Hey guys. I was in the Manassas Virginia Walmart yesterday and they have Wheelock 8" Speaker Strobes everywhere in the store except the restrooms where there are Wheelock E70s in them. I heard music playing through the E70 speaker strobe in the restroom which is quite interesting and odd, being that it is made for a fire alarm system. Has anyone seen this kind of setup in their area?
You might want to re-phase your question. “Fire Alarm System used for PA systems”?
And yes, you can use your voice fire alarm for PA including background music.
For certain AHJs, this is actually preferred because your constantly testing the fire alarm system.
The challenge is getting people to actually use the fire alarm system as a PA since they are afraid of touching it. But the industry is trying to address it.
Is this the Wal-mart that is connected to the Manassas Mall?
yes
It also saves money when you want to build a high occupancy facility with a PA system since voice evac is required already and having both systems would be redundant.
Never bothered me!
I always wanted to work on getting my firelite voice to accept the auto page and PA out of my IP pbx. I don’t know if it has an Aux in I would say no. Probably have to swap that oldie out!
Seems kinda simple to do.
http://www.snom.com/en/products/sip-paging/snom-pa1/ ← that and a contact closure to trigger an external PTT press on answer and release when hung up.
The only problem is, when you’re creating a solution that uses the mic on an existing voice evac, doesn’t it override the alarm audio?
VECPs that support a paging or music function have a separate auxiliary input that has the lowest priority in the system.
I would not want to use an outside solution. The Avaya switch it self has the ability. It’s a matter of integrating it and doing it properly with the VCP.
I just know that it is doable.
I have also seen PA systems tied into fire alarm systems. The hospital I worked at had both regular PA speakers and fire alarm speaker/visuals (Simplex 4903 speaker/strobes, LifeAlarm speakers on 2903 light plates, etc.) and for most announcements, only the regular PA speakers are used. But when the alarm system is going off, the alert tones and any announcements will sound on both the alarm speakers and the PA speakers, apparently to make the sound more loud and clear (particularly in rooms without alarm signals but with PA speakers.)