Agreed, preserving media is a must.
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I wonder if the CD that @pilot has, or the GE EST3 you’ve posted contains this highly rare EST message, I call it the “Britmerican” voice.
https://youtu.be/iT9dFpbqj-s
It is not custom was short lived, there’s videos of it in hotels (2008 and 2014), a movie theater (2012), and a even classroom/meeting room (2015).
Maybe you should try asking someone at WSCC what the GE EST3 sounded like.
Whether it’s Britmerican, EST Guy, or even a custom recording.
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If it does, the panel may hold significant value. Although I would think that there’s multiple audio files in the EST3, which is basically a computer. You would set which message to use.
You should try asking a staff member at WSCC what it sounded like and show them the “Britmerican” video to confirm what the GE EST3 sounded like, or if they have a LifeLines CD.
If they do, it could contain the “Britmerican” voice or other historical assets.
Honestly, I have a feeling the voice may have been a short-lived GE thing.
That would be an FV922 btw
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Aight. Thanks for correcting me on that. I’m not that good with Siemens panel model numbers, and I’m also used to operating an FC922 from my highschool.
Also, here are the last of the WSCC photos for 2025… I won’t be going back on campus until January…
This bin is actually filled to the top now…
They turned it on…
That is awesome! So great that you were able to save basically that entire system! (kinda sad that that school didn’t want to stick with what I feel is one of the last good fire alarm manufacturers left, but at least you got something out of it I guess)
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Those are a lot of Genesis Speaker Strobes you’ve rescued! Nice work!
Other than the physical side of things, I may have mentioned this once, but do you think the TAFATP should have a digital archive? (and a semi-public one too)
Maybe a website separate from this forum, like using WordPress or Google Sites.
That’s a ton of devices! Considering that those EST devices are self-synchronizing, I feel that they could have easily reused those and saved a lot of money. None of them look worn out or damaged.
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Replacing the speaker strobes is a waste of money, but at least they were saved.
They are literally just speakers, it’s not like they will stop working without the EST3.
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I’m for that: especially these days non-physical things are just as important to archive & preserve as physical things!
Mhm, that’s the beauty of conventional devices: they’ll work on anything (or at least they should most of the time).
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I agree, especially regarding the ‘if we don’t archive it, who else will’ point about older smoke detectors, that kind of information can be easily lost.
Given EST’s notoriousity for system troubles, it’s the sad truth.
Also @Alarmian_Official, according to accounts on witnesses in the building, it supposedly used the “evil scientist” voice. Although it probably came with that voice too as I believe most, if not all, voice evac panels come with multiple pre-recorded messages for each type of event. Also they didn’t have the CD either.
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Not really: Edwards systems are much more reliable than many think! (which is part of the reason I think they’re one of the last good life safety manufacturers left)
“evil scientist voice”?
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I think they (the building witnesses) are referring to EST Guy, someone compared his voice to HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey, calling it “scary.”
If you’re referring to the “Britmerican” voice, I doubt it even exists on that panel. It was an extremely short lived piece of EST media during the GE era that probably very few, if any, members of the community even had a lucky chance to get them, just like the GE ANS’s own voice messages!
We can only hope that one of those documented facilities on YouTube that have the “Britmerican” voice ends up removing their EST panels (like the hotel or movie theater), so that they (any associated LifeLines CDs) could possibly end up in good hands, but this may sadly be highly unrealistic to hope upon, since we do not know their true locations. Nor would we know anyone who even lives near a “Britmerican” system.
That sucks, either they didn’t receive it when the panel was installed, or the LifeLines CD was locked to technicians and distributors.
I and @MEKA did post some IRC-3/FCCA tones recently, he told me that they came from a 2002 LifeLines CD.
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Oh, alright. Huh…
When it comes to the videos featuring that voice that I’ve found, I honestly have no idea what era of EST it comes from or what exact panels it might be on.
Well would you look at that…you sure are lucky to have those Pilot!
I dunno when da system was installed but I do know that the building it came out of was built in 2007, which approximates the system to be assumingly from that year.
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I think that, in the 2000’s-2010’s Edwards/EST hit a rough spot with quality control and reliability, because they were trying to innovate too fast for the technology that was available at the time. The QuickStart and EST3X systems specifically were notoriously bad. In recent years, I’d say they have made a bit of a comeback and now have very good systems with the EST4, IO series, and the new EDGE series.
Although Edwards still gets some hate from the community, I’d say that Honeywell has now become far worse. With all of their brand conglomerations and cheapening of products, it’s getting out of hand to the point that I wouldn’t fully trust a Honeywell (especially Silent Knight) system to protect me in a building.
With all of the other brands, I wouldn’t say that they are any worse. With JCI’s less proprietary Autocall brand, and their products getting more mature, they have fixed most of the issues. I would say that they had a decline in quality around the same time that EST did, especially with the 4100U. Potter, Hochiki, Siemens, and Mircom also still seem to be reputable brands.
I know I may have a bit of a bias towards Siemens, and you may have a bit of a bias towards Edwards, but I really don’t think they are that different. They both are pretty proprietary brands that can only be set up by their respective brands, but can be serviced maintained (including replacement of devices) by anyone that has the proper equipment (they don’t need to have a license or anything). The thing about both of the brands is that they are almost infinitely customizable, so some systems are programmed to be harder to service by outside companies than others. Despite this, they both have extremely good products that I would trust to protect me and can handle the largest and most complex of applications. I’d say it’s actually a similar story with JCI systems as well.