New PA System To Be Implemented For Capital Project

As part of Beekmantown Central School District’s Capital Project, a new Public Address (PA) system will be implemented district wide. The new system, integrated by Day Automation, will elevate the security and safety measures for students, faculty and staff.

The PA system will have a clock with a speaker and a LCD display that shows the time and critical messages, such as a lockdown, hold-in-place or evacuation. There is also a light on it that strobes to get people’s attention.

“This system will be great for everyone to understand what is happening, such as someone who is hearing impaired,” Director of 21^st Century Learning Gary Lambert said. “They’re going to be wall mounted with pre-designated and pre-recorded messages. It’s not reinventing what we are doing but reinforcing what we’re currently doing.”

The clock/speaker will be installed in classrooms, offices, instructional spaces will outdoor speakers covering exterior areas. Lambert used the example of a small storage room in the LGI for being a space that should still have the PA system.

“What would you need it in a storage room for?” Lambert posed. “In an emergency, students would be locked down in that closet. How will they know when the lockdown is cleared? There will be a speaker in there.”

The current systems have been in use throughout the school district for at least 30 years. The components are dated with old wiring and speakers. According to Lambert, some of the speakers date back to the ‘50s and ‘60s. The current speakers often have issues with the volume.

For certain classrooms, they need the speaker lowered, but places like the gymnasium, the speakers need to be louder for people to hear over noises. The new PA system will have adjustable volumes, so each location can be customized to its needs.

The new PA system will also allow additional zones to be created within the school. This way an alert can be sent out without having to alert the whole building. The end goal of this system is to integrate other safety related system so that in an emergency a building leader would not have to manage multiple systems for notifications.  For example, an administrator could send out emergency responses through a smartphone app, i.e. Raptor Alert, and this would connect to the new PA system to alert schools.

“We want to keep everyone safe through the most efficient and effective way, and this new PA system is a great tool to have for years to come,” Lambert said.