Security & technology
Evacuation & PA systems
EXIT signage, emergency lighting, speakers and public-address panels.
A voice evacuation system exists to turn an alarm signal into an organised evacuation. When the fire alarm is triggered, it plays a pre-recorded message into specific zones of the building, and a microphone lets an operator speak to those zones directly. Alongside it, EXIT signage and emergency luminaires keep the escape route visible once the main lighting is off or smoke has cut visibility. The audio system decides nothing by itself: the fire panel starts it, which is why detection and voice alarm are planned as one system.
A message that is loud is not the same as a message that is understood. Glass, stone and bare concrete send sound back late, and those reflections land on top of the syllables that follow, so in a tall hall more volume makes the words less clear rather than more. Noise from ventilation, plant or a crowd sets the level the message has to rise above, so ceiling height, surfaces and measured noise decide how many loudspeakers go in and where: more of them at lower power, closer to the listener, beat a few loud ones. The audio zones have to line up with the fire compartments and the escape routes, and the lines are run in fire-rated cable and monitored, so that one damaged section cannot silence a whole floor. On top of that comes a standby supply of its own, because the system has to speak at the moment mains power is gone.
The first thirty seconds of an evacuation are spent hesitating. On a siren, a person looks up, asks whoever is sitting next to them, finishes what they had started and heads for the door they came in by, which is the main entrance rather than the nearest exit. A voice message cuts that pause short: it names the floor, says what has happened and which way to go, and repeats until people are moving, and if the situation changes the operator comes in over the microphone. Zoning does what a siren cannot: the people in the area at risk leave first, while the other floors are held by a message of their own, so that one stair is not asked to take the whole building at once. A siren has only one thing to say, that there is an alarm; everything after that, each person who hears it has to work out alone.
What it covers
- Evacuation direction signage (EXIT)
- Emergency LED lighting
- Ceiling and wall speakers
- PA control panels and microphones
- Electrical cabling
Where it applies
- Shopping centres and retail chains
- Hotels and conference halls
- Teaching buildings and halls of residence
- Hospitals and rehabilitation centres
- Multi-storey office buildings
- Underground car parks and warehouses
Standards and regulations
Voice alarm equipment belongs to the EN 54 family. EN 54-16 sets the requirements for the control equipment, among them how the signal is taken from the fire panel and how a fault on the system's own lines is indicated; EN 54-24 describes the loudspeakers as components tested for exactly this duty; and the standby power supply is covered by a separate part of the same series. On the lighting side, EN 1838 fixes the minimum illuminance needed along an escape route and the distance from which a sign must still be readable, EN 50172 the operating and periodic testing regime, and ISO 7010 the shape of the pictogram itself. In the logic of NFPA 72, emergency voice communication is part of the fire alarm system and is judged by speech intelligibility, which is measured rather than assumed. In Georgia, the range of buildings on which such a system is mandatory is set by the fire safety technical regulation.
Need a consultation?
Call or write to us. We'll establish which system your site actually needs.
Frequently asked questions
How is voice evacuation different from an ordinary PA system?
From below, both are loudspeakers in a ceiling; the difference is how the system behaves when something has failed. Voice alarm equipment is tested for exactly this duty, its lines are monitored so that a break shows on the panel as a fault, and a standby supply means the message is still heard with the mains gone. A background music installation usually has none of those properties, which is why using loudspeakers that are already in the ceiling is a matter to be checked rather than assumed.
Is voice evacuation mandatory for my building?
That is settled by the fire safety technical regulation, which ties the requirement to the function of the building and to how many people have to be brought out of it. The evacuation plan weighs just as much: where people do not know the layout, or where floors have to leave in sequence rather than all at once, voice messaging appears in the fire safety section of the design. It is that section that answers the question for a specific address, not a general rule.
Can voice evacuation be added without closing the building?
It can, and it is a common job. The main questions are technical: where the fire-rated cable can be routed, whether the ceilings can be opened, and whether the existing fire panel can start the audio system. In an occupied building the work is planned in zones and stages so that the building does not have to stop.
How much does voice evacuation cost?
The first thing counted is the number of zones: the audio is divided the way the building is divided into fire compartments and escape routes, and each zone needs a monitored line of its own and its share of amplifier power. The second is the acoustics of the space: in a high, hard-finished hall sound comes back for a long time, so it takes more loudspeakers at lower power than a low-ceilinged office of the same floor area. That is what a site survey measures: the background noise level, the ceiling height, the surfaces, and where usable cable routes already run. The number of loudspeakers becomes clear after that measurement, not from the square metres.
Request a consultation
Fill in the form and we'll get back to you during working hours.