A lockdown only works if everyone knows it has started. At one independent school in Essex, a lockdown alarm could be heard clearly across the grounds, but not inside the buildings where most staff and pupils spend their day. This case study looks at how the school closed that gap with PopAlert, without the cost of wiring a lockdown alarm into every building.
The school’s campus is spread across around 90 acres, with buildings all around the site: classrooms, boarding houses, offices, halls and sports facilities.
It already had an Alertex lockdown system covering its outdoor areas. When a lockdown was triggered, sirens sounded across the grounds, so anyone outside knew immediately that something was wrong.
Inside, it was a different story. In classrooms, offices and corridors, the outdoor sirens couldn’t be heard. Staff teaching a lesson or working at their desks could be unaware that a lockdown had started, which is exactly when every second counts.
The obvious fix would have been a physical lockdown alarm inside every building: sounders, cabling and control panels across the whole campus. On a site this size, that was estimated to cost at least £85,000, plus the disruption of installation work in occupied buildings and the ongoing maintenance that comes with it.
Instead, the school kept its outdoor-only Alertex system for the grounds and used PopAlert to carry the message indoors, over the computers and screens it already had.
Indoors, two places reach almost everyone during the school day:
A message on those screens doesn’t just signal that something is happening. It can tell people what to do.
The school installed PopAlert on its corridor screens and all staff computers. Our engineers installed the PopAlert control unit on site, connected it to the school’s network, configured the alert messages and tested the system before handing over.
Now, when a lockdown starts, the outdoor sirens are joined by a full-screen lockdown instruction on every connected screen inside, so the message spreads through the buildings as well as across the grounds.
PopAlert can also be triggered from third-party systems such as Alertex. Read more about PopAlert and Alertex together.
The school now has indoor and outdoor coverage for lockdowns. People outside hear the sirens; people inside see a clear instruction on the nearest screen.
It achieved this without installing a physical alarm in every building, avoiding an estimated £85,000+ in hardware and installation, with no building works, using the staff computers and corridor screens already on site.
If your lockdown alarm can’t be heard in every room, or your staff wouldn’t know what to do when it sounds, PopAlert can help. See PopAlert for schools, try the interactive demo, or get in touch to talk about your site.
