Jollity Posted April 7, 2012 Posted April 7, 2012 Rather on the fringes of ICT, but the Bursar has given the project to me. The head has decided we need a bell system to signal the end of lessons. I think everyone is having so much fun learning they lose track of the time. It is quite a distributed site, so I think we will need a wireless system or one that uses the existing network, rather than a system requiring dedicated wiring. I have got some people from Bodet coming into show us their Melodys Sounder system. I was wondering if anyone had any experience with this or similar systems they could share with me. If the dedicated systems end up too expensive, I might be rigging up some kind of computer based reminder system, but obviously that would have disadvantages with computer being off or muted and so on.
glennda Posted April 7, 2012 Posted April 7, 2012 Ours is integrated into our Fire Alarm system. We have a controller which is attached to said system and triggers the alarm for short bursts for lesson ends - although we have actually halved the number bells which go off each day. Perhaps talking to your fire alarm company as well? 1
plexer Posted April 7, 2012 Posted April 7, 2012 Danfoss timer wired into sounders across the site. Ben
plexer Posted April 7, 2012 Posted April 7, 2012 BellCommander School bell Scheduling Software Bell system, Melodys sounders for schools and factories Couple of ideas. Ben
Jollity Posted April 7, 2012 Author Posted April 7, 2012 Perhaps talking to your fire alarm company as well? I have no idea how the fire alarms are set up, but it might be worth seeing if we can make use of their infrastructure. Thanks for the idea!
glennda Posted April 7, 2012 Posted April 7, 2012 I have no idea how the fire alarms are set up, but it might be worth seeing if we can make use of their infrastructure. Thanks for the idea! Ours has its own circuit and as far as the Fire Alarm system is concerned the alarm is triggered but then the device stops the alarm after 5 seconds or so - it does occasionally make you sit up and listen when you think the bell change has been going for a while and actually its just you thinking that!
john Posted April 12, 2012 Posted April 12, 2012 Ours has its own circuit and as far as the Fire Alarm system is concerned the alarm is triggered but then the device stops the alarm after 5 seconds or so - it does occasionally make you sit up and listen when you think the bell change has been going for a while and actually its just you thinking that! Fire Alarms are a common way now, our new fire alarm does the sessional bells as well, but they must operate a different tone to meet regulations so I am told so we might have a ring for fire and a beep for lessons maybe.....
Jollity Posted April 14, 2012 Author Posted April 14, 2012 Sadly the fire alarm idea turned out to be a non-starter as our fire alarms are on independent circuits in each building. We had a Bodet rep into demonstrate their system. It seems pretty swish: 16 different recorded sounds you can trigger and potential to use the same system to do things like switching off floodlights at fixed times. It is not cheap though.
mjs_mjs Posted April 14, 2012 Posted April 14, 2012 (edited) Do you have a school wide tannoy system? Edited April 14, 2012 by mjs_mjs being dyslexic!
Jollity Posted April 14, 2012 Author Posted April 14, 2012 Do you have a school wide tanno system? Nope. The current level of our schoolwide broadcast communication is wall-mounted manual bells and hand-held hooters.
Edu-IT Posted April 16, 2012 Posted April 16, 2012 Fire Alarms are a common way now, our new fire alarm does the sessional bells as well, but they must operate a different tone to meet regulations so I am told so we might have a ring for fire and a beep for lessons maybe..... Oh really? Anyone confirm this?
mrbios Posted April 16, 2012 Posted April 16, 2012 Fire Alarms are a common way now, our new fire alarm does the sessional bells as well, but they must operate a different tone to meet regulations so I am told so we might have a ring for fire and a beep for lessons maybe..... Ours are the same tone for lessons and fire, only difference being lessons are a 2-3 second ring while the fire is constant (and one we've never used: bomb alarm is a constant on and off, very few people actually know this....i was a student here when they tested it in 2001, whether that's still the case though i don't know ) We've never been told about the tone having to be different unless that's a new regulation? that said it's not part of our job, it's all down to the site team.
sirsir Posted April 16, 2012 Posted April 16, 2012 We use Bodet here. Setting up has to be well planned, and power is required to all sounders. All works well and the software is robust. Tom 1
Jollity Posted April 16, 2012 Author Posted April 16, 2012 We use Bodet here. Setting up has to be well planned, and power is required to all sounders. All works well and the software is robust. Thanks, that is good to hear. What in particular needs to be planned in the setting up? We were thinking about doing the install ourselves rather than paying their engineers to do it, as our head of maintenance is a competent electrician - do you think that would be a mistake?
JordanT91 Posted July 12, 2016 Posted July 12, 2016 If you can, it might be worth getting a fancy new system with lots of sounds. Schools should have at least a fire alarm tone, but if possible also a bomb alarm, shelter alarm and a lockdown alarm. Our system is quite old and is only capable of a fire alarm so we use that for a bomb alarm as well. We have just put procedures in place for shelter and lockdown but basically it involves the use of whistles and airhorns. On the subject of differentiating between the fire alarm and lesson change bell, usually the lesson change sound is beep beep beep beep etc. for about 5 seconds wheres the fire alarm is a constant tone.
dhicks Posted July 12, 2016 Posted July 12, 2016 If you can, it might be worth getting a fancy new system with lots of sounds. This thread is a few years old, but it's something we've been looking at recently as the head has decided a school "radio" station of some kind would be good. We have a VoIP phone system, the handsets for which will act as multicast receivers, so all we have to do is add a few more speakers in areas where there's no phone handset (corridors, mostly). In our case we have PoE capable network switches with UPS backed power, so we just have to run network points to appropriate locations around the school and install VoIP-capable speakers. Whole-school audio (speech, sound effects, music if you have an appropriate license) can be broadcast as you wish.
JordanT91 Posted July 12, 2016 Posted July 12, 2016 This thread is a few years old I don't even know how that happened, it showed up on the recent threads bit at the top!
lmgtfy Posted July 12, 2016 Posted July 12, 2016 This thread is a few years old, but it's something we've been looking at recently as the head has decided a school "radio" station of some kind would be good. We have a VoIP phone system, the handsets for which will act as multicast receivers, so all we have to do is add a few more speakers in areas where there's no phone handset (corridors, mostly). In our case we have PoE capable network switches with UPS backed power, so we just have to run network points to appropriate locations around the school and install VoIP-capable speakers. Whole-school audio (speech, sound effects, music if you have an appropriate license) can be broadcast as you wish. Sounds like an interesting way of doing this, what voip speakers are you looking at out of interest? are they cheap enough?
dhicks Posted July 13, 2016 Posted July 13, 2016 Sounds like an interesting way of doing this, what voip speakers are you looking at out of interest? We were considering something like the Algo 8186: Wideband IP Horn Speaker, SIP or multicast, HD Voice, weatherproof Those cost around £300 - we would need around 20 to cover all our various areas around the school, so the price would be getting on for around £10,000 by the time we add in cabling and installation work. We have used a Snom PA 1: Snom PA1 VoIP Loudspeaker Amplifier Nearer £100 each, but requires additional speakers. Our existing unit is set up with powered speakers and works very well, but for round the school we'd want PoE-powered devices. Also more bits to install, with a receiver unit and separately wired speakers. 1
lmgtfy Posted July 13, 2016 Posted July 13, 2016 We were considering something like the Algo 8186: Wideband IP Horn Speaker, SIP or multicast, HD Voice, weatherproof Those cost around £300 - we would need around 20 to cover all our various areas around the school, so the price would be getting on for around £10,000 by the time we add in cabling and installation work. We have used a Snom PA 1: Snom PA1 VoIP Loudspeaker Amplifier Nearer £100 each, but requires additional speakers. Our existing unit is set up with powered speakers and works very well, but for round the school we'd want PoE-powered devices. Also more bits to install, with a receiver unit and separately wired speakers. Thanks for all the info, will you be using these for lesson change over? Is there programming in the units to ring all at different schedules I take it?
dhicks Posted July 13, 2016 Posted July 13, 2016 Thanks for all the info, will you be using these for lesson change over? Is there programming in the units to ring all at different schedules I take it? We don't have a bell between lessons, we would be using these speakers for general announcements, alerts, and possibly a pupil "radio" station in some locations. These devices are simply VoIP receivers, like telephone handsets, so you'll need some central bit of software to send out audio to appropriate speakers. I think VLC has the ability to broadcast audio, so we should be able to use that. 1
jmak Posted July 13, 2016 Posted July 13, 2016 There are also the UniFi APs with built in speaker - no extra hardware or software required to use as alarms or PA system. https://www.ubnt.com/unifi/unifi-ap-ac-edu/ Wish they'd been available when we put ours in.... 1
fiberoptics Posted July 27, 2016 Posted July 27, 2016 You may consider getting a fancy new system with lots of sounds.
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