The Army's First Audio-Visual Notification System
Overview
Visual alerting is ideal for high-occupancy and high-noise ammunition production facilities such as the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant. So when the plant installed the Army’s first audiovisual notification system for use in an ammunition production area, they incorporated the Alertus Alert Beacon.
Challenge
Before the AVNS installation, LCAAP had no means to communicate to its workforce what type of crisis was occurring in the primary production buildings and what actions they needed to take in response to the emergency.
Solution
The AVNS provides fully integrated, plantwide audio and visual alerting of an emergency and is ideal for high occupancies and high-noise ammunition production buildings like LCAAP. Production personnel now receive emergency notifications from a wall-mounted Alert Beacon®, an emergency notification strobe, and an LED Marquee.
“The AVNS is now the primary means for notifying employees of all emergencies, except fires,” said Ken Griechen, Emergency Manager, Lake City Army Ammunition Plant. “We will use the new system to notify our employees of severe weather warnings, hazardous materials releases, industrial accidents, active shooter situations, and other emergencies.”
Lake City Army Ammunition Plant was chosen to host the first AVNS installation because it was the first facility to be identified with a specific need to provide mass warning notifications to employees in a large industrial, high-noise manufacturing environment where they do not have access to computers or personal cell phones.
The AVNS was installed in several small- and medium-caliber production line buildings and certified as fully operational on April 15, after LCAAP first responder personnel completed training.