Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

Build Your Own Mass Notification System

  • 05/01/15

If you build your own mass notification system, you will have a deep understanding of how to use it and manage it.

That’s what Tidewater Community College has done. With offices in Norfolk, VA, Tidewater has seven campuses — four main campuses and three specialty campuses — serving 42,000 students.

“We’ve developed our system over a number of years,” says George Okaty, director of safety and security with Tidewater. “We’re actually putting in a third system right now.

“We have a Cooper Notification system for text alerts and email notifications. We also have a Valcom system with outdoor speakers mounted on buildings across all seven Tidewater campuses.

“The external speaker system has a live capability — a microphone that the provost or security staff can use to make a timely notification. We can also activate the system remotely through pre-programmed emergency messages on each campus. We test the speakers once a month to make sure they are operational and to make sure the staff knows how to use them.”

Tidewater’s third mass notification system is being installed now. It is a Cisco classroom telephone system. Each classroom will get a phone.

“The goal is to give classrooms the ability to speed-call security for assistance or 911,” says Okaty. “We’re also installing new software to use for emergency messaging into the classrooms. This will be a situational awareness system — we’ll be able to get messages to one or several buildings, one floor and even one room.”

This article originally appeared in the issue of .

Featured

  • California High School Opens New Classroom Building for 7th-, 8th-Graders

    Santa Rosa City Schools in Santa Rosa, Calif., recently announced the completion of a new classroom building for Piner High School. As the campus transitions to a Junior/Senior High School, the facility will play home to the school’s new population of seventh- and eighth-grade students.

  • Wyoming District Breaks Ground on New Elementary School

    Laramie County School District #1 in Cheyenne, Wy., recently held a groundbreaking ceremony for the upcoming Mountain View Elementary School, according to a news release. The facility has an estimated completion date of summer 2028, and it will have the capacity for 650 students in fifth and sixth grade.

  • Haws Corporation Marks 120th Anniversary

    Haws Corporation, which provides hydration and emergency safety solutions worldwide, recently announced that the company is celebrating its 120th anniversary this year, according to a news release.

  • URI Cuts Underwater Ribbon on New Ocean Robotics Laboratory

    The University of Rhode Island recently held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new Ocean Robotics Laboratory at its Narragansett Bay Campus, according to a news release. Two students used a remotely operated vehicle to cut an underwater ribbon in a 30-by-20-foot test tank.