Reaching Out
Having the right solution means institutions can offer warnings quicker, easier
- By Ralph C Jensen
- Aug 03, 2009
It’s never been easier to communicate to the masses than it is right now. A bounty of solutions are available not only to schools and campuses, but also for the corporate campus setting to provide safety and security.
Mass notification also has never been so convenient, nor has it been leveraged with so many options and solutions as a network-centric emergency notification system for fire protection.
“Fire service and emergency response organizations have been quick to embrace any technology that can help them perform their missions better,” said Aviv Siegel, chief technology officer and co-founder of AtHoc. “This technology may be designed specifically for the fire service or adopted for fire service use from another industry. This is the case for a new model for mass emergency alerting that has been adopted by the Defense Department for its alerting needs.
“Network-centric emergency notification promises to have a significant impact in the fire protection service.”
More than a year ago, DOD made an extensive review to update its Unified Facilities Criteria 4-021-01 for emergency mass notification systems. Its recommendation was a network-centric model as a supplement to existing methods for quickly reaching large numbers of personnel during an emergency using IP technologies.
DOD officials quickly recognized the powerful advantages inherent in a network-centric alerting system for managing the entire emergency notification process, which included user’s management, groups targeting, operator’s permissions, access policies, predefined emergency scenarios, and response tracking and reporting.
“The UFC impacts standards for organizations such as the National Fire Protection Association, the primary authority on fire prevention and public safety, which provides guidance for mass notification systems and their relationship to fire protection systems,” said William Sako, chairman of Sako & Associates Inc. and a senior vice president of Rolf Jensen & Associates Inc. “NFPA is currently working on moving the network-centric alerting recommendations into mandated code for mass notification to private-sector commercial projects.”
What is a network-centric alerting system, anyway? This is an emergency notification method for turning an IP network and its connected devices into a highly effective alerting system. Emergency alerts are triggered from a Web-based console from any network-connected PC, and once activated, are disseminated across the network in the form of intrusive audio/visual messages to desktop computers, as well as mobile devices such as cell phones, pagers, BlackBerry devices and PDAs. It also can alert traditional channels such as sirens, telephones and public address systems.
“Emergency response plans can be automated so that it becomes truly a one-click system,” said Sam Shanes, president and CEO of Talk-A-Phone. “Instead of linear analog approach where you have to follow a procedure to reach the right people with the right message, you become versatile and extremely efficient with IP technology.”
Benefits and advantages are numerous, but most importantly it is capable of notifying thousands of people simultaneously, significantly reducing overall alert time.
Getting the Message Out
Emergency information doesn’t always get where it needs to go. In an emergency, people need to know what to do next and where to go.
In 2008, CDW Government Inc.’s study, “This is a Test — This is Only a Test: Updating America’s Emergency Alert Infrastructure,” found a deep divide between how Americans communicate today and how local government disseminates emergency information. The number of people with wireless communications is at an all-time high, and 1 billion text messages are flipping through the air daily; however, local governments still rely on television and radio to replay information about emergencies.
“The study also revealed that one-third of U.S. residents have no knowledge of or experience with their local emergency notification program,” said Houston Thomas, public safety business development manager at CDW Government. “Americans want emergency information right away, but most are not sure how to get it. The next actionable step is not so simple. Governments face roadblocks in designing and implementing modern mass notification systems and, importantly, encouraging people to use them.”
With that in mind, CDW-G officials designed a Web site mass notification toolkit. It is expected to streamline system implementation, marketing and sign-up challenges. It also allows development of new partnerships by bringing together all interested parties.
While there are dozens of mass notification solutions available, the best fit should come via an examination of architecture and key features during the request and evaluation process.
“Mass notification is played on an entirely new level when it comes to IP,” Shanes said. “With old analog technology, you are limited to live broadcast or you have to rely on third-party equipment for audio notifications; the number of mass notification nodes you can reach at the same time also is very limited.
“Putting mass notification on a network makes the entire system extremely versatile. Now and end user can select any specific tower or a cluster or zone of towers with the click of a mouse through a Web interface and play an preprecorded messages out of hundreds available to a select group.
The Importance of Communication
Never have mass communications solutions been so important. GE Security has designed a solution that was awarded the Underwriters Laboratory mass notification standard (UL 2572) that offers field-proven crisis management tools and the latest VoIP and fiber-optics communications. It integrates protection and notification systems to use multiple forms of communication, including paging systems, fire alarms, electronic signage, e-mail, computer pop-ups and text messaging.
“The system introduces more reliability, compatibility and flexibility to organizations,” aid Ted Milburn, product marketing manager, life safety communications for the Americas at GE Security. “The important aspect is that it can go over the network on campus in a priority nature. Incidents at Virginia Tech University and Northern Illinois University have brought the need for solutions that work.”
Network-centric mass notification solutions now have shared goals and unified technologies. Not so long ago, it was bells, horns and sirens that alerted to danger. More recently, pre-recorded broadcasts and flashing strobes gave an alert. Today’s solution takes into account the intensifying nature of threats and the increasing complexity of built space.
Mass notifications can be traced back to an event on June 25, 1996, when terrorists exploded a fuel truck adjacent to a housing complex in Khobar, Saudi Arabia. The eight-story housing structure was home to the Air Force. The deadly explosion claimed the lives of 19 service members and one Saudi. More than 370 others were wounded.
A year later, the Khobar Tower Report was issued to explain there were lapses in force protection that the complex had no effective alarm systems and no emergency communications capabilities, and that damage and loss of life could have been minimized if there had been a plan in place to respond to the threat.
Tragic as it may seem, this even championed the cause for emergency response protocol and minimum requirements for emergency communications to be used in the design, construction, operation, maintenance and modernization of all DOD facilities.
“By deploying a network-centric emergency notification system, agencies can quickly transform their existing and pervasive IP networks into effective and reliable alerting systems, capable of notifying thousands of people simultaneously across all types of channels, devices and locations,” Siegel said. “Advantages of an IP notification system include speed and reach of distribution to thousands of network-connected devices in an average of one minute.”
A network-centric mass notification system also unifies alert activation through a single Web-based console to deliver alerts across multiple channels, such as computers, telephone, texting or e-mail, and it enables operators to track delivery and acknowledge every alert to ensure the information is received.
“In the chaotic environment of an emergency, obtaining clear information quickly is priority one,” Siegel said. “A network-centric alerting system has the ability to obtain and disseminate critical situational detail. Alerts sent through the IP network to computer desktops can include more detail than audio alerts made through a loud speaker, accelerating response times and getting the right personnel to respond to the situation.”
Because of the two-way communication capability, network-centric notification provides first responders with up-to-date information from those already on scene. An alert recipient can inform emergency operators where a fire or situation is located, if there are people trapped or hurt and, more importantly, where injured people are located in a building.
“This amount of detailed information represents a tremendous asset in helping first responders make the best possible operational decisions during an emergency and will help ensure a safe outcome for all,” Siegel said. “By using the IP network, alert dissemination becomes more robust and, with a unified approach to alerting that triggers alerts through all channels simultaneously, a consistent message is relayed through the organization or, if desired, different messages can be targeted to various groups, depending upon the end user’s role.”
Leveraging the existing IP network-centric infrastructure that integrates with existing sirens and a public address system promises to be an effective means of alerting the most people in the shortest amount of time. DOD has approved network-centric alerting, and experts in the industry expect the commercial markets to follow suit. IP-based fire alerting technology will not only better protect people at any given facility, but will ensure the safety of first responders in pursuit of their duties.
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All Hands on Deck
System implementation should include key agencies
- IT department. Ensures that the agency’s infrastructure can support the system implementation, and manages or oversees system operations, whether the systems is on site or hosted at a vendor location.
- Local government city managers. Promote employee and citizen participation, of often manage system implementation and management, working hand-in-hand with the IT department.
- Emergency managers, police, fire and emergency services. Ensure that local government and educational institutions’ mass notification systems connect to public safety information systems.
- K-12 district superintendents, school boards and principals. Ensure community support and help to secure additional funding.
- Higher education presidents and academic officers. Promote community participation and secure funding.
- Elected local government officials. Ensure government and community support, and promote participation in and, for local government implementations, to secure funding.
- Human resources department. Identify community groups that need to receive emergency alerts and to help promote sign ups throughout the internal agency.
- Public affairs officers. Integrate notifications into the emergency communications protocols and to help promote sign ups throughout the community.
Source: CDW-G Web site mass notification toolkit.
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About the Author
Ralph C. Jensen is editor-in-chief of Security Products magazine.