Ubiquiti AP AC EDU as a PA system - Thoughts?

[jlucas]

Good morning,

Those of you that have the Ubiquiti EDU wifi system and use it as a PA system, what is it like?

 

Our college would like to use it as a way to signal lesson changes, warn of bomb/terrorist/intruder threats, that kind of thing.

 

Can you schedule it to play a bell sound?

 

What is the interface like for interacting with it?

 

Thanks

James

[FN-GM]

I have heard on here that they have stopped making this and getting new AP's is becoming a problem. I would be cautious.

[christhetech]

We went for a Bodet system here. Not the cheapest system around, but it is excellent. It is sold as a lockdown system, but it is so much more. We use it as a class change bell system, PA system, lockdown system and it also integrates with the school radio station and external speakers. It is a completely wireless solution and the SLT here absolutely love it, as do the office staff, who love the simplicity of it.

[IrritableTech]

Good morning,

Those of you that have the Ubiquiti EDU wifi system and use it as a PA system, what is it like?

Our college would like to use it as a way to signal lesson changes, warn of bomb/terrorist/intruder threats, that kind of thing.

Can you schedule it to play a bell sound?

What is the interface like for interacting with it?

Thanks

James

 

We've fitted 25 around school in corridors as a tannoy system mainly for lock-down incidents.

 

Out of the box the units are set to use the Unifi controller (obviously) and the unifi edu app. There is very little you can do with the controller regarding the PA side of things - pretty much everything is done in the app. So you'll need an IOS or Android Device to set this up. Yes you can set schedules for a recorded sound, but this is setup within the app to be a voice recording really. However we found the sounds were recorded into a standard format and held within the controller folder (you'll have to forgive the fact I can't quite remember where) and could be replaced with a pre-recorded sound.

 

The app allows you to broadcast straight from the IOS or Android device. So you can hit broadcast and select the group of units you wish to broadcast to and you are live. So you need a device ready for when that emergency happens.

 

We're however not using the app. We've gone down the slightly more beta route of using the EDU speakers as SIP devices and setup a FreePBX to assign each one a number and create call groups. That way we've been able to integrate it into our phone system. So someone in the office can use a device they are familiar with to make an announcement when they are under pressure - in fact we could expand this to any phone in the building of cause. They lift a handset, dial a few digits and after a beep, they are live across school. Going down this route however disables the app entirely - so you loose the sound scheduling and broadcasting from a mobile device. However for our needs this was the best option - ease of use in an emergency.

 

They are reasonably loud speakers, but perhaps better situated in each room if you are using it as a bell system multiple times a day. Each speakers volume can be adjusted for the room. A drama or tech room with equipment running is likely needed to be higher than an english room perhaps. On the corridors like we have them, through a fire door they are not brilliant. However because we're only using them in an emergency and not every day, users tend to prick up their ears because it's different.

 

UK distributors have stopped stocking the EDU units - presumably because they weren't very popular and the AP attached to them is slightly older technology. They can still be purchased and they are currently not EOL (but who knows when that may change) but European stocks are coming from the Czech Republic at the moment - I bought one two weeks ago. There was a fire sale a few months ago when the UK distributors wanted them off their shelves, we bought our bulk at that time.

 

They are not the loudest speakers, they are not the fanciest of APs either. But for the price they probably have more bang for buck than an AP (unifi or other) and a SIP speaker system (bodet or other) in one fairly neat package.

[PotNoodleTech]

The PA APs are £200 each more expensive than the equivalent standard AP and if you are looking to put one per room and corridors then it's gonna cost ya!

 

Also the technology of those APs is a couple of GENS out of date so you would be effectively sacrificing your wireless network just to have the PA functionality.

 

It is not a cost effective way of doing a PA system. It'sa shame as if they were not so much more expensive and if they did them based on newer tech APs it would be a great idea.