Emergency communication and mass notification systems
An emergency communication system gets one clear instruction to everyone on a premises at once, through spoken announcements, screens, desktops and phones, and records who received it. Strive AV designs and integrates these systems for UK venues, offices, campuses, hospitals and hospitality premises, building on the PA, signage and IT estate the site already has.
Typical cost: £2,000 to £8,000 to add mass notification and messaging to existing systems on one site, £30 to £150 per site per month for the alerting platform, and voice alarm installations priced at survey.
What an emergency communication system includes
Six parts, most of which a premises already owns in some form. The design work is deciding what is missing, what needs to be certified, and how the trigger reaches every channel at once.
| Component | Role | What we specify |
|---|---|---|
| Trigger points and control | Where an authorised person starts and stops an alert | Control room desk, fixed call points, staff alert buttons, app with two-step confirm, security system inputs |
| Message library | Pre-approved spoken and on-screen messages for each procedure | Evacuation, invacuation, lockdown, all-clear and site-specific variants, recorded in plain English and other languages where needed |
| PA and voice alarm | Spoken instruction in every occupied zone | Priority routing, zone selection, live microphone override; voice alarm elements certified by a life-safety contractor |
| Digital signage override | Visual instruction on every screen | CMS priority message or hardware trigger, reaches reception, corridors, meeting rooms and event screens |
| Desktop, mobile and SMS | Reaches people away from speakers and screens | Mass notification gateway with acknowledgement and reporting, priced per site per month |
| Integrations | Lets the building react | Access control, CCTV, building management, visitor management and the fire alarm interface |
Where emergency communication systems are installed
Venues, hotels and conference centres
Public-area voice alarm and signage, staff channel for front-of-house, event-day testing, integration with the events signage network.
Offices and headquarters
Desktop and Teams alerts, reception and meeting room screens, access control lockdown, multi-tenant trigger agreements with the landlord.
Schools, colleges and universities
Classroom-level audio, distinct lockdown tone, staff app, campus-wide mobile alerting for universities with dispersed estates.
Hospitals and public sector
Zoned messaging that respects clinical areas, control room integration, resilience and battery backup, procedures for shared sites.
Emergency communication and Martyn's Law
The Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025 asks standard tier premises (200 to 799 people) for procedures covering evacuation, invacuation, lockdown and communication, and enhanced tier premises (800 or more) for a documented public protection plan. Commencement is expected in spring 2027 and both tiers must notify the SIA. The Act does not name a product, a standard or an approved supplier; it asks for what is reasonably practicable.
In practice, the communication procedure is only as good as the system that carries it. Our Martyn's Law compliance services map the four procedures to the systems a premises has, and the free assessment shows which tier applies.
Strive AV & Masscoms
Masscoms is Strive AV's specialist partner for Martyn's Law compliance. Their Martyn's Law-ready emergency response system pairs with our public address, digital signage and occupancy analytics so your venue's protective duty is covered end to end.
Combined response and visitor-communication coverage, deployed and supported by a single integration team.
Visit Masscoms
Emergency communication FAQs
Q.What is an emergency communication system?
An emergency communication system is the set of channels and controls that let a premises tell everyone on site what is happening and what to do, fast and consistently: PA or voice alarm announcements, digital signage override, desktop pop-ups, mobile push and SMS, and the trigger points and message library behind them. A mass notification system is the software layer that sends one message to all of those channels at once.
Q.What is the difference between a PA system and a voice alarm system?
A PA (public address) system is for everyday announcements and background music and has no life-safety rating. A voice alarm (PA/VA) system is designed, installed and certified for emergency use under BS 5839-8 with EN 54 equipment: monitored speaker lines, battery backup, priority message routing and a fire-panel interface. Many premises run both, with the voice alarm carrying emergency messages and the PA everything else.
Q.Does Martyn's Law require a voice alarm or mass notification system?
No specific product is required. The Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025 asks premises to have procedures for evacuation, invacuation, lockdown and communication that are reasonably practicable for the site. For most premises above 200 people that means a reliable way to deliver spoken instructions and visual messages everywhere people gather, which is what these systems provide. See our Martyn's Law compliance services.
Q.How much does an emergency communication system cost?
Adding mass notification and messaging to existing PA, signage and IT on one site typically costs £2,000 to £8,000, with subscriptions of £30 to £150 per site per month. A new or replacement voice alarm installation is priced at survey because speaker counts, cabling, battery backup and certification scope decide it. Multi-site platforms start at £15,000.
Q.Can an emergency message reach people who are not at a screen or speaker?
Yes. Mass notification gateways push the same message to mobiles by app, SMS and email and to managed laptops as a full-screen pop-up with acknowledgement, which covers staff in back-of-house areas, on break or off site, and gives the incident lead a record of who has seen it.
