Yeah. An actual security siren might actually work better than “lockdown, lockdown”
I’d like to see them provide more documentation on the functionality of the system and its devices in real life, although this company isn’t very transparent in showing each and every component in action within an actual installation.
Probably because there aren’t many actual installations.
L-Series has officially hit the police station!
https://www.instagram.com/p/CtZ4oS1uU0I/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
You could even have a security/Police officer or Secretary monitor the cameras and push a panic button if there is a threat that would sound security sirens. That could be more cost effective and safer. Prob even connect it to a central station.
True, but the idea is that anyone can activate the system much like a fire alarm. Not all schools have security officers, and a system like this sounds good on paper. They’re just marketing it wrong, advertising it as the solution to the problem, but it’s just glorified mass notification, and then any system could fill that role.
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Exactly. In my district for example, we have a School Safety team, but they work similar to police. They have officers work in a certain division of the city (my district has over 90 schools), and officers are dispatched when a problem arises at campus. In that case, our Local Police would arrive before School Safety anyways. My school has a button in the office, in which they press it, and a lockdown tone and instruction message will commence over the PA. It has worked very well, and overall eliminates confusion. Instead of spending thousands on Bluepoint systems, why not use that money on hiring SRO’s (Police Officers who are stationed on campus.) Or campus improvements that help to secure the place. It’s like cameras, they only catch people doing bad things, they don’t stop it.
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Yeah I would too but because of money they would probably just end up using L series horn strobes on the 2k continuous option so that people don’t confuse it with a fire alarm.
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The thing is, if the building already has a FA system with a voice evac solution, such as what simplex has or a notifier DVC for example, then they basically have all they need. In fact, my school has a custom lockdown message already programmed in to the DVC. And for visual notification, all you would need is some remote strobes with a colored lens. For IDs, you could just get some BG-12LXs, or some other addressable pull station depending on the panel manufacturer, and if it is allowed, spray paint it and then put lockdown on it. You could even get one of the STI push buttons, and attach it to a monitor module. And for notifying authorities, you could just have a relay module set up to trip the police panic on the building’s burg panel. It really seems like this bluepoint system is just there to trick institutions into buying the system, when most of the time that institution already has the equipment necessary to do the exact same thing. Hell, in my building, as well as an increasing amount of buildings throughout my school district, they have Telecenter U installed. In every building in my district, they have Cisco IP phones installed, and we do have InformaCast as a part of our CUCM system. There are just so many better ways to accomplish what the bluepoint system is designed to do.
Fire alarm devices are not supposed to be painted. You’re right though: STI’s push stations would work excellently for such a setup, especially since blue “LOCKDOWN”-lettering ones are available.
The point of, well, BluePoint, might be to make sure a police notification system is in place even if a building doesn’t have a voice-capable/mass notification system.
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“Police notification” lies in every front pocket, every classroom desk, and every room of every school building. I’ve yet to meet a single school that didn’t have a telephone system much less a small army of 1000+ children carrying the equivalent of every supercomputer of the 20th century combined.
Phones work. Bluepoint is a fad.
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Why wouldn’t you just put a paging system in?
If you mean like an intercom system, yes, such a thing would technically work in the event of an incident, but someone would have to be at the system’s microphone in order to broadcast announcements & alerts, & that may not always be possible, especially if it’s not safe to go near it: having either a voice/mass notification-capable fire alarm system or something like BluePoint in place helps ensure that no matter where someone is in the building the rest of the occupants can be alerted to an incident in progress, not to mention the proper authorities (which in turn should hopefully save lives).
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The thing is though, a lot of paging systems, at least for school use, have the ability to have messages programmed in. At least to my knowledge anyway.
Yes, but someone still has to be at the intercom control panel to activate them, which isn’t always doable.
Just get a couple of lockdown push or pull stations and call 911 during an emergency. Am expensive extravagant system like this isn’t necessary
True. But like in my district, they put the TC console phone at the secretary’s desk. And they Jerry-rigged a trunk between the CUCM and the TCU system, depending on if the building already has a full TCU system, not just the retrofit that allows the bells to be remotely managed. So in my building, any IP phone can page. But ususally, there is someone at the TCU console. So it depends on how the school deploys their system.