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MASS NOTIFICATION
What is Mass Notification?
Mass Notification is a term first used by the U.S.
Department of Defense in the Khobar Tower Report
to describe a system that issues live or recorded
messages instructing occupants of protected areas
on how best to reduce their risk of personal harm in
potentially life-threatening situations.
The DoD document that brought Mass Notification
to the forefront of modern building design is Unified
Facilities Criteria 4-021-01: Design and Operation of
Mass Notification Systems. This document establishes
minimum requirements for Mass Notification to be used
for the design, construction, operation, maintenance,
and modernization of all DoD facilities. UFC 4-021-01
defines Mass Notification as:“…the capability to provide real-time information
and instructions to people, in a building, area,
site, or installation using intelligible voice
communications including visible signals, text,
and graphics, and possibly including other
tactile or other communication methods.”
Fire Alarm and Mass Notification:
Common Ground
While fire alarm and Mass Notification address different
kinds of dangers, they share similar objectives.
Fire is a specific threat that usually has a single point
of origin from which it spreads. Fire alarm systems are
designed to manage building evacuations based on
this scenario, and may incorporate the use of voice
audio communications in larger facilities.
Mass Notification, on the other hand, deals with
different threats. Building evacuation isn’t always
the best solution in the face of coordinated terrorist
attacks, or sweeping risks from chemical spills, or all-
encompassing dangers of natural disasters. These
situations require different management strategies that
take a multi-dimensional approach.
While fire alarm and Mass Notification systems appear
to serve different purposes, they both share a common
goal – to warn people of danger and provide them with
information they need to stay safe. More importantly,
fire alarm and Mass Notification systems share a need
for the same basic equipment and other requirements
including: recorded messages, HVAC control, integrity
monitoring, routine maintenance, and agency listings.
These common requirements permit leveraging the
mandated survivability and inherent reliability of fire
alarm systems for Mass Notification purposes. Thanks
to its functional pedigree, the fire alarm infrastructure
is eminently well-suited to provide the robust backbone
needed for Mass Notification activity.
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Khobar Towers, Building #131, Saudi Arabia, June 25, 1996
Backup power supplies, redundant wiring, and fail-safe
peer-to-peer networks — time-tested features of fire
alarm systems — are also essential to well-designed
Mass Notification systems. Meanwhile, code-driven
development and stringent standards-driven testing
provide the built-in quality that make fire alarm panels
and devices among the most reliable electronic
equipment available today.
Mass Notification demands a robust communications
infrastructure that goes far beyond what’s typically
found among garden variety paging systems. Even output devices like speakers and strobes require special consideration. In fact, circuit integrity monitoring
— an established fi re alarm requirement — provides
the reliability necessary to ensure that the Mass
Notification system remains viable and ready for
service at all times. So it comes as little surprise that a
fi re alarm based solution is the most economical choice when adding Mass Notification applications to basic building fire alarm requirements.
 
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