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Staff Alarm Systems


• The information it provides to others should be clear and unambiguous.


How the system meets all these criteria is relatively unimportant, as long as it does it first time, every time. In establishing these fundamentals, we can clearly see how automatic alarms, manual buttons, and other activation methods, can benefit individual users, and technology now allows us to select from a number of different transmission methods. The key, however, is that final choice meets the key parameters identified through a proper understanding of the end-user’s needs.


An ‘anti-snatch’ facility on the Atus paging and personal security device includes location detection as standard.


IDENTIFYING THE BEST DEVICE Each of these points is key to defining the type of device that the individual end-user will ultimately carry with them, and, by default, therefore, the answers to these questions define the type of system that should be considered. While these bullet points appear simple


enough per se, sufficient consideration needs to be given to each question. For example ‘What is the device’s principal function?’ seems straightforward enough, if the answer is ‘solely a personal alarm device’. However, when the answer is something other than that, compromises have to be made. However, should we compromise at all when it comes to the safety of others? Ultimately, of course, a telephone system is


a telephone system, and adding a personal security function does not change the device’s dynamic – it is still a telephone system first, and a hopefully a very good personal security system, second.


ENSURING EXPECTATIONS ARE MET What the answers to these questions should provide is a concise list of requirements that will ensure that the system chosen fulfils the end- user’s expectations, no matter how simple or complex the requirements, and, where appropriate, will ensure its compliance with relevant standards. Through our many years of product development and customer interaction, a few fundamentals have become apparent, however: • An alarm should be simple to use, and easy to activate.


• The user’s location should be as accurate as the system design has allowed for.


• An alarm must be guaranteed to get to the control infrastructure, and only take seconds to do so.


CONCERNS OVER ‘BIG BROTHER’ One of the key concerns shown by most end-users is not so much what the system does, or how it does it, but inherently that, once the system is installed, there may be a feeling that ‘Big Brother’ is watching. Given that the purpose of any staff alarm system is fundamentally to alert others to the area of one’s duress, these two juxtapositions are difficult to reconcile, and one of the key considerations in deciding on which system and technology/features to opt for is


establishing the end-user’s perceived risk, and the security benefits they will gain from using the system.


LOCATION POSITIONING Location positioning is a subject in its own right; some technologies require fixed locators in every room, not only to allow alarms to be generated, but also to identify accurately the location of an individual. Here, a clear understanding is needed of the end-users’ likely movements, and the assessed risks in each area. This avoids the system design becoming overcomplicated, and therefore onerous in its installation, or its ability to provide clear, concise information to those responding to any alarm being compromised. In simple terms, if the recipient finds it confusing, then time and energy will be wasted in identifying where the alarm has originated, confidence in the system will be lost, and users will become reluctant to rely upon it.


WHERE THE SYSTEM WILL BE USED To this end, consideration of which location technology is deployed is very much dependent on where the device will be used; GPS, for example, will provide good location- based information in an open field, but will struggle to provide any degree of accuracy in a block of flats. Combining different location technologies can overcome these issues, and ultimately provide a greater


‘The decision as to which technology to deploy can be determined by an understanding of the end-user’s needs, and some simple choices that stem from this understanding’


degree of accuracy when the end-users’ movements are not inherently tied to a specific function, place, or group of locations. The basic measure of a position or location is its place in space, which is typically described using Cartesian coordinates (X, Y, Z), or latitude, longitude, and altitude, but, to fully describe the position of an object in 3D, one ideally needs at least seven parameters: three position, three orientation, and time.


ADVENT OF NEW TECHNOLOGY Interestingly, the advent of new products and technology is starting to provide for this. Current user interfaces and programming provide for 3D rendering of buildings, and messaging can be tailored, so that the recipient of an alarm is determined by their current location relative to the event that has occurred – so-called location- based services. If a secure door in a given location is left open, a message can be sent both to the individuals in its immediate vicinity, and to those of a specific designation. In all cases, information on the status of any individual devices, and their current location, should be accessible via some form of user interface, and the management of alarms should be configurable to ensure the optimum response to any critical event.


SYSTEM FUNDAMENTALS Just what the user interface looks like, and how it displays information, are a matter of personal


‘Future staff alarm system designs will need to consider the development of emerging technologies’


The ‘next generation’ of Atus communication devices incorporates access control functionality, critical messaging, and personal security, in one product.


THE NETWORK January 2015 25


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