Electronic sirens for early warning and emergency notification

Acoustic warning devices have been used to provide warning and alerting in emergency situations for ages. Beating on various metal objects was used in ancient times. Later bell towers were built for this purpose and at the beginning of the 20th century mechanical rotating sirens started to appear. These are basically formed by an electric motor with a specially treated head that emits a sound while rotating. Those sirens are still used in many countries. The development of electronics, however, has also influenced this area and first electronic sirens started to appear at the end of the 20th century. Electronic sirens are basically high-performance electronic amplifiers just like those in home sound systems. However, these sirens work with substantially higher outputs and specific demands are placed on them in terms of desired extreme reliability and different methods of their control. Control infrastructure must also be reliable and usually two independent control channels are required. The loudspeakers for these amplifiers are placed in a specially-designed sound baffles (horns) and they play the signals stored in the siren’s digital memory or signals fed to the siren from external sources – a microphone, phone, radio station, common radio and television broadcasting, etc. Telegrafia currently offers two product lines of state of the art electronic sirens: PAVIAN and GIBON. New item in the sortiment is integrated compact electronic siren SCREAMER.

How to choose the right electronic siren?

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Modern electronic sirens requirements

Siren applications and to a large extent siren technical requirements are defined directly by law in many developed countries. Even though the requirements in question are similar, from the technical point of view they are so different that they cannot be met by a single version of a siren alone. Great attention is also paid to siren backup in the case of an external power failure. That is the reason why a modern siren, i.e. a modular device with many firmware versions from the hardware point of view, is normally backed up by batteries and designed in such a way that electric power supply is used at a minimum when it is not active. The conversion of electric power into acoustic power is at peak efficiency when the siren is active and is transmitting sound signal.

Main advantages of electronic sirens:

● Standard operations use batteries that are continuously recharged.

● They are capable of reproducing not only warning signals but also voice announcements.

● It is possible to add an external signal source – a microphone, phone, radio station, radio, etc.

● They provide enhanced automatic testing functionality – potential failure is not discovered as late as at the movement of potential use; it is discovered in advance and can be eliminated in a timely manner.

modern electronic siren Pavian Telegrafia

Main disadvantages of motor-driven sirens:

● They have high power consumption and require continuous electric power supply – no battery-based operation is possible or backup power sources would be disproportionally expensive.

● They are only capable of generating tones at a certain frequency or oscillating tones; no voice announcement is possible.

● Manual operation.

● Without autodiagnostic functions.

old motor driven siren alert warning

Electronic siren PAVIAN

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Electronic siren PAVIAN represents the highest level of electronic warning systems offered by Telegrafia. They are modular electronic devices primarily designed for establishing large and complex early warning systems requiring sophisticated control and efficient siren status monitoring. These are also used as locally controlled devices where required due to a more complex interface with the environment or when a sophisticated algorithm for reacting to external signals is desired. Based on information gained from the environment, these systems are capable of reacting on the basis of modifiable algorithms and, in addition to acoustic warning system initiation; they are also capable of controlling external devices. For instance a certain value of a harmful substance as read by a sensor connected directly to the siren’s input can be of such a character that the siren activates a beacon or text message in addition to acoustic warning system initiation.

Electronic siren PAVIAN is sophisticated terminal acoustic element with different control methods and it also have interfaces and basic options for monitoring and controlling implemented systems. Since monitoring systems often form a part of warning systems, the application of a PAVIAN type siren enables cost savings with regards to parallel establishment of these separate systems. It is possible to form arrangements with output levels from 300 W to 4,500 W.

Electronic siren Gibon

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The GIBON electronic siren provides high-quality sound distribution in the threatened area at an optimal price. It is mainly designed as separate, locally-controlled warning equipment. However, it can be also used for creating simple early warning systems. It enables the creation of systems with output of 300 – 1,200 W.

GIBON electronic siren control is adjusted for use as a separat warning element or in applications in a simple siren network. Normally it is controlled by the buttons located directly on the siren with the possibility to move them to a different location. It is also possible to use some more sophisticated and capable local control modules. Third party communication or control systems can be used for controlling the GIBON siren as well.

Integrated electronic siren SCREAMER

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Integrated compact electronic siren SCREAMER is a specialized electronic component in the modular sound distribution, early warning and evacuation system, aSCADA. The electronic module of SCREAMER component is placed directly in a durable aluminum alloy horn with a powerful pressure loudspeaker. This module integrates powerful electronic amplifier, digital audio signals memory and input interfaces to activate the playback of pre-recorded warning messages or broadcast live reports.

SCREAMER is available in two different versions: small and large horn. The small horn has an acoustic directivity pattern close to the circle shape with lower acoustic pressure, while the large horn has an elliptical acoustic directivity pattern and higher acoustic pressure. SCREAMER offers many ways to ensure required functionality: from a simple configuration to the sophisticated programming of required algorithms. It is possible to virtually store unlimited number of reports, clarify their priorities, interruptions, combinations and much more.

Examples of Telegrafia electronic sirens used worldwide

Warning systems

Electronic sirens are either used as separate, locally controlled equipment or as a part of larger warning systems, which is their most common application. Unlike the small systems consisting of several sirens, large systems can be formed by thousands of connected sirens. Considering the fact that these systems are used only in the situations of real danger, which is an occasional event, one has to be sure that they will really function at the time when they are actually needed. Therefore great demands are placed on automatic testing functions in connection with both sirens and related infrastructure. Experience from all over the world shows that power failures and telecommunication infrastructure failures are very often part of the emergencies. In most cases standard telecommunication infrastructures do not meet the long-term backup requirement during a power failure. That is the reason why large warning systems virtually always use two independent channels for siren network control. It is preferred to use at least one radio channel with its own backup infrastructure, able to power the siren for dozens of hours including three five minutes long sound transmissions.

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Acusticus professional early warning system project emergency software

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Acusticus Professional is an online browser-based application for creating public warning acoustic projects. You can create a simple project with only one siren or a complex modular system with dozens of sirens, measuring points, noise background and other objects. Since version v2.0 you can also create interior acoustic projects for indoor and outdoor public address systems. It is completely free to use - no fee or installation, however we recommend you to register to be able to save the projects or use advanced settings and features.

If you are interested in our electronic sirens and solutions, feel free to contact us.

The company Telegrafia a. s. is a manufacturer and supplier of leading products and solutions for early warning and emergency notification with its own development capabilities. The main product lines for sale are electronic siren PAVIAN, emergency public address system AMADEO, integrated voice warning device SCREAMER, public address system TIBOR and VEKTRA software. Our products are used worldwide from French Polynesia through Asian and European countries to South America.