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Declaring an interest up front: I'm an IT manager in a multi-academy trust, and I've built a product, unimaginatively called "Lockdown Alert". I never expected to commercialise it, but here we are. I'm not here to sell to anyone. I'd like people who do this job to pick holes in it. The problem: the quotes our trust got for lockdown beacons and sirens ran to tens of thousands, and Martyn's Law is pushing every school to have a way of telling everyone on site at once. What it does: one press of a trigger and every screen on site goes full screen with the lockdown message and a siren. - Started from: a panic button, a phone, a PC, dialling a number, a BLF key on a SIP phone, a webhook, even an email. - Shows on: Windows PCs (even when locked or the monitor is asleep), Chromebooks, Android, Macs, classroom panels and TVs. - Drills: shown clearly as practice, and every alert and drill is logged for governors and inspectors. The panic buttons are Bluetooth and just need to be near a PC or phone running the app. There's no hub. I've put my own encrypted firmware on them, tied to each school, so our little darlings can't buy the same button online and set off an alarm. Deployment: - Windows: an MSI through Intune, with a ready-made .intunewin package. - Chromebooks: an extension through Google Admin, from the Chrome Web Store. - Panels and screens: open a short web address and click to enrol, so nobody types long enrolment keys. - Guests: a QR code to enrol their own phone, plus apps on the App Store and Google Play. - No server, on site or in Azure. It's hosted in the UK. - Load tested with 20,000 connected devices: 95% had the alert within 0.08 seconds (5% in less than 0.54 seconds) There is a QR code enrolment for guests onsite too and there is a version on the App and Play store The honest limits: - It needs the internet. If a school's line is down, PCs on that network won't get the alert until it's back, though staff phones on mobile data will. But we are all meeting DfE DS for 2030 with backup internet lines..... aren't we!?? 😜 - It tells people what's happening. It doesn't replace a fire alarm or a a full lockdown procedure. Price: £395 a year for a primary, with a free 30-day trial and no card needed: https://lockdownalert.co.uk - It will also be Cyber Essentials certified in the next week. It's in use and being trialled in schools now but what would stop you using something like this? What's missing? Would you be willing to test it out? If 30 days isn't long enough to get it past SLT, message me and I'll extend it. Criticism genuinely welcome.