Early mass warning becomes an essential task of security forces during a state of emergency. However, informing all potentially endangered people is a challenging job. An ordinary network of stationary sirens can effectively provide warning in densely populated areas.

Problems arise, however, in case of the dissemination of information in isolated settlements or difficult terrain conditions, especially when a fast reaction is needed. Moreover, as the COVID-19 pandemic has shown, it is necessary to take good care about the safety and security of the personnel (such as health care staff or army corps members) in charge of the information dissemination.

For the above reasons, many crisis management groups use mobile sirens. Most commonly, this type of siren provides a warning to residents in places such as remote mountain villages, chalets or isolated farms.

Mobile sirens can outweigh some of the disadvantages of stationary sirens. It is primarily the financial aspect – the development and maintenance of a stationary siren network in out-of-the-way places are unreasonably expensive. Another benefit is the higher efficiency of mobile sirens. People in remote areas can be alerted within a few minutes using mobile sirens. In addition to the speed of information delivery, mobile sirens (mounted on off-road vehicles) are often better at covering endangered areas in the event of a forest fire, or similar disaster as vehicles with such sirens can easily reach inaccessible places. The third benefit is the signal quality that does not fall behind that of their stationary counterparts. The models of electronic mobile sirens made by Telegrafia, for example, Screamer Car and Pavian Car, combine the straightforwardness of use with advanced sound reproduction technology and exceptional resistance. They can be easily attached to the roof or side of a car, can sound a warning tone as powerful as 126 dB, a pre-recorded announcement or reproduce it directly using a built-in microphone. Power is supplied to the siren directly from the car battery.

Another important feature of mobile sirens is personnel safety. Direct contact with the population shall be prevented if necessary, whether for health or security reasons, such as during a major epidemic. Therefore, mobile sirens will find their applications in socially isolated localities, such as favelas in Brazil during the COVID-19  pandemic in 2020. Apart from that, the siren’s warning function can be associated, for example, with the distribution of medical material like sanitary goods right out of the car.

If a critical situation can be predicted, mobile sirens can serve as support for the existing warning system and a kind of back-up. Even if stationary sirens failed, vehicles with sirens are always ready to replace them. For illustration, during the eruption of Mount Agung volcano on the Indonesian island of Bali in 2017, five mobile sirens were on full alert as of the increased possibility of the volcano eruption.

The utilisation of mobile sirens for civilian purposes is not the only possible. Moving alert tones may surely warn people of an impending storm on golf courses, but also of an explosion or leakage of hazardous substances in open-pit mines or quarries, ports or large industrial parks. Still, their use remains the same, which a local warning, or a warning complementary or replacing a system of stationary electronic sirens as an effective and safe alternative for the responsible staff.

When planning security measures to protect government buildings or objects of a larger area, it is necessary to make provision for terrain or other obstacles. Although stationary sirens can respond quickly and reliably, they might be insufficient sometimes. In the delivery of safety instructions to the population in emergencies, it is always better to use several channels and not only rely on a single means of communication. For such scenarios, mobile and technologically advanced sirens like Screamer Car or Pavian Car are increasingly finding their applications nowadays.

The article was written by

Zuzana Jacova

Zuzana works at Telegrafia at the marketing department. Her main responsibility is to keep an eye on Google Ads and Facebook. Online marketing is changing all the time, giving her the chance to expand her knowledge constantly and put it into real practice. After work, she relaxes best by going to the gym and watching good films.