With major new voice alarm standards set to come into operation in Britain in 2011 (British Standard EN 54-16:2008 and British Standard 5839 part 8: 2008), engineering managers worldwide are bound to be considering how their products will fare in the UK under new demands and how changes to products can be handled.
There are two important things to consider about British Standard 5839 Part 8: 2008. Firstly, given the advances made throughout the industry over the past 10 years, it is sobering to think that this is a standard whose principal content dates from 1998. Secondly, voice alarm manufacturers should be aware that while it is often quoted as a requirement in system specification documents, British Standard 5839 Part 8: 2008 is in fact a code of practice for the design, installation, commissioning and maintenance of voice alarm systems. While the previous version did describe the requirements of products, the latest version lives up to its title and refers out to EN54-16:2008 for specific product function.
Similarly, it is not possible to comply on a product level with the current standard governing sound systems for emergency purposes, British Standard EN 60849: 1998. The clue ought to be obvious from the title; this is a "system level" specification and any attempt to declare a product compliant to it is likely to be spurious, though this has not stopped several major players in the field alleging third-party accreditation when there is in fact no defined test regime.
While ten years is relatively recent in terms of certification when compared with other sectors, there is still much old-school thinking in the two voice alarm standards we are considering. They were written in an era when audio was mostly analogue, amplifiers were big, hot, unreliable beasts and software control systems were largely frowned upon.
| VA systems to operate in at least three distinct functional conditions |