DIN CEN/TS 54-32:2016-04

Within Europe, guidelines on public address and voice alarm systems are published by various organizations. The purpose of this Technical Specification is to summarize these documents and provide current guidelines for the design, installation, commissioning, operation, maintenance and modification of public address and voice alarm systems throughout Europe. It is not the intent of this Technical Specification to override existing local, regional or national regulations. It is expected that these guidelines will co-exist with other regulations for a significant (and as yet undetermined) period of time. However, it is hoped that the availability of a common set of guidelines will assist in the harmonization of practice and standards for voice alarm systems throughout Europe. This Technical Specification makes recommendations. These recommendations can be made binding by specifying them in other documents. For example, a legally competent authority, based on local, regional or national legislation, may require compliance with this Technical Specification. Similarly, a contract between a client and a supplier may specify compliance, which may then become binding under contract law. The purpose of voice alarm systems is to provide intelligible warnings to persons inside or in the vicinity of a building in which an alarm occurs, enabling them to take appropriate action in accordance with the alarm organization. These guidelines cover voice alarm systems that are triggered automatically by a fire detection and fire alarm system or that are manually triggered, or both. This Technical Specification does not apply to fire detection and fire alarm systems that only use voice sounders, bells or sounders or a combination of these. The responsible committee is UK 713.1 "Gefahrenmelde- und Überwachungsanlagen" ("Alarm and surveillance systems") of the DKE (German Commission for Electrical, Electronic and Information Technologies) at DIN and VDE.