Overhead Paging Systems: Why your business needs one

Public address or overhead paging systems serve an important role for any large building or campus. In fact, for certain situations, there isn’t a viable alternative. Delivering a message to everyone within earshot can be a matter of life and death, such as in a hospital or school.

Even with the advent of broadcast SMS-text messaging, the reasons to install a public address system range from everyday use to critical emergencies — relying on people to respond to their phones isn’t always enough. It’s helpful to examine the different types of public address systems and their benefits. The technology of a public address system is speakers and a microphone (or microphones), but modern advances can add a lot of value.

At a base level, every public address system has the capacity to deliver a pre-recorded or live message across the entire speaker network. In a retail setting, it will most likely be integrated with the sound system that pipes in background music. But the communication only goes one way: from the central control panel and microphone out to the full reach of the system.

This may be the right solution if you don’t need people on the other end to respond quickly and audibly to the control center or caller.

Especially in workplaces where employees range widely and may not be reachable by any other method, an intercom enables quick communication between your control center and any of the speaker/microphone nodes on the network. You can even incorporate the intercom into the phone system so that anyone can pick up a phone, enter the access code and immediately deliver a message to the entire building.

This is an excellent solution where rapid communication between the control center and recipient or caller and recipient needs to happen.

Situations change quickly, especially in warehouses, industrial zones, or high-traffic facilities like schools and hospitals. Effective crisis management depends on rapidly identifying the situation and then quickly communicating information to all personnel. The is no faster way to get out urgent messages to everyone on your campus than with a paging system.

You would expect paging systems to make sound, but some systems can also help eliminate ambient sound through sound masking technology. Sound masking helps keep noise, like conversations, contained to certain spaces.

Overhead paging systems don’t have to be difficult to install or impact your work space’s aesthetic. Modern systems are designed to be unobtrusive and can blend in with any office decor. This allows them to be utilized in customer-facing environments, like waiting rooms, where they can be used to enhance the experience and page consumers.

Traditional paging systems were one-way communication. Modern systems offer talk-back functionality so that you can easily communicate with employees or visitors from a central command center. This also negates the need for other systems, like handheld transceivers.

Paging systems enable one-to-many communication, but modern systems also allow for more targeted communication through the use of specific zones. This allows you to easily contact specific employees or send messages just to relevant segments of your business.

Experience is a competitive edge. In addition to announcing special promotions in a retail space, overhead paging systems can be used to create ambiance in your business. This allows you to create an experience of visiting your business that will make it unique.

Paging systems can be a force multiplier for security systems. Instead of needing additional alarms or speakers to communicate emergency messages, your systems can work together. This makes installation faster and cheaper, but just as effective.

i.e.Smart Systems is a Houston, TX based technology integration partner that specializes in design and installation of audio/visual technology and structured cabling. For more than three decades, our team of in-house experts has partnered with business owners, architectural firms, general contractors, construction managers, real estate developers, and designers in the Houston market, to deliver reliable, scalable solutions that align with their unique goals.