Class change/intruder lockdown system - IP or analogue?

[ap_]

We are just looking into costings of class change/intruder lockdown systems. It seems going for an IP based solution may add an extra £5-7K to the solution.

 

Is the extra cost of IP worth it and/or would choosing an analogue system in 2019 be an outmoded choice for the next 20 years?

 

Our needs are simple:

 

class change

lockdown buttons

volume and alert zoning

different tones for lockdown

 

 

I can't imagine this changing much in the future so analogue seems fine (and perhaps technically simpler, lower power consumption and more resilient?) but should we be thinking towards the future and integrating IP speakers with the CCTV system and some AI to target poorly behaved students and shout messages at them ?

[TechMonkey]

We have just gone through the same process. Went with an IP solution so we had greater flexibility and interoperability. I don't remember it being that much more expensive, unless you hadn't got POE+ already. The analogue systems were semi IP anyway so seemed like abit of a bodge.

 

We also found that with certain IP systems you could address a single speaker and microphones could be built in so in a situation, 2-way communication would be possible. This may not be a major consideration to all but it was felt that it would be a benefit in our situation.

 

The final benefit was that we will be able to add on ourselves with an IP system. I'm sure we could have worked it out with an analogue system but with the IP we just need a network point and to use the software.

Edited July 22, 2019 by TechMonkey