Moreover, communication systems need to have the ability to reach different areas with different messages, and even different messages for different audiences. Staff may have to receive a call-to-action, while the travelling public may have to be told to move calmly to a specific location. Take the scenario of a fire in a restaurant located in the departure lounge. A number of things must be done immediately – contain the fire, send for experts and get the general public to safety. With a unified communications and Voice Evacuation Alarm System (VES), a command centre
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...any system with such a vital part to play in the welfare of passengers and staff must be completely resilient...”
is able to respond fast by producing announcements tailored to the specific area, ensuring the location can be evacuated in an orderly manner, with passengers and staff knowing exactly where to go, while clearly instructing the experts at the same time. All this needs to take place whilst ensuring flights can arrive and depart with minimal delays. Clearly, the old bell system is not sufficient for the new, complex threat landscape that exists today. Unfortunately, the infrastructures of many airports have still not caught up with the modern day safety and security requirements.
Old and Disjointed: the communi- cation systems of the past With a few exceptions of new airports built on green field sites that include state-of- the-art facilities in their construction, most airports have grown organically, adding new terminals, driveways and facilities over time. This has often lead to disjointed, legacy communications systems that have to be managed in isolation from each other. What’s more, making upgrades or reconfig- uring alerts are time consuming and expen- sive as they require a great deal of human intervention. However, with today’s strict security requirements, it is important to have a communication system that is unified and can be centrally controlled. An infrastructure that is fully networked also means that, in case of a fault in the system, the prob- lem can be identified and addressed very quickly, which is more of a challenge with a traditional, dispersed system.
Airports Becoming Networked Having realised that their old, disjointed and patchy communications infrastructures are not up to the challenges of the new world order, some airports have already started to
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take steps towards a unified media system that improves communication and security across their entire infrastructure. The Erik Nielsen Whitehorse International Airport in Canada, for example, has introduced a network-based audio paging system that uses Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) for a highly networked, flexible and scalable communications infrastructure. Whitehorse benefits from technology, including combined distribution processing and page routing, as well as networked audio and control. Using standard Ethernet networking technology, the system includes a highly adaptable and scalable communication system that is centrally monitored yet can be localised, or zoned, to the smallest of areas. The networked approach eliminates
a single point of system failure, allowing for decentralised design and a system that is expandable from a single paging station and can be amplified to a more complex paging system across several zones and multiple buildings. In terms of end-user benefits, staff can produce live, delayed and recorded announcements, take advantage of system-wide alarms and event logging, message store and forward as well as background music routing. This type of system architecture enables airports to combine their general entertainment infrastructure, as well as their security and safety communication, all under one stable, reliable and highly resilient network. While Wellington International Airport
in New Zealand has also taken a similar approach to Whitehorse, at Hong Kong International Airport, Cathay Pacific, which owns several large lounges widely dispersed across the airport, has implemented a network-based system in order to share music channels between lounges, as well as having the ability to make system-wide pages in the event of an emergency. For implementation, the airline was able to harness the existing fibre backbone already in place in the airport’s building fabric.
Evacuation Strategies: what to look out for
An integral part of an airport’s communica- tion system is an evacuation procedure that is tightly integrated with the overall com- munications infrastructure. It goes without saying that any system with such a vital part to play in the welfare of passengers and staff must be completely resilient. For this reason a network-based, decentralised sys- tem is the clear choice. As noted earlier, a centralised system introduces the risk of a single connec- tion failure bringing down the entire system. In the case of a large airport, a decentralised system can make all the dif- ference. For example, using a centralised alarm infrastruc- ture over large areas increas-
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es the risk of a system failure. But the self contained, intelligent end-points of a decen- tralised, network-based system remove this risk, making it substantially more reliable. Scalability is another key benefit; as airports are expanded or renovated it is a smarter investment to ensure any safety system is able to scale upwards to meet future needs. A sophisticated VES can use real-time
information to make sure that passengers are directed along an exit route that best avoids danger. For example in the case of an airport terminal evacuation, the technology manager may wish to direct people of one terminal to the west exits while at the same time work to move the passengers of an alternative terminal towards the eastern exits. In this instance it is vital that a VES provides zone management capabilities. This will allow location-appropriate information to be accurately communicated as needed.
Adaptability Part of the difficulty in providing technology for airport evacuations is that each facility is unique and constantly evolving. This means any solution must ensure that it is both bespoke and future proof.
Any communications system used must include both a highly customisable interface and hardware. In terms of the interface, it must be equipped with an easily tailored paging feature to provide both pre-recorded and live voice messages. The mapping or zoning of these messages need to match the current schematics of a building, as well as any changes that may be needed should structures be added or the facility’s design reconfigured in any way. What’s more, when evaluating a potential communications system, a technology manger should look for one that has remote supervision capabilities. Being able to access the system remotely allows the technology manager to properly and effectively monitor the entire system in real-time - gaining greater resource efficiencies. Arguably one the most advanced ways voice alarm technology can contribute to a safe and
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edit: Biamp Systems
December 2011 Aviationsecurityinternational
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