Fire Alarm System - Notification Appliances

Notification Appliances

• Audible, visible, tactile, textual or even olfactory stimuli (odorizer)to alert the occupants. Evacuation signals may consist of audible or visible appliances with a distinct audible tone or speakers to deliver live or pre-recorded instructions to the occupants.
• In the United States, fire alarm evacuation signals generally consist of a standardized temporal code 3 audible tone, with visual notification in all public and common use areas. Emergency signals are intended to be distinct and understandable to avoid confusion with other signals.

Other methods include:

• Audible textual appliances, which are employed as part of a fire alarm system that includes Emergency Voice Alarm Communications (EVAC) capabilities. High reliability speakers are used to notify the occupants of the need for action in connection with a fire or other emergency. These speakers are employed in large facilities where general undirected evacuation is considered impracticable or undesirable. The signals from the speakers are used to direct the occupant's response. The system may be controlled from one or more locations within the building known as Fire Wardens Stations, or from a single location designated as the building Fire Command Center. Speakers are automatically actuated by the fire alarm system in a fire event, and following a pre-alert tone, selected groups of speakers may transmit one or more prerecorded messages directing the occupants to safety. These messages may be repeated in one or more languages. Trained personnel activating and speaking into a dedicated microphone can suppress the replay of automated messages in order to initiate or relay real time voice instructions.