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

  • Northeastern University Breaks Ground on New Housing Community

    Northeastern University recently announced the groundbreaking of a new student housing community on its campus in Boston, Mass., according to a news release. The university is partnering with American Campus Communities (ACC) for development of the project, which will have the capacity for 1,200 students and has a scheduled completion date of fall 2028.

  • Surging Demand for Student Housing Fuels Major Campus Investment Opportunities

    University leaders throughout the U.S. are accelerating plans to modernize and expand student housing as enrollment stabilizes and demand for on-campus living rebounds. Recent data from the National Center for Education Statistics indicates that total postsecondary enrollment is projected to grow through the end of the decade, with undergraduate enrollment alone expected to increase by more than 8 percent by 2030.

  • South Carolina District Starts Construction on $50M Middle School Renovation

    The Aiken County Public School District in North Augusta, S.C., recently held a groundbreaking ceremony for the $50-million renovation and expansion of North Augusta Middle School, according to a news release. The project’s funding comes from the 2024 renewal of a one-cent sales tax approved by local voters.

  • Spaces4Learning Launches 2026 Education Design Showcase Awards

    Spaces4Learning has opened submissions for the 2026 Education Design Showcase! The awards program launched in 1999 with the goal of celebrating innovative, practical solutions in the planning, design, and construction of K–12 and higher-education facilities. EDS recognizes new developments that help achieve optimal learning environments, as well as the architecture firms that brought the ideas to life.