Advantages

Disadvantages

Voice Public Address (PA)

• Available with new fire alarm systems

• Cost prohibitive

• Hard to hear in emergencies due to building acoustics

• Not ADA accessible to deaf and hard-of-hearing

Personal cellular/SMS

• Pervasive, no additional infrastructure

• Most useful tool if people are coming and going from facilities

• Delayed delivery possible due to carrier throughput capacity limitations

• Not localized

• "Opting-in"may result in low percentage of users

• May be silenced or turned off in academic settings and in hospitals

Email

• Simple and easy

• Very long delivery times often exceeding one hour

• People often are not continuously monitoring email

Sirens

• Reliable for single hazard warning, as opposed to all-hazards

• Unintelligible beyond knowing that there is "some" emergency

IP Phones

• Syncs with Alert Beacons

• Not suitable for public high traffic areas

Desktop Alerts

• Pervasive medium

• Fails in power outages

• Not everyone is always in front of a computer

Word-of-mouth

• Useful part of every solution

• Too slow if not supplemented with technology