Can I Use Fire Alarm Speakers For General Paging?

The trend in providing today’s building services such as fire alarm and overhead paging is to install them on a common system.  Not only does it simplify interaction with these systems since the end user uses one control unit, but it saves money by not having to install and maintain two separate voice systems.  Whether or not you [Read More]

When does a fire alarm panel have to be in a two hour rated room?

I was recently asked a question regarding when life safety codes mandate two hour protection of the fire panel.  In a general alarm, general evacuation facility, there is no code requirement.  In that situation, people get out of the building immediately so there’s no need to communicate with occupants within the building after the fire department arrives.  It’s only [Read More]

High Rise Fire Safety in Chicago, Part IV

As a recap, in our first post on this subject, we defined how the Chicago High Rise Ordinance originated.  In our second post, we looked at why the compliancy rate was low.  In our previous post, we discussed how a residential high rise life safety score is determined.  Let’s now look at what the impact [Read More]

Applying Common Sense to Intelligibility

If you’re reading this blog, you’ve no doubt heard about and know what the definition of intelligibility is, but may not be sure of how to achieve it. Most of the time, the quest for intelligibility is met with “It depends…”. That is true, but more often than not, that applies to unique situations. Since [Read More]