System Master Voice Notification
Edwards Signaling 12th Dec 2022
You’re in complete control integrating System Master’s voice notification with your fire system.
There is a tremendous need for integrated and supervised emergency evacuation and fire systems. Oversight agencies realize this and have either made or are making code changes. In fact, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has drafted a regulation specifically to address a facility’s emergency action plan and to allow safe escape of employees from the workplace (OSHA Regulation 1910.165).
Edwards products - Adaptatone System Signals, Millennium System Master, Genesis - are designed for both emergency evacuation and general signaling. They can be used by themselves for plant alarm and employee emergency notification, or integrated into your existing fire alarm system. When used in conjunction with your installed fire alarm system, Edwards signals can augment or replace existing bells, horns, or electronic notification appliances that sound when an alarm is initiated. Use the Millennium System Master in this application to sound tones or pre-recorded voice messages. Personnel can use the panel’s onboard microphone or external microphones for real-time, live-voice announcements and directions.
You can integrate Edwards signals into your fire system wherever it is - oil rig, food processing plant, warehouse, petrochemical plant. When your employees and your plant’s safety count, count on Edwards. See Application drawings in Section 6.
OSHA 1910.165
OSHA 1910.165 was developed to reduce the severity of workplace accidents and injuries by ensuring that alarm systems operate properly and procedures are in place to alert employees to workplace emergencies. It applies to all employers that use an alarm system to satisfy any OSHA standard that requires employers to provide an early warning for emergency action, or reaction time for employees to safely escape the workplace, the immediate work area, or both.
General Requirements
1910.165(b)(1)
The employee alarm system shall provide warning for necessary emergency action as called for in the emergency action plan, or for reaction time for safe escape of employees from the workplace or the immediate work area, or both.
1910.165(b)(2)
The employee alarm shall be capable of being perceived above ambient noise or light levels by all employees in the affected portions of the workplace. Tactile devices may be used to alert those employees who would not otherwise be able to recognize the audible or visual alarm.
1910.165(b)(3)
The employee alarm shall be distinctive and recognizable as a signal to evacuate the work area or to perform actions designated under the emergency action plan.
1910.165(b)(4)
The employer shall explain to each employee the preferred means of reporting emergencies, such as manual pull box alarms, public address systems, radio or telephones. The employer shall post emergency telephone numbers near telephones or employee notice boards, and other conspicuous locations when telephones serve as a means of reporting emergencies. Where a communication system also serves as the employee alarm system, all emergency messages shall have priority over all non-emergency messages.
1910.165(b)(5)
The employer shall establish procedures for sounding emergency alarms in the workplace. For those employers with 10 or fewer employees in a particular workplace, direct voice communication is an acceptable procedure for sounding the alarm provided all employees can hear the alarm. Such workplaces need not have a back-up system.
12th Dec 2022