Parks Primary School: Emergency Lockdown

Rated by Ofsted as ‘Outstanding’, this Leicester primary school has been secured using the latest audio-over-IP technology in its public address and emergency lockdown system.

Location:  Leicester
Client:    Parks Primary School

The Client:

Located within a lively and vibrant area of Leicester, Parks Primary School has achieved its ‘Outstanding’ Ofsted rating due to the very highest standards of education and care for the welfare and safety of its pupils and staff.

The school has recently invested in a new through-campus audio and security system to provide improved communication and security for all, using the very latest audio-over-IP technology for its brand new combined public address and emergency lockdown system.

Designed to provide clear, effective, day-to-day communication, as well as to ensure the safety of pupils and staff at all times, the new system was specified and installed by Babble using a combination of analogue and audio-over-IP technology.

System Requirements:

In response to the increased risks of attacks and intruders within schools and education campuses, many UK schools are now following local education authority and government recommendations to further improve security strategies, including the adoption of an Emergency Lockdown Procedure.

Parks Primary School in Leicester called upon audio system experts Babble to specify and install a through-school system which would meet their needs for day-to-day public address, as well as providing an emergency communication system to support their Lockdown Procedure.

The choice of audio signal distribution also had to take into account the school’s two separate buildings, plus an outdoor learning zone.

The Solution:

In order to distribute messaging to the three remote zones, the completed system employs the latest audio-over-IP technology, allowing recorded and live messaging to be broadcast over standard Ethernet cabling infrastructure.

The dual-purpose public address / school lockdown system merges the simplicity and efficiency of conventional 100v line distributed audio from the Inter-M range, with the latest audio-over-IP technology.

The installation features a communications ‘hub’ in the main reception area from where it is possible to communicate with any of the three  school zones either separately or collectively via pre-recorded messages or live broadcasts.

Controlled from a Zone Paging Microphone, the entire system is connected over a standard Ethernet network infrastructure, using 2N Net Decoders to connect an amplifier to Zones 1 & 2, with Zone 3 using an amplifier also connected over-IP. The system also features 100v line  Cabinet Speakers and Column Speakers.

This fully integrated system allows for complete zone control and broadcasting for public address, class change and emergency messages & tones should the school lockdown procedure be triggered.

Project System Architecture