Emergency intercoms to the rescue

Headnote

The lights atop emergency intercoms make them easy to find and their simple push button operation makes them just as easy to use.

AT A GLANCE

Find out what emergency intercom systems are.

Why video is not always enough.

Filling the gap with twoway emergency audio.

Emergency intercoms are easy to identify and just as easy to use.

Learn the differences between a common, ordinary commercial intercom and an emergency intercom system.

Integration-friendly, emergency intercoms offer advantages that conventional intercoms do not.

Whether in a parking lot or garage, a stairway, on a sprawling campus, in an elevator or in a deserted corporate lobby, when someone is in trouble, they need help and they need it now.

Emergency intercom systems, sometimes combined with video, are an effective way for security personnel to quickly find out when an employee, guest or visitor is in serious trouble.

Owens Corning, Toledo, Ohio, uses emergency intercom units in its employees parking lot so workers can quickly gain the attention of on-site security officers when a difficult situation arises.

"Employees at this facility, near downtown Toledo, park their motor vehicles in an outdoor parking lot. Because of the demographics and crime statistics associated with the surrounding area, our firm installed emergency intercom stations," says Kim Klewer, president, Corporate Protection Services, Toledo.

In addition to emergency intercoms, this facility, as do many others, has a full compliment of outdoor cameras. This enables security to keep a wary eye out for problems on or off company property.

But video alone is not always enough. Audio is an excellent way to quickly catch the attention of security officers when something goes wrong.

Easy ID, Easy Use

Unlike many of the emergency telephone call boxes used along toll roads, city streets and in outdoor property applications in private industry, emergency intercom stations are easy for people to spot and even easier for them to use. This is because a typical emergency intercom unit is readily identified by a constantly-lit colored light (often blue or light) above the box.

Mounted on the outside of the same box is a momentary button and a speaker through which security can talk and listen to...