Intrusive Audio Alert System that Captures People’s Attention
When an emergency occurs, you have a duty to notify your people to help keep them out of harm’s way. An alert system can help you do this quickly, but your people may not notice your alert if you aren’t leveraging the right channels. You also risk them not responding to the alert with the urgency that the situation demands. Part of this may be due to relying solely on mobile devices or desktop pop-ups for alerts. While we like to think that people always have mobile phones on them, that isn’t always the case. And even if phones are nearby, they may be on silent, which means they won’t immediately see an SMS text message that is informing them about an emergency. You wouldn’t think a silent text alert is sufficient to notify people about a fire, so why would you use that as your only means of communication for other crisis events like an active shooter or severe weather?
Learn more about the limitations of mobile alerts
That’s why leveraging mobile alerts in conjunction with live, intrusive audio is important. This interrupts ongoing events and forces people to listen to announcements being made about situations that could impact their safety. If you’re leveraging a mobile-only mass notification solution, this isn’t an option. InformaCast Fusion from Singlewire Software gives you the best of both worlds to send intrusive audio alerts to on-premises devices, and leverage mobile notifications to reach people wherever they are. In this blog post, we’ll review the four ways you can use InformaCast Fusion as an alert system that include audio broadcasts.
IP Phones and Speakers
In an emergency, every second counts. That’s why leveraging existing devices can help deliver safety information is critical. IP desk phones are prevalent in many organizations, including businesses, schools, and hospitals. Even if mobile phones have their ringer or vibration turned on, when a message is sent via a mass notification system, they waste precious seconds finding and unlocking their phone to see the text message. InformaCast Fusion can turn your IP phone into speakers for live audio. That means the recipient doesn’t need to even pick up the phone to hear the message, because InformaCast broadcasts audio to the phone instead of calling it. The recipient just needs to listen to the broadcast to understand what kind of situation is happening and what they should do.
Similarly, IP speakers placed throughout a building can get people’s attention if they are walking between rooms, are away from their desk phone, or have their mobile device stowed away.
Traditional Overhead Paging
Some organizations may not have the resources to implement IP speakers. It can be an expensive investment that not every organization can afford. However, if they have an analog overhead paging system, InformaCast allows them to leverage this existing investment for their alert system. By integrating analog paging systems with InformaCast, organizations can utilize live and recorded audio broadcasts throughout their buildings when a notification is distributed.
Desktop and Laptop Computers
The other non-mobile option for audio is audio attached to a desktop notification. A desktop notification from InformaCast Fusion can deliver text and images as a pop-up, ticker, toast, or tray alert. These alerts can also broadcast audio, even overriding a computer that is set to mute if administrators wish to do so. The audio helps emphasize the urgency of the message and offers an additional method for delivering your notification.
Visual and Audio Elements
You want to make your mass notifications as easy to consume as possible, so in addition to mobile and audio notifications, leveraging visual elements will also help capture people’s attention and make your notifications accessible to recipients. Three of the methods mentioned above can also include visuals to help better communicate your message. IP speakers can have digital signboards or flashing lights that activate when a notification is sent. IP phones and desktop computers can include notifications that display text and images to communicate instructions.
Explore options for digital signage integration
By combining these methods with mobile delivery, you are able to provide the most complete coverage to reach your people. All of this helps you build a robust mass notification ecosystem that can be leveraged at a moments notice when an emergency occurs.