During emergencies, it’s imperative that communication is optimised. To achieve this, Emergency Voice Communication (EVC) systems are installed to support the transfer of emergency information between individuals – usually across multiple types of devices and wide distances.
The question is: when is Emergency Voice Communication needed? It can be hard to determine whether your property requires such a system or not, but we have listed some situations below where it might come in good use.
In the event of a fire
An emergency voice communication system allows firefighters to communicate with other medical professionals and the individuals that they are assisting – with message prioritization, fast message delivery and communication audit trails, the fire and rescue service can swiftly and effectively coordinate a building evacuation.
Typically, a call can be made from an evacuated floor to advise a central control centre that the floor has been cleared. The fire and rescue service would normally take control of the evacuation upon arrival at site, with a fire officer at the control centre communicating with other officers via the EVC system.
Within a Disabled Refuge
A disabled refuge area is a relatively safe place for those who cannot easily use fire escapes and evacuation lifts. Here, people with a disability can call for assistance and wait while the main building occupancy is evacuated.
This allows building management and emergency services to safely locate and assist these people from the building when stairwell crowding has eased. Simple, two-way communication in these areas is essential; firstly to assist rescue teams in determining where assistance is required and secondly to reassure people help is on the way.
In case of mobility impairment
Mobility impairment is defined as not being able to walk 200m continuously without aid, and includes arthritis sufferers, people with leg and back injuries and women over 6 months pregnant.
Manually handling those with mobility impairment, especially down stairwells, is and always has been problematic. Whether people are awaiting safe rescue in refuge areas or are being assisted immediately by fire and rescue – key communication of their needs and potential injuries is key.
EVC systems are designed for flexibility and high performance, providing valuable information when a person is unable to evacuate themselves or is in dire need of medical assistance.
When providing instructions
Emergency voice communication comes in exceptionally handy when clear and actionable instructions for how to respond to an emergency are needed.
In a study by the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Centre for Wireless Technologies, it was revealed that regardless of the initial notification of an emergency, a secondary confirmation was required before action would be taken. Providing instructions through quick, interconnected channels may save lives in an urgent emergency situation; the need for secondary verification would be completely negated.
When contacting targeted recipients
Emergencies often require the delivery of different versions of the same communication at the same time. For example, in a hostage-taking incident, occupants of a building may need instructions to lock and barricade the door until further notice whilst first responders need to be made aware of the lockdown instructions and specific details of the hostage-taking event.
Using this example, advanced emergency voice communication systems can deliver a single message providing full details to first responders, whilst filtering that same message to provide more limited instructions to different groups – whether that is a specific building, department or individual.
A single message can save the time and expense wasted on multiple messages restating the same, exact thing.
CDS Security & Fire
If you’re looking for Emergency Voice Communication system installers, CDS Security & Fire can help. They design, install, commission and maintain their systems relevant to the legal guidelines. The emergency voice communication systems they provide demand nothing less than high-quality performance, able to transfer emergency information in the blink of an eye.
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