Our industry is driven by codes and standards!  The Building Code requires emergency voice communication systems in specific types of buildings, such as high-rise buildings, and in specific occupancy classifications. Typically, fire alarm design engineers and the Authority Having Jurisdiction agree that intelligible voice evacuation systems are vital to protecting building occupants during emergency events. Voice messages are generally accepted as being superior to conventional evacuation tones, as a means of notifying building occupants of an emergency. A voice message announcement instead of just a temporal horn tone gives enough information to cause a reaction.  This seminar examines Intelligible Speech and the Building Code, and how to design emergency voice systems to provide intelligible speech.

A copy of David's paper is available on page 13 of the February 2010 issue of the CFAA Journal which can be found online at www.cfaa.ca.