by Thomas Kinsinger
Director of Technology, E-N Computers
20+ years experience in enterprise IT and managed services.
A paging, or public address (PA), system can help you to disseminate important announcements and alerts quickly and effectively. They are widely used in places like grocery stores, offices, factories, schools, medical facilities, and detention centers.
Older PA systems used analog technology, which was inflexible and expensive to maintain. Today, we recommend Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) as a cost-effective and highly customizable solution for your phones and paging system. We’ve put together some examples of how paging systems are used, how they work with VoIP, factors to consider when planning your VoIP paging system, plus some different hardware options from one of our vendors.
QUICK ANSWER:
Why should I consider a VoIP-based paging system?
Modern VoIP paging systems offer greater flexibility, customization options, and higher quality audio than older legacy systems. They’re useful for making announcements, safety and emergency alerts, playing background music, or even providing visual alerts.
Benefits and use cases for paging systems
A paging system keeps your building connected and safe. It is particularly useful for quickly sharing information to everyone on site, asking for someone to call from the nearest phone, and delivering emergency notifications. Here are some uses for paging systems that we’ve seen:
Background music. Retailers often play background music to create a more pleasant shopping experience. But they’re not the only ones to use a paging system like this. We’ve also talked with manufacturers who want to play background music on the shop floor to improve productivity.
Announcements. Paging systems make it easy to announce important information including retailer specials, school events, and alerts. Pre-recorded announcements can be played on a schedule or loop, commonly used in airports, train stations, and bus terminals.
Bell schedules. Schools, prisons, and factories rely on bell schedules to keep a daily routine. A pre-programmed bell schedule is played over speakers throughout the building to signal class changes, breaks, and lunch hour.
Paging staff. If a staff member is in the building but does not have a personal extension or is away from their desk, they can be paged over the speaker system and asked to call an extension or go somewhere. This is useful for vendor and client visits or when a manager is looking for someone on the shop floor.
One-way calling or push button calling. In some situations, you may want the ability to page a room and allow the occupants to respond back through the speaker system. Or, you may want to call a predefined extension or phone number at the push of a button.
How VoIP paging works
Old-school PA systems had a microphone, amplifier, and speakers. They weren’t very flexible and making an announcement over the speakers had to be done from that microphone. Modern options offer more flexibility and can integrate with your VoIP phone system.
With a VoIP system, every phone extension can be part of your paging system. That means that every desk phone can potentially send and receive paging announcements. You can restrict which phones a page can come from, and extensions can be grouped into zones so that you can page only some of them. This can be useful if you only want to page offices but not the shop floor, or classrooms but not administrative areas.
Some facilities may only use desk phones to implement a paging system. This can be cost-effective. But make sure you have enough phone extensions so that important announcements and emergency alerts can be heard by everyone.
There is also specialized paging hardware designed to connect to your VoIP phone network — everything from speakers to strobe lights to call buttons. These devices support multicast, meaning that only one device needs to be assigned an extension to receive messages and can broadcast that message to other devices. This limits the number of extensions you must have and helps to control costs.
Important considerations when planning your VoIP paging system
Unlike digital lines from a phone company, a cloud-based VoIP system requires internet, power, and network switches. Because of the importance of phone service and clear emergency alerts, you need to consider backups for these three things.
Internet. If you use a best-effort internet service like Comcast Business, you should have a backup internet service that does not rely on the same backbone — often a slower but dedicated copper line.
Power. You should also have backup power, either generator or battery backups, for your network equipment. It’s also good to have a plan to forward your main number to a cell phone during extended outages so that important calls are not missed. In the event of a power outage that affects an elevator, you might consider an elevator phone connected to a battery-powered cellular modem.
Network switches. You may want to consider keeping a spare switch on hand. If a network switch fails, it could result in 24 to 48 connections losing access to the network and your phone system. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we saw a computer chip shortage that caused unavailability and long lead times for all sorts of electronics, including network switches. Having an available spare will allow you to get back up and running quickly while the dead switch is replaced.
Paging products from ALGO Solutions
At E-N Computers, we use products from ALGO Solutions to implement paging systems. All of these items are designed to work with either a cloud-based on-site VoIP system and use Power over Ethernet (PoE), which means they are powered by the network cable and do not need a separate electrical outlet.
Bullhorns, ceiling speakers, clock speakers. ALGO speakers provide wideband HD audio so that speech is clearly understood. Clock speakers make it possible to keep the same time on every clock on the network.
Paging adapters and schedulers. ALGO paging adapters bridge the gap between your old analog paging system and your new VoIP phone system. You can use them to replace an old controller or to add zones to an existing single-zone system.
The scheduler automates playing sound files for bells and announcements. It also synchronizes with any clock speakers. Its settings are managed through a web interface, and it allows you to upload WAV files to its 1GB storage.
Visual alerters. Outdoor-rated multicolor lights can be connected to your VoIP system and are useful for areas where hearing protection is worn, quiet areas, or expansive facilities. They can be used to alert that a phone is ringing or as part of paging and mass notification systems to visually alert for safety, security, and emergency events.
Intercoms. ALGO intercoms offer the same wideband HD audio as their other speakers, plus useful features like video intercom, auto-attendant announcements, directory, and door/gate entry relays.
Call buttons. A simple call switch can be configured to ring an extension, which is appropriate for emergency and non-emergency uses. For example, the switch can be used for customers to request help or for the front desk to call security.
You can also set up integrations with your security cameras or fire alarm system. For example, you might play an announcement on several outdoor speakers when an exterior security camera detects motion. Or an announcement can be played when the fire alarm is set off or it is clear to come back inside after a fire drill.
Next Steps
When you have the right people working together, you can implement systems and processes that actively help you reach your business goals. We sometimes call this IT maturity. But for many organizations, something is off when it comes to their partnerships, strategy, systems, and settings. How can you know what’s working well and where you have room for improvement? Start by taking our free IT Maturity Self-Assessment. You’ll walk away with some pointers and, if you want, a free appointment to discuss your results.
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