Notifier Towson University Case Study

Project Pro le Towson University UNIVERSITY IN TOWSON MARYLAND is of the essence when disaster looms Weather related tragedies and terrorist of the past decade have created increased demand from public and private for a reliable means of communicating critical information to large groups people This mass noti cation concept has received heightened attention from facilities particularly in the military educational and commercial industrial sectors ASSESSMENT AND RISK ANALYSIS to Paul Parrish Towson University environmental health and safety of cer issue of mass noti cation came up at Towson when someone asked how we can to communicate with students and staff in an emergency University encompasses more than 40 buildings covering 328 acres within the of Towson 15 minutes outside of Baltimore er com WORLD HEADQUARTERS Clintonville Road Northford CT 06472 USA 203 484 7161 Fax 203 484 7118 er com weapons of mass destruction or the possi of a hazmat incident came up we had to ask if we could realistically notify the staff student population of an emergency situation time to make a real difference says Parrish users to provide real time announce Systems in seven of the buildings catego as high rises also include re ghter phones enable rst responders to communicate with each other initial emergency communications solu comprised a text messaging system used to students staff parents and others While such proved to reach a good portion of Towson university of cials understood it was a comprehensive solution Fireline is upgrading the remaining buildings to include ONYX Series EVAC from Noti er Once complete all buildings will feature both re alarm and mass noti cation protection all of which will be tied together centralized campus wide control also have an outdoor public address system of ve speaker towers University recently installed them on select buildings provide adequate campus wide coverage says we realized that this was not enough also needed mass noti cation inside our build university already had standalone re alarm emergency voice alarm communications in half of its buildings However these operated independently requiring users be located within each building to activate com for guidance Parrish approached the current re protection contractors Fireline He quickly learned there was an easy to network all of the school EVAC systems to enable school of cials to make throughout the campus from single location ECONOMIC APPROACH Towson speci cations Fireline worked to de a combination re alarm MNS with one point of and control Making use of the individual re alarm EVAC systems succeeded in saving the a substantial sum of time and money installed the in building MNS systems we which also are part of our campus wide re alarm system Where the police department is for the outdoor speaker system I for the mass noti cation re alarm says Parrish of the schools buildings are equipped Noti er EVAC systems featuring standard messages and microphones for retro t applications similar to Towson capital on the strengths of existing re alarm com and noti cation technology can deliver bene ts not common to alternative MNS Supervision These systems are self monitor ing meaning immediate alerts are sent to central monitoring station personnel any time an issue that could compromise system functionality is detected i e loose wire detector tampering etc Survivability Many of today re alarm net work technologies comprise distributed intelli gence which can help to assure functionality during a catastrophic event As a result if one part of the network is damaged the remaining components continue to operate properly Intelligibility Clarity of communications is critical indoors and outside increasing speak er volumes can many times distort the mes sage Proper MNS design takes background noise room size and acoustics into considera tion while incorporating visual noti cation such as LED signage and special colored strobes Testing Requirements Per NFPA National Fire Alarm Association code all commercial re alarm systems in both public and private facilities are to be tested and properly main tained on a semi annual basis Failure to do so typically results in the loss of occupancy permits UNIFICATION AND CONTROL NOTI FIRE NET network technology Fire has been able to tie together new and existing systems throughout the campus Connectivity individual buildings has been accom using the university existing campus Ethernet network considerable cost NOTIFIER ONYXWorks graphic workstation lo at the university police department provides of cials with a common point of command control Here campus security and safety can view all system events and mainte alerts as well as issue critical instructions to c areas or groups of buildings Much like a address system this central workstation also for day to day announcements to be made campus wide network facilitates easy of similar systems during future campus The Internet worldwide reach make possible for Towson to connect and control other re alarm MNS on a local regional and global building codes and public expectations to pressure for better more comprehen MNS within all facility types It important security directors and others in positions of to consider future MNS needs prior performing a major building systems renovation when upgrading re alarms to Parrish better to upgrade to EVAC now as opposed to traditional horns when mass noti cation is needed the transition be smooth and cost effective over 60 years NOTIFIER has been a leader in the re alarm industry Today we are the largest of engineered re alarm systems with over 400 distributors worldwide and regional operations on every continent for the exibility and options your business needs Leaders in Life Safety Technology