MessageNet

Tag: connections

  • The Unification of Safety, Security & Emergency Communication

    In the MessageNet Connections video found on our home page (and on the right side of this post) we try to provide the viewer with a concise introduction to the features and benefits of our product and describe how Connections addresses the safety, security and communication challenges facing organizations today. What follows is the complete text of what I said in the video with an explanation of what I said and its importance to you, interleaved on a point by point basis.

    “Emergencies, such as 9/11, Virginia-Tech, the London subway bombing, hurricane Katrina, and many others, have demonstrated that text messaging and mass dialing phones does not work.”

    Many emergency communication and mass-notification systems deployed now and in the past have relied heavily on mass dialing phones and text messaging as the primary or exclusive way to notify people. For all of the significant incidences mentioned above, the internet is full of documentation that these methods have failed to effectively direct or even notify the affected people.

    “These methods of notification fail because they don’t notify the majority of people fast enough to protect them from danger.”

    Many emergencies evolve rapidly, often requiring life saving decisions to be made within a few minutes or even just a few seconds. For example, the shooter at Virginia Tech killed over 30 people in less than 10 minutes. A simple Google search of the incident reveals that many people received the warning as late as hours after the events occurred or didn’t receive it at all.

    “On-site, network based emergency communication systems are needed to deliver information and instructions fast enough and specific enough to save lives.”

    Mass dialing and text messaging are essentially completely dependent on the capacity of the cell phone towers servicing the area. These towers are designed to meet the needs of normal daily communications, far less than the volume that would be required to notify everyone in an affected area during an emergency. Though these systems advertise that they can send a large number of text or calls very quickly, the cell phone towers are limited and the delivery of the phones calls and text messages can be delayed and messages can be thrown away by the towers entirely. On-site, network based emergency communication systems like MessageNet Connections, which uses the high speed enterprise communication backbone, do not have these capacity limitations and can deliver many thousands of messages in a few seconds. Additionally, because Connections communicates to both mobile and fixed-location devices, it can provide instructions unique to the needs of people in specific areas during an emergency so they have the information to make better decisions that can save their lives.

    “MessageNet Connections combines your emergency communication systems, with your everyday communications forming one, unified system.”

    Connections, as the name implies, communicates across the spectrum of communication systems and devices, such as PA systems, fire and life safety systems, and security systems, integrating them with your PC network and phone systems to form a very cost-effective system that presents a unified functional capability to your staff.

    “By having everything integrated, your emergency communications are given immediate priority delivery, with the ability to override daily communications, ensuring that your emergency messages won’t be drowned out by daily communications.”

    As people become aware of impending danger, their stress levels quickly rise. This effect greatly reduces people’s ability to process information effectively and make decisions that can save their lives. By using the same communication equipment for emergencies that’s used for daily purposes means that Connections will suppress normal communications during the delivery of high priority messages reducing the stress and confusion.

    “And, because your staff is using Connections daily, you know the system works and you can be confident that your staff will know how to operate it in an emergency.”

    Study after study has shown that people under stress fail at executing procedures that they are not used to doing. By unifying emergency and daily communications under the same functional system, your staff can use the same skills and behavior when communicating and responding to emergencies that they use daily.

    “MessageNet Connections is a multi-user system that allows your staff to send important messages from almost any device through a central system to virtually any combination of other devices.”

    MessageNet Connections integrates your existing phone systems, cell phones, PA systems, fire and life safety systems, security systems, camera surveillance systems, and e-mail systems with panic buttons, sensors and your network of PCs.

    “In addition to emergency communications, Connections is a great tool for everyday communications as well. It lets you get the most out of your investment in existing communications systems and appliances.”

    Because Connections allows you to integrate your disparate communication, safety and security systems into one unified system you derive new synergies between these systems and deliver a real return on investment.

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  • Communicating Effectively to Meet Healthcare Staff Needs

    A time & labor saving way to call for overtime staffing or emergencies

    Hospitals and health care facilities are often challenged to meet daily staffing needs. Staff members can spend up to four hours dialing coworkers to fill open shifts each day. This process is both costly for the hospital and wasteful of the time that staff could be using to care for patients.

    MessageNet Systems has found a solution to this problem that involves a simple click of a button. Staff can even accept shifts with a keypad selection – no need to dial a phone number.

    A number of hospitals are already using MessageNet Connections for this purpose, as MessageNet far exceeds other automated dialing systems in many areas. MessageNet Connections allows users to set up multiple lists based on availability, department, or any other criteria. The message sender can then de-select anyone they know to be unavailable due to illness, vacation or any other reason. The message that is sent can be pre-programmed or customized each time and recipients can respond directly, with no need to dial back in. These messages can be sent to staff via phone, text, e-mail, or any combination thereof depending on the needs of the individual with a simple button click, saving healthcare facilities over 4300 nursing hours a year.

    Click here to learn how MessageNet unifies medical alert & patient care systems with safety, security & communications

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  • MessageNet PA capabilities

    Most people think of PA as being a simple audio tool. Pick up a phone and speak and your voice will be transmitted to speakers all over the building. While MessageNet does have the capability to transmit to any combination of speakers, our PA system has a lot more to offer.

    • Reply to a PA message via the two-way intercom feature.
    • Record and store thousands of recorded  message for later play.  Most systems limit you to a handful of recorded messages.
    • Schedule recorded messages to automatically play once or repeatedly.
    • Speak live and automatically record what was said for future use and for documentation.
    • Have a typed message spoken aloud through text-to-speech software that supports multiple languages.
    • Flash high-intensity lights to get attention.
    • Have a text message scroll across the PA device.

    These additional capabilities make for a far more versatile and useful system that can meet the needs of many different situations. As an audio and visual PA system, it can be used in environments with deaf and blind people and is also ideal for emergencies, as people can be rendered deaf or blind in an instant by an explosion or other type of disaster.

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  • Record Live PA

    MessageNet already offers one of the most versatile and comprehensive PA systems on the market. We’ve recently added the ability to automatically record any announcement that is spoken live over a PA. This is useful because that same message can be replayed later if its intended recipient didn’t hear all of it, or if it needs to be repeated later East Inflatable Rentals. This allows for more complicated spoken announcements, because users no longer have to worry that the message will be lost or not remembered if it’s too long, since it can always be replayed. This also provides an audit trail, so if there’s been a problem with unauthorized use of the PA, exactly what was said and who said it can easily be found out.

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  • Save a PowerPoint as a Video

    MessageNet Connections users with Microsoft PowerPoint (version 2012 or later) now have the option to save a PowerPoint presentation as a video file. This makes displaying a presentation on a MessageNet MediaPort a lot simpler. PowerPoint presentations have often had many specific settings that need to be correct in order to properly display (as explained in this earlier blog post: Make Power Point Presentations Compatible), so a video, which only needs to be saved in widescreen format, is a lot easier to successfully create and display. Another advantage of the video format is that all transitions and animations are compatible and display on MediaPorts, unlike the .ppt format, which is more restrictive.

    To save a presentation as a video, follow these steps:
    1. Click on the ‘file’ tab and select ‘save & send’
    2. Under the ‘file types’ heading, select ‘save as video’
    3. If you haven’t already set up transition timings, it will ask you to do so next
    4. Save the file (it may take a few minutes for the file to be converted, depending on the speed of your computer)
    5. Finally, upload it to a MessageNet Connections media message and enjoy a nicer presentation that was easier to create

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  • Message Prioritization

    Because MessageNet Connections can be used for both everyday and emergency communications, protocols for message prioritization need to be set up. Too often, users, not wanting their messages to be interrupted by others’, set theirs with higher priority levels, potentially blocking any other messages (even emergency messages) from being displayed or spoken. I recommend that an organization should establish priority standards for each type of message ahead of time so users know what priority to give their messages inflatable water slides.

    The default priority for normal messages is 200. Other every day priority levels can be set around this base. While emergency messages should have higher priority levels, emergencies are not necessarily equal. This is where it’s vital to set priority standards before emergencies happen, so a message about a fire threatening the entire building isn’t blocked by a message about a water leak in the basement that may only damage equipment. Having different classifications for emergency messages can help make choosing a priority level easier. Also, within Connections’ User Database Manager, it is possible to restrict certain users from sending messages with higher than a certain priority, so only emergency personnel can send messages with emergency-level priority, making it easier to control how the priority levels of messages are set up.

    I highly recommend these steps be taken to ensure that emergency communications are reliably delivered and are not lost in the crowd of common daily communications.

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  • Now Offering Theater Emergency Management and Security (TEMS) system

    MessageNet Systems is offering movie theaters a much-needed way to address their emerging safety and security needs, in the wake of the recent tragedy in Aurora, Colorado. This solution, called Theater Emergency Management and Security, or “TEMS,” leverages the power and flexibility of its time- and field-tested “Connections” platform to meet the specific security needs of movie theaters and similar public venues. The solution is available now.

    The shooting in Aurora, Colorado, has underscored the urgent need for such a solution. “The employment of uniformed police officers is a short-term, stop-gap measure meant to reassure patrons, but in the long-term, the presence of an officer or armed guard is not economically feasible and could have the effect of constantly reigniting customers’ fears,” says Kevin Brown, CEO of MessageNet Systems. “To preserve profitability, theaters require a permanent, technology-based solution that is comprehensive and cost-effective, and doesn’t further encumber staff or be obtrusive to customers. Because perpetrators will continue to modify their means and methods of attack, the security system deployed must have the flexibility to evolve to meet these changing demands. Theaters that fail to address these vulnerabilities increase their exposure risk to another tragedy and incur significant financial liability.”

    The TEMS solution utilizes features of the MessageNet’s Connections platform and is designed for theaters and their evolving safety and security needs. The full TEMS feature-set is customizable for each theater but can include devices and capabilities such as door-open detectors, cameras and video, panic and duress buttons, and fire-related emergency management through an interface with existing fire panel equipment. “A typical TEMS integration is affordable, quick to install and easy to use because the Connections platform is designed to integrate, connect and work with existing technologies that are already deployed, while providing the ability to add new technologies as they are needed,” says Brown. “It is easy for a multiplex to install a few cameras and door-open detectors on the exit doors, which can be wirelessly connected to the Connections platform and provide nearly instant notification and situational-awareness to staff and first responders.” TEMS can also provide a significant ROI because it provides daily-use abilities such as preventing theater hopping, quickly handling unruly patrons, supporting digital signage, enabling staff messaging, and more.

    For more information on the TEMS solution, please visit:
    http://www.messagenetcommunicationsystems.com/home/solutions/theater-security-emergency-management/

    [Syndicated Release]

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  • Smarter Security in Movie Theaters and Public Venues

    First, I want to express both my own and my company’s genuine shock and sadness about the horrific attack in Aurora, Colorado during the early morning of July 20. The tragic violence of a mass shooting at a movie theater during the premiere of a big movie like The Dark Knight Rises has me, like so many others, trying to understand what happened. And because I work with emergency communication systems for a living, the issue of warning and potential prevention is foremost on my mind, as I try to grapple with what happened that night.

    Perhaps the bigger picture of this horrible tragedy and the implications for theater security will become clear in the weeks and months to come; but at this moment, I can’t personally help to think how this could have been prevented or mitigated. We (not only as a business, but as a society) have the technology, the know-how, and the ability to at least mitigate these types of situation — and to do so simply, easily and inexpensively; so it absolutely confounds me that this shooting was able to run its course the way it did. It’s at least a good thing that the shooter’s gun jammed and hopefully prevented him from expanding his attack even further.

    A major, yet simple component that comes to my mind is a simple door-open detector (either wired or easier-to-install wireless). These devices are even cheaper than the standalone emergency exit alarms that can be found in many retail outlets, and can integrate with other systems. We have installations that use these to monitor access to secure areas, already; so, I have no trouble envisioning a system in which an automatic door-open notice is sent to a Connections server, which can then automatically (and instantly) alert staff to a potential problem (at least to prevent theater hoppers from seeing free movies, I would think). What if someone in the box-office or some other staff had known that an exit door was suspiciously propped-open at the start of a movie? Wouldn’t they at least go shut it? I really cannot help but wonder if such a simple action, if in-place, may have helped mitigate or prevent this tragedy, altogether.

    Also, most movie theaters use digital projectors, these days. What this suggests is that a warning message could conceivably be shown on the big screen, potentially just as easily as our Connections product can send video content to LCD screens. So, even if the shooting were allowed to begin in the first place, a system integrated into the digital projector could have at least instructed people in each of the individual theaters what to do (shelter in place or direct them to customized evacuation routes for each theater). On the other hand, perhaps a stand-alone dedicated device (like an LCD flat screen or LED sign board) might be better, in case patrons would confuse the message with the movie content. Either way, clear instructions are a “must.” According to witness accounts, the Aurora theater’s fire alarm system was activated very soon after the shootings began, prompting some to begin evacuating; but by some witnesses’ accounts, the assailant began to target people who were trying to evacuate. This is one example, if horrific, of why we need ways to communicate specific details and instructions (even if pre-defined), rather than simplistic notification alarms which have limited meaning.

    As I said, perhaps a clearer picture will come out later, but it appears to me that if there were time to activate the fire alarm, there would have otherwise been enough time to activate a smarter emergency communication system that could have potentially saved lives.  I firmly believe that with the available technology and know-how that exists these days, disasters like this can be lessened considerably or prevented altogether.

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