In my area, the 2010s brought about a ton of changes with fire alarm signaling. At the very beginning of the decade, my school district replaced the aging fire alarm systems at 20+ schools with new addressable Siemens FireFinder-series systems and either Z-series or Exceder-series notification appliances (it varied). Most of these systems were previously Simplex systems from the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. This project began in 2010 and ended in 2013 or 2014. A second project in 2017 upgraded the remaining 1980s and 90s-era Simplex systems at about 5 elementary schools, this time utilizing Notifier equipment and System Sensor L-series notification appliances. There is now one Simplex system left in a school district that at the beginning of the decade had over 20.
On the company side of things, there was a very noticeable decline in new SimplexGrinnell equipment in my area that began in the late 2000s and continues to this day. In the end, the local SimplexGrinnell branch closed in 2016, likely because they were unable to compete with the cheaper Notifier and Siemens equipment distributers. Speaking of Siemens, they were virtually nonexistent 'round here at the beginning of the decade, but are now pretty much deadlocked with Notifier for new system representation. In other words, at the beginning of the decade Simplex was by far the most popular brand in my area, but just ten years later Simplex has not only lost ground but ended operations here almost entirely. The last new Simplex system that I saw installed in my area was a 4006 system in 2016. It’ll be interesting to see what companies the 2020s bring to my area.
On equipment itself, the Exceder-series release at the beginning of the decade must have set something off in my area. For a good chunk of the decade the xenon Exceder was the go-to for any new fire alarm system in my area. The SpectrAlert Advance, Siemens ZH, and EST Genesis, the next most popular notification appliances in my area, were common to see in new installations but not nearly on the level of the Exceder. Towards the end of the decade, interestingly enough, the System Sensor L-series grew heavily in popularity around here, and I’d say it’s beginning to replace (not literally of course) the Exceder in new installations around here.
Other major changes in my area that pretty much reflected the trends nationwide included increased installation (almost exclusively) of addressable systems, the first systems utilizing LED strobes, the introduction of the low-frequency sounder, an increase in fire alarm signaling used for general purposes (e.g lockdown alarms in schools), and an almost exponential increase in voice-evacuation systems. Voice-evac in my area was pretty much reserved for malls, hospitals, auditoriums, and universities at the beginning of the decade, but has now found its way into retail, government, and K-12 education settings. Low frequency sounders have slowly been replacing mini horns in hotels and apartment complexes around here since they appeared in the NFPA code around 2016ish.