supercede the fire alarm system to give priority to mass notification and emergency communications. Comments are due Aug. 29.

The revision, which would become part of NPFA 72 in 2010, is not controversial. On the contrary, responders and manufacturers welcome the addition and are preparing for the introduction of a number of mass notifications systems and components that will use IP.

UFC 4-021-01

Chapter 12 will essentially merge current NFPA standards with the Department of Defense’s Universal Facilities Criteria 4-021-01 document, which lays out the military’s specification for IP mass notification, says Wayne D. Moore, chairman of the Chapter 12 working group and principal with Hughes Associates, Baltimore, which specializes in fire protection design and consulting. In an emergency, mass notification will be allowed to take over a fire alarm system with appropriate risk analysis, Moore says.

“Will it be for announcement of class changes? No. In the case of a shooter? Yes,” he says.

While emergency planners have been wrestling with modernizing mass notification systems since 9/11, recent incidents, such as the shootings at Virginia Tech, where responders could not collect accurate information and relay proper instructions to students, teachers and university employees, helped galvanize action.

IP-based mass notification gives responders the ability to use different methods -- “great voice,” e-mail, text messaging and video -- to promulgate instructions, says John Weaver, marketing manager at Gamewell-FCI, Northford, Conn., a unit of Honeywell that makes fire control systems. At the same time, responders can target specific groups with specific messages, he says. For example, in case of a shooter on campus, responders can focus on targeting and evacuating one building, relaying special instructions to its occupants. Meanwhile, people in other buildings can be told they are not under threat and be advised to stay where they are.

“A fire alarm system, because it’s robust, survivable and subject to scheduled maintenance, is ideal to communicate events to the occupants of a building,”Weaver says.

So far, the military has done the most deployment of these integrated systems, he adds, but there is a lot of interest from the private sector.

“NFPA has been around 47 years. They want to make sure mass notification works to those standards,” says Jim Mongeau, director of business development at Space Age Electronics, Hudson, Mass., which is launching a new division, Lifeguard Networks, to supply ancillary devices for fire alarm systems using IP and open protocols.

Any IP Device

While the fire alarms and panel serve as the primary means to both gather and disperse information, the broader significance of NFPA 72 is that it can turn any IP-enabled device into a tool for mass notification. As long as the device is IP-addressable, it can be controlled from a central point, Mongeau says. At an airport, for example, threat coordinators can take control of electronic signage and video monitors that display departures and arrivals. In addition to text messages, graphical information can be displayed, such as maps and directions to the nearest exit. S

till, one challenge remains: cellular phone networks, which quickly reach capacity during an emergency. Digitize Inc., Lake Hopatcong, N.J., supplies specialized 35-Mb/s IP wireless mesh networks that support emergency communications and mass notification. Using the wireless network, an organization can create one large hub for emergency communications with battery back-up, says Abraham Brecher, president of the company.

As Chapter 12 approaches the end of its comment period, excitement about its potential is becoming more palpable. “The first pass will be out here real soon,” Mongeau says of the code. “It’s great to be involved in an open protocol. Open protocol is the future of mass notification.