Evacuation alarms in shopping centers

In shopping centers, we can actually use the principles as used in office buildings. A point of attention is again the speech intelligibility.

In shopping centers there are always hard floors and a lot of glass and metal. You can expect many reflections, which is not conducive to the speech intelligibility. In these situations, a precise projection is of great importance.

Undoubtedly there are background music and commercial messages used in these systems. In particular, the correct audio level is of great importance. However, please note that that the audio level for the evacuation is set complied with the standard.

In shopping centers we often see that the evacuation systems are only projected on the passage areas and stores are using the own systems. Speaking in general, this is not a desirable case. During an evacuation help organizations want full control over the evacuation process and just then voice instructions are of vital importance.

‘A Type A installation should preferably be projected in all areas, including the stores’

Of course the shop contractors can demand to use their own music system with ditto speakers. A consideration is to use so-called AB speakers. These speakers have to connections; actually two speakers in one housing. With these speaker the evacuation and music are guaranteed. Through a relay circuit from the evacuation system, the local music/sound can easily be shut down.