School Bell, Lockdown & PA solutions are critical infrastructure components for audible and visual communication in education environments. Day-to-day announcements and emergency alerts can be effectively broadcast throughout entire schools and campuses using a mix of various IP Endpoints. Acting as a single system, a blend of products from speakers, paging adapters, bell schedulers, visual alerters & strobes can be used to create a complete communication system to enhance premise-based communication in education.

All endpoints are 3rd-party, SIP-compliant devices that seamlessly integrate into most leading UC, Collaboration, and Mass Notification systems . Most devices are PoE or PoE+ powered for easy network connectivity and are multicast capable, expanding the reach of communication within any size building or campus.

Schools, colleges, and universities require open standard network-based technology for building and campus communications to integrate with hosted / cloud or premise-based VoIP telephone systems. Leveraging the UC environment allows maximum flexibility for any telephone or device to efficiently meet common application requirements.

Application Areas

• Public Address
• Bell Scheduling
• Safety / Security / Emergency Alerting
• Secure Access Control with 2 way communication

Voice Paging With SIP Speakers

SIP endpoints deliver effective VoIP solutions for schools, from small education facilities to large colleges. Paging adapters are efficient in bringing IP paging to any size school or campus, whereas IP speakers can be utilized in any area of an education building, inside or outside, to deliver clear, intelligible voice paging.

With several speaker selections available, the right speaker model can be chosen for use in different areas of a school, such as applying horn speakers in a gymnasium or installing ceiling speakers in a classroom or a wall speaker across a long hallway or corridor. All these IP endpoints can be used to extend the reach of voice paging and deliver clear communication across both indoor and outdoor spaces of an entire school or campus facility.

Broadly there are two main methods of deploying voice paging in an education environment:

1. IP Enabling Legacy PA Infrastructure by adding a bell scheduler & pa adapters. The legacy system can also be expanded by adding IP speakers and strobes if required.
2. Providing a new fully IP based PA system – ideal for new greenfield sites or at sites where the existing legacy infrastructure is too old or not feasible to IP enable.

Automated Bell Scheduler

Automated School bell scheduler is ideal for schools i.e., different bell tones can be scheduled for school start and close time, class changes, recess, timer bells for parent teacher meets, open days etc. can be easily customized from a PC screen. You get a simple and modern control interface over bells, live and pre-recorded announcements, alarm and lock-down drills and also have a mechanism to trigger emergency messages, lockdowns and alarms. The system uses your network to provide total control and flexibility over your school communications with connection through indoor and outdoor speakers everywhere; classrooms, corridors, fields and halls.

• You can play customized bell tones or music instead of bells
• Annual bell schedules can be set based on calendar for regular school days, parent teacher meets, open days etc.
• Audio announcements can also be scheduled

Lockdown Emergency Notification With Visual Alerting

While audible alerting is sufficient in providing loud, attention-grabbing alerts, visual alerting is an effective solution in school environments that are noisy or noise sensitive. IP Visual Alerters are bright, highly visible, and long-lasting LEDs easily noticeable by an audience no matter where they are standing in a room.

Emergency Notification Endpoints offer high visibility visual alerting and very loud audible alerting devices to provide effective emergency notification in schools and on campuses. The combination of IP Speakers and Visual Alerters enable education facilities to deploy clear emergency communication, such as lockdown events, severe weather warnings, or evacuation notices.

IP speakers deliver loud, distinct alerts that can be heard in any room of a school or campus, including gymnasiums and playgrounds, while visual alerters and displays are highly visible and bring immediate attention to emergency events.

With several solutions for visual alerting, such as stand-alone strobe lights, strobe lights as part of speakers, or visual display screens, endpoints for visual notification are commonly used in schools and on campuses for a variety of incidences, including:

• Announcement in Progress
• Lockdown
• Severe weather warning

Secure Door Entry With Intercoms & Access Control

SIP Door Entry & Access Control Endpoints make it easy to monitor visitors coming and going from school or campus entrances.

Visitors can easily be engaged in two-way talk with admin staff or school security officers at any entry point with an SIP intercom. School staff can gain access quicky by entering their credentials either by RFID card, Bluetooth, Fingerprint, etc. based on the access system used. With several options for both indoor and outdoor use, SIP intercoms provide schools an easy option to monitor and manage visitor entry.

Door Access Control Endpoints can be deployed within the school premises to secure doors to classrooms, libraries, offices, storage areas etc. with varying levels of role based access during both school hours and non school hours.  Multiple access technologies are available i.e. Keypad, Card Reader, Bluetooth, Fingerprint, etc. with an option to enable two factor authentication for extra security.

The Intercoms and Access Control units can be administered and managed from a PC with option to send notifications whenever a forced attempt is made to gain access.

Door Entry Access Control Endpoints can be are used for:

• Visitor Communication and access control
• Emergency and non-emergency access points’
• Office or Classroom secure access control

For more information on the IP School Bell, Lockdown & PA System please contact us for a free consultation or click on link to avail our Free Design Service .