School Lockdown Alert System

[garbage46]

Hi all,

I am looking for suggestions or recommendations for a school wide sound system to be used for an emergency lockdown alarm, similar to the fire alarm system. The existing fire alarm system can only output one sound, the evacuate the building sound. We need to broadcast a "stay in the classroom and lock the doors" sound.

 

The only suggestion we have so far is one the systems listed here, but that seems pricey for a primary school. https://audioinstallations.co.uk/audio/commercial-audio-systems/background-music-systems/school-lockdown-systems/

[PotNoodleTech]

Yep looking for the same thing too.

[TechMonkey]

Bodet is one I have looked at in the past. Has come along quite a lot since I first looked at them. @Net-Ctrl deal with them

 

I was involved with a Netgenium system and it was fab but not the simplest to deal with and wasn't as happy handing any control over to staff.

Edited November 17, 2023 by TechMonkey
Better link

[RobFuller]

We are close to pulling the trigger on a site wide Bodet system, be interested in hearing what others have deployed.

[bknaggs]

We're in the middle of a Bodet deployment. It works OK.

 

Make sure you properly spec where you need speakers - a consultant of some sort was involved with our head and Bursar and said 17 speakers would cover the entire school. No map or details made it to us or Estates so we were doing it with one hand tied behind our back trying to get to what turned out to be an absolute nonsense number. I think we're on 40 speakers now and there are still spots where it can't be heard.

[BenQ_Royce]

do you have interactive screens across the school?

 

I know ours have X-Sign Broadcast built into the backend system, allowing interrupt of use with text, images and video.

 

 

not sure on other brands, but we've examples of schools using this functionality.

 

/Royce

[fiza]

We originally looked at https://admiralsecurity.co.uk/school-lockdown-systems/ Axis PA, and Bodet.

Bodet was too expensive for us and they did not do wiring so we would have had to get a seperate quote for wiring. The Admiral system was just an alarm and seemed cost effective and also worked over wifi.

 

In the end we opted for https://www.axis.com/solutions/public-address-system as it could then be used for general announcements too as well as lockdown messages.

[RobFuller]

We're in the middle of a Bodet deployment. It works OK.

 

Make sure you properly spec where you need speakers - a consultant of some sort was involved with our head and Bursar and said 17 speakers would cover the entire school. No map or details made it to us or Estates so we were doing it with one hand tied behind our back trying to get to what turned out to be an absolute nonsense number. I think we're on 40 speakers now and there are still spots where it can't be heard.

 

Interesting, after various surveys we seems to have landed on around 77 speakers to cover internal and external areas but then we do have a large site to cover.

[CrootUK]

https://www.audiebant.co.uk

[JamieJ]

We've recently installed and used Alertus https://www.alertus.com/.

They also do an initiative aimed at schools that make it free for their basic functionality which covers on-screen alerts on desktop PCs - https://www.alertus.com/safe-in-seconds-apply - Whilst the site is very much US based the scheme also covers UK schools.

[rush_tech]

We have a Bodet System here. The bells, lockdown and the clocks. Whatever else you want it to say it'll say it Edited December 8, 2023 by rush_tech

[archiebaitup]

We currently have a tannoy system that goes through the entire site. 200-250 speakers (Bosch Praesideo), a few years back we installed a lockdown based system which uses multiple CQR PADP3/SS/BK Double Press Panic Button's across our site, these feed a relay which will broadcast a message over our tannoy system. Then when the key releases the panic buttons, an all clear message is broadcast.

We use this on a daily basis to advise students of important messages, request they go to a location, such as the principal's office (very american, i know) and reminders of key events. Well worth the investment.

------ And you can even plug in an iPod to play music site-wide, or in specific zones!

 

There are a few things that I've seen over the years... and perhaps some suggestions...

 

- Either investing in a tannoy system as above

- Do you have phones in every classroom? Can you create a paging group? We use 3cx and it's easy to setup! - this however will miss common areas such as corridors

- Digital Signage, and morden boards can display a message - although would take some time to action and sync, and not the most time-critical solution.

- Upgrade your fire alarm system to a system that can have multiple sounds or sirens - this may make the most financial sense to get everywhere, as you have the cabling there.

Edited January 13, 2024 by archiebaitup

[PotNoodleTech]

Thanks archie very useful post. I think in an ideal world the tannoy option would be the one - getting them to pay for 100+ speakers etc is another ball game though!

[Net-Ctrl]

If you're heading down to BETT, Bodet has a stand if you want to look at the portfolio and discuss options. We will also have some expertise on our stand to talk about lockdown solutions (SE71) - Bodet are a few stands away from us. If you're not down at BETT, and like others, would like to see what Bodet could offer send me a PM and I can ask one of our team that focuses on delivering lockdown solutions to get in touch to see if it would meet your requirements and look at associated costs