Consulting-Specifying Engineer - April 2008 - (Page 20) “ The mass notification system must have the capability to send instructions to people in specific spaces, floors, buildings, and facilities throughout the campus, or in some instances, to an entire regional or global network of people.” still intrigued with finding the “magic” system that will guarantee a horrific event will not occur on their campus. The most popular approach to this type of instant notification solution on campuses today is the digital text messaging system. The well-founded theory behind it is that all students are mobile and they carry cell phones. So, in the event of an emergency, campus officials simply send mass notification instructions as text messages to the students’ cell phones. While such systems are great in theory, and can be successful in many instances, they have some holes. For example, a major natural disaster might knock out the digital system or the electrical power necessary to run it offline. Or the college/university may only be successful in signing up 20% to 30% of the students for the text-messaging service. What about the other 70% to 80% of the students? Or, what if the message recipients are in locations where their cell phones must be turned off, such as a lecture hall, or students are engaged in a sports activity? Essentially, effective mass notification is not a singular system; it’s a process that involves leveraging and integrating many, if not all, of the monitoring, communications, and control systems in a campus. The sidebar at left provides a list of technologies that may need to be integrated in an effective mass notification system. Five-step design process Achieving an effective, efficient mass notification capability on a campus requires comprehensive preparation and precise execution. Here are five steps to help understand the processes from design through activation. Step 1: Assess the threats Every campus situation is different. A rural campus in Kansas might be more vulnerable to violent tornadoes than a campus located in downtown Chicago where the major threat could be drug-related security breaches from surrounding neighborhoods. Both campuses may need to take precautions against disturbed or disgruntled students or staff members. Campus officials won’t be in a position to design intelligent mass communications response until they analyze the vulnerabilities and threats unique to their campuses. This analysis must take into consideration what events could possibly happen and how they rank in probability of occurrence from most likely to least likely. According to a recent public safety survey, these are the major identified threats and the percentage of public safety officials who ranked each one the top threat: Natural disasters – 65% Drug trafficking or drug possession – 11% Non-drug related crimes – 10% Terrorist attacks – 7% Fires – 2% In addition to identifying and ranking the threats, you need to assess when (time of day, time of year, special dates) and where (specific office, building, or facility) an event could take place. Mass notification integration • Leverage all existing infrastructure and wired, wireless, and networked technologies on campus • Interconnect different types of new and legacy systems into a “unified notification system” • Interconnect systems and equipment from different manufacturers together • Interconnect at a hardware and/or software level • In reality, existing equipment can’t be thrown away to buy new, state-of-the-art items, so use what you have on hand • Require various interfaces that are managed by software to serve as the “glue” to hold the alerting systems and make them work together • Include “bridges” to allow signal routing and interface with various campus VHF/UHF/CB radio systems • Include “gateways” to allow signal routing, interface, and integration with various fire, security, and monitoring systems. Systems could include: • Life-safety voice evacuation systems, as may be approved and sanctioned under NFPA 72 and approved by the authority having jurisdiction • LAN/WAN IT networks • Local public address systems • Wireless systems such as cell phones, pagers, PDAs, etc. • Any other wide-area resource. 20 Consulting-Specifying Engineer • APRIL 2008
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