New life in the air raid siren market
Mass notification systems receive $1 billion in DHS budget; Acoustic Technology, Federal Signal, and others jump into the market; interoperability with other security systems the key
Some of our older readers may recall the air raid sirens of their youth. Those have been out of service for some time now, but what with concerns about weapons of mass destruction making cities uninhabitable, a growing market is developing to bring mass notification systems (MNSs) back. The one difference between the old days and now? Just making noise is insufficient. “Customers are demanding that MNS be able to communicate with other security systems in a common alerting protocol,” said Alan Avidan of Sarasota, Florida-based MadahCom. “Interoperability between multiple systems allows for a regional, unified mass notification process.” The 2007 and 2008 DHS budgets are expected to provide $1 billion to help local governments and industrial planst develop such systems.
Naturally enough, a number of companies are interested in getting their hands on those dollars. These include the aforementioned MadahCom, one of the main suppliers of MNS systems for the Department of Defense; East Boston, Massachusetts-based Acoustic Technology, whose Installation Warning System is now being installed at U.S. Air Force bases around the country; Oak Brook, Illinois-based Federal Signal, which is considered the nation’s largest provider of civilian public safety MNS systems; and Long Branch, New Jersey-based Cooper Wheelock. “Whether natural or man-made, future disasters are not a matter of if, but when, and an effective and timely public alerting system can help save lives and reduce losses,” said MadahCom’s Avidan. “It’s about getting the right message to the right people at the right time.”
-read more in Josh Martin’s GSN report
