If you manage a warehouse or office building, then you may want to consider installing a paging system. These systems are straightforward telecommunications devices, but they form an essential part of many business environments.
Without them, properly communicating with your workforce in real time can be extremely difficult.
There are various reasons why you’d want to install a paging system in your building. There are also many different considerations you need to make when installing these systems.
Although a paging system may seem relatively simple, it’s critical that you use the right networking and components when putting them together.
In this guide, we’ll cover everything you need to know about paging system installation for your business.
What Is A Paging System?
A paging system is a communication device that allows for one-way communication from a single point to a larger audience. For example, you could connect your office phone system to a paging speaker in the office, which would allow you to make announcements throughout the office.
Some typical use cases of paging systems are time clock systems, warehouse communication systems, and ceiling speakers. These systems make it convenient to address a large audience (like a warehouse or an entire office building) through a single telecommunications line.
Benefits Of A Paging System
There are many reasons why installing a paging system is a good idea. Here are some of the ways you can use these systems in your building:
- Paging systems make it easy to broadcast safety and emergency notifications. This can be particularly useful in a warehouse environment.
- Paging systems can help you quickly locate and communicate with employees in a large building – such as a grocery store.
- Paging systems allow you to efficiently broadcast time notifications and shift changes to your building.
- Regardless of the building or environment, paging systems let you make fast and easy public address announcements. These announcements could be for your workforce or for your customers.
Types Of Paging Systems
To understand the intricacies of paging system installations, you’ll need to understand the different types of paging systems that exist. This will help you choose the most suitable one for your organization.
First, you get one-way and two-way paging systems. One-way systems only allow for one-way broadcasts to be sent out, while two-way systems let your audience respond to your broadcasts.
When looking at paging system installation, you can also get single-zone setups and multi-zone setups. With a single zone setup, the paging broadcasts can only be sent out from the telephone to whatever speakers are linked to it.
Multi-zone paging systems, on the other hand, let you broadcast a message from the telephone to specific speakers that you choose. This could be useful if you only want to contact a certain floor of the building or certain areas of the warehouse.
Another consideration to make with a paging system installation is music. Some paging systems will let you have a telephone and a music source. This lets you broadcast music across the system.
You could also mix short clips of music with your telephone announcements. Other systems only have a telephone source for announcements.
Paging System Installation Components
A paging system installation involves a couple of different parts. These are:
Telephone Unit
You need a telephone unit to send your messages to the speakers
UTI
The universal telephone paging interface is a device that connects your telephone to the speaker. If you want to add additional audio sources to the paging system (like a music source) you can connect this to the UTI.
Amplifier
The amplifier lets you control the volume of the paging messages you broadcast. This is an optional component and really depends on what type of speakers you use.
Music Source
As mentioned above, this is optional. If you want to play music over the paging system, you can connect the music source to the UTI.
Speakers
You need to have speakers at the end of the paging system to broadcast the message. These are generally ceiling speakers placed throughout a building. You could have horn-type speakers (suitable for large warehouses), or smaller disk-like speakers (suitable for office buildings).
Paging System Installation Considerations
Paging system installation must be done carefully to ensure the system works efficiently throughout the building. A key part of this is knowing how to space out the speakers so that broadcast messages are audible throughout the building without the speakers “clashing” with each other.
You’ll need to perform a thorough site inspection to understand how the speaker setup will look. This will involve identifying any possible obstructions that could restrict how sound travels.
You’ll also need to consider factors like whether the paging system needs to broadcast outside or inside, how high the ceilings are, and whether there is much existing noise in the environment (such as in a manufacturing plant).
A sound pressure level (SPL) meter should be used to monitor the sound pressure in the location.
Of course, paging system installation also requires proper network configuration for wiring and powering the system. You need to ensure the system has enough power wattage and sound propagation for effective use.
Conclusion
The installation of a reliable and high-functioning paging system requires a number of key considerations. If the system is incorrectly installed, or if there are areas that sound from the system doesn’t properly travel to, then it could result in a potential hazard.
This is why working with experienced paging system technicians is so important. When properly installed, a paging system can be incredibly useful for your business.
At Stellar Communications, we offer paging system installation services for all kinds of buildings and environments. Speak to us today if you’d like to determine your paging system needs and get an expert to help you put the right system together.
