# How many of your venues keep a VOG/ emergency mic FOH or with the SM?



## photoatdv (Sep 16, 2009)

I was wondering how many venues keep an emergency mic available either FOH or with the SM? I know my old hs started keeping a set-up and muted mic at the FOH position. This of course started after we were trying to evacuate and it took several minutes (okay it seemed like several) for anyone to get on a mic. I know that would seem to be the SM's job, but in our venue we didn't have very functional headsets, so despite the fact a mic was 2' away from me (I was SM) I couldn't hear the call from FOH to make an announcement to evacuate well enough to figure out what they were saying! Fortunately this wasn't a situation where a couple of minutes made a big difference, but I could easily see it being a matter of life and death if there were a fire.


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## sk8rsdad (Sep 16, 2009)

The only time we've ever had to evacuate was due to a prolonged power outage. The amplifiers are not on UPS (uninterruptible power supply) since they are not deemed critical, so the VOG was not very useful.


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## Fred (Sep 16, 2009)

HS had one integrated into the booth (SM called almost everything from there). College occasionally had one up there, but also realized that the theatre was small enough that any ASM with a resonable ability to speak loudly could do the same from the stage (great acoustics).

Now, with tiny community theatre fun...well, I can yell pretty darn loud.


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## willbb123 (Sep 16, 2009)

There is always a mic set up by the console. We do alot of concerts so its there as a talkback, but it did get used last time we had to evacuate. We now have a blow horn in case power is out.


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## mbenonis (Sep 16, 2009)

Our god mic operates through the intercom system (ClearCom Matrix 3), so all the PSM has to do is push a button and her com becomes a god mic. We use this a lot during tech when the PSM needs to give direction to the cast ("hold please"), and also during shows for routine special announcements (talkbacks after the performance, etc).


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## Clifford (Sep 16, 2009)

I put always because our Mackie 32-8 has a built-in talkback mic. If we need to address the audience, we use that. Not the most amazing thing, but it works.


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## DaveySimps (Sep 16, 2009)

We always keep one at FOH Mix and one by the SM. The SM also has a paging system for the Lobby and backstage areas tied into our Clear-Com system. We also have an announce mic in the Box Office just in case. All locations also have flashlights and spare batteries. 

~Dave


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## seanandkate (Sep 16, 2009)

Like mbenonis, we go through the Clearcom for VOG. Not much help in a power failure, but it's a small enough venue that a good voice can fill it.


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## MillburyAuditorium (Sep 16, 2009)

We haven't been keeping a mic at the sound board because really, we don't have anywhere to plug it in, one of our boards channels does not work, but we are planning on fixing it this year, then we will keep a mic at the sound board so we don't need to yell to people at the stage during rehearsals even, and since our entire theatre is on backup power so we dont have a problem with power outages. (As in speakers going out that is.)

We really wished we had one when our power had died out, and backup power didnt come online for a few minutes, was a problem with wiring that has been fixed, and so I had to get up on stage and announce what was happening, and I have a small and shy voice : )


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## kiwitechgirl (Sep 17, 2009)

We don't have a dedicated VOG mic - the comms are wired into the Tannoy so that I can make dressing room announcements, but nothing FOH. Our space isn't particularly big though (only 300 seats) and on the few occasions where something has gone wrong (other than a fire alarm!), I have had no trouble making myself heard to the audience.


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## Chris15 (Sep 17, 2009)

You folks don't have mics attached to emergency evacuation systems tied into the fire alarms?

I know that certain PACs have risk assessed and authority and insurer approved variations whereby the house staff are notified and then a controlled from the stage evac occurs...

This is why for instance the installed PA at Opera House has totally redundancy...


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## sk8rsdad (Sep 17, 2009)

Chris15 said:


> You folks don't have mics attached to emergency evacuation systems tied into the fire alarms?



The members of this forum represent a plethora of performance venues from outdoor to multiplexes to arenas. CB members represent many jurisdictions with diverse legislation. Even if we happen to be in the same jurisdiction, different statutes may have been in effect at the time of construction.

In my venue, a 350 seat auditorium near Ottawa there is no requirement to install a system for amplified voice for evacuation. The NAC downtown, with it's 4 performance spaces, restaurants, cubbyholes and miles of hallways may have different requirements. Then again, I think our entire theatre can fit on the opera stage and still leave room on the apron for a full production of Aida.


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## Chris15 (Sep 17, 2009)

The requirement here is that a theatre, public hall etc. more than 2 storeys high or 1000 sq m in area have a system installed. I would tend to think that areas less than that ought to be evacuable by unamplified voice...


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## museav (Sep 17, 2009)

This is bordering on getting into code issues. A VoG mic and an emergency announcement mic are not really the same thing. Life safety codes typically place specific requirements on any system used for voice evacuation from the appropriate ratings and approvals for the individual equipment components through electronic system supervision and emergency power requirements to having mics located where first responders can access them to specific system performance criteria such as STI-PA. Many Authorities Having Jurisdiction require any audio systems not meeting all of their requirements for voice evacuation to be muted or even powered down during a life safety emergency, using your sound or production communications systems may be fine for general announcements but are often not an acceptable method of communicating during a life safety event and should not be assumed an acceptable method unless approved for such use. So we probably need to differentiate between VoG applications and emergency announce applications and limit this to VoG applications with any emergency announce applications being determined by local code and AHJ requirements.

In addition, based on some other discussions here at CB, there are apparently many venues where the SM and FOH are essentially at the same location, if not the same person, so the relative locations could certainly affect how people answer.


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## Raktor (Sep 17, 2009)

museav said:


> This is bordering on getting into code issues. A VoG mic and an emergency announcement mic are not really the same thing.



Yup. Splitting into two areas really.

Emergency:
The venue has an EWIS (Emergency Warning Intercommunications System) system installed. This ties in through Soundweb - should an evacuation get automatically or manually triggered, part of the EWIS job is to notify patrons through the audio system by muting all audio and sending the evacuation or warning tone and prerecorded message into the auditorium. This is in conjunction with warning lights, etc. This isn't the website for the venue, but this site has a general guide to how it operates EWIS : Emergency Management : The University of Melbourne

VOG:
I'll always have one FOH, and the stage manager can always have one too if they ask.


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## hhslights (Sep 17, 2009)

We always have a mic and an XLR cable up in the booth where the sound tower is and we have it plugged in during events that require a VOG. It would also double as evacuation/emergency announcement system need there be one. I would run any voice of god communications during the performance because the SM is usually backstage and I would be the only one in the booth during the performance with a few exceptions during the course any performance for a few minutes). To my knowledge there has only been one or two occasions where it has had to be put to use. One was the beginnings of a student riot during a talent show (yes, there almost was a riot and we are now briefed by administration during student events on what to do in another riot instance. Thankfully, there have been none). I guess our auditorium has been lucky in not having any major crisis where a public address system that would not be faulted by power issues would be needed.


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## Soxred93 (Sep 17, 2009)

I know that some fire alarms have the ability to record a sound file, and play it back when the fire alarm is pulled...


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## museav (Sep 17, 2009)

Soxred93 said:


> I know that some fire alarms have the ability to record a sound file, and play it back when the fire alarm is pulled...


That is exactly one of the issues I have encountered, the life safety officials wanted to have a standard announcement that they had reviewed and accepted. It also had to be played back at a preset level.


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## mstaylor (Sep 18, 2009)

I work mainly in a multi use arena. We always have some method for evac announcements, usually at the monitor board. We have a manual override system for the fire alarm that we have to have to have a person monitoring at all times. In a concert situation or any other live event, the fire alarm would never be heard. To keep from installing an entirely new system we went this route. If evac is necessary the head of security tells me and I take care of it from monitor world. If it is a show without a monitor system it is at FOH. The other problem is for certain events I have to take my house cluster down so using a house system is not possible. 
A VOG mic if needed is at FOH as a talkback mic that can be routed to cover house and stage.


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## museav (Sep 18, 2009)

Please people, it doesn't matter what you do at your facility, what matters is what the Authority Having Jurisdiction accepts for each individual facility. Every location differs but after 25 years designing and installing audio systems, while it is common to use the house system for informational messaging I have yet to have a code or life safety official approve using live announcements or a sound system not designed specifically for the purpose of voice evacuation announcements during a life safety alarm for that application. I have had numerous theatre, arena and convention center projects where we were required to provide a method to mute or even power off the audio system so that it did not interfere with the life safety system.

While I have not done it yet, there are some audio systems, especially in airport and convention center type applications, that have been designed to serve multiple roles including voice evacuation. The includes one project that apparently resulted in millions of dollars of law suits for the designers and installers when the system did not meet all of the defined requirements for the voice evacuation application and as a result prevented the facility from obtaining a Certificate of Occupancy and opening.


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## renegadeblack (Sep 18, 2009)

We always have a VOG mic hooked up to the talkback on the board.

Also, right outside the entrance to the booth, theres a little box with shaded glass on the front which locks and has a handheld PTT microphone type thing (do you know what I'm talking about?) which I'm guessing goes into the fire alarms. No one that I know of (atleast not on my TD's key ring) has a key to it. I'm not sure if it's like, break glass in case of emergency or if the fire marshall or whomever is supposed to come and do it for evacuation or what, but it's there. There's also another random one in another location where there isn't any glass on it. I'm actually surprised that no one has decided to speak into it and find that it goes throughout the school.

Also, when the fire alarm goes off in the auditorium, it has a pre-recorded message to the tune of "There has been an emergency reported in the building. Please proceed to the nearest exit." From what I understand, the house lights also automagically go up if the fire alarm goes off, though I can't verify that I know for certain that it happens as I've never been in the booth when a fire alarm goes off, though I have been in the audience.


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## museav (Sep 19, 2009)

renegadeblack said:


> Also, right outside the entrance to the booth, theres a little box with shaded glass on the front which locks and has a handheld PTT microphone type thing (do you know what I'm talking about?) which I'm guessing goes into the fire alarms. No one that I know of (atleast not on my TD's key ring) has a key to it. I'm not sure if it's like, break glass in case of emergency or if the fire marshall or whomever is supposed to come and do it for evacuation or what, but it's there.


It is common to be required to have a microphone connecting to the life safety system that can be readily accessed by fire or safety officials.

Since I see the terminology used even from manufacturer's, perhaps it is important to distinguish between a mic used for "emergency" applications and the voice evacuation aspect of a life safety system. Many systems have mics intended to be used for discretionary 'emergency' announcements such as lost children, impending weather conditions and so forth. An example of such a discretionary announcement was someone I know that had a tornado warning occur during a performance. They had to stop the show and use the house system to get everyone to a designated shelter area until the warning ended. In that case it was indeed an emergency but not a situation where you wanted to have everyone exit the building, it was a situation that did not automatically trigger the life safety system and where manually triggering an announcement to evacuate the building would not have been appropriate. This is the type of situation where an emergency announcement mic can be very useful.

However, that is also different than a life safety system triggered voice evacuation announcement and that aspect of use has numerous code requirements. So do not assume that the intent of your 'emergency' mic is to be used for voice evacuation during fire/life safety alarms without confirming it with local code and safety officials. The last things you or they want during an emergency are competing audio sources or announcements.


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## jonliles (Sep 21, 2009)

The HS I work with has an EWIS. Even the Community theatre has a small EWIS panel tied in with the fire alarm panel - this can be used for any emergency announcement. We've had to suspend shows for tornado watches and place the entire audience and cast in the basement. The type of EWIS panel required is dependent on the size of the venue, this is typically spelled out in local fire codes.

As far as VOG for non-emergencies goes, I always keep a God Mic in the sound booth in any facility I work with.


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## Chris15 (Sep 24, 2009)

museav said:


> While I have not done it yet, there are some audio systems, especially in airport and convention center type applications, that have been designed to serve multiple roles including voice evacuation. The includes one project that apparently resulted in millions of dollars of law suits for the designers and installers when the system did not meet all of the defined requirements for the voice evacuation application and as a result prevented the facility from obtaining a Certificate of Occupancy and opening.



The problem with *those* systems is that people who routinely design paging systems etc. are not generally required to have an intimate knowledge of the relevant standards for life safety systems. Things like the need to have power setups that for the Aussies standards are required to supply enough power to sound alarms at full volume for 30 minutes, AFTER the primary supply has been off for 24 hours. ie. you need a fair bit of battery capacity...

Absolutely everything has to be redundant as well. The Media Matrix setup at the SOH here: [FONT=Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular]The PA People Industry Media - Sydney Opera House - S&VC

> Also, as with all paging systems used partly for emergency purposes, it had to be virtually failsafe.



So whilst these systems can be economic for places where you needed paging thorughout anyway, they take some serious design efforts to get right and code compliant...
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## museav (Sep 24, 2009)

Ironically, the Appendix of the NEC/NFPA that discusses specific intelligibility criteria addresses how life safety system designers do not usually have the expertise or tools to address that aspect of voice evacuation systems and recommends involving experienced audio system designers.

The issue in the project I referenced was that the project did specifically require meeting the intelligibility standards in Appendix A of the NFPA and the system apparently failed some of those tests, as I understand it at least partially a result of revisions to room finishes, speaker locations, etc. made by parties other than the audio or life safety Consultants and Contractors.


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## chausman (Sep 27, 2010)

In my school, there are dbx zone systems on every sound system(there are 5 separate systems) between the mixer and the amps that will mute anything going through it for the school bell, intercom, and fire systems. It gets very annoying for the "ten minute bell".


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## calwalker1 (Sep 28, 2010)

chausman said:


> In my school, there are dbx zone systems on every sound system(there are 5 separate systems) between the mixer and the amps that will mute anything going through it for the school bell, intercom, and fire systems. It gets very annoying for the "ten minute bell".



We have a similar system but we got sick of the intercoms and bells affecting our FOH feed. We in the end put a switch in the control room to disable this function for ONLY the intercom and bell system so a fire alarm will still go through FOH.


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## museav (Sep 28, 2010)

calwalker1 said:


> We have a similar system but we got sick of the intercoms and bells affecting our FOH feed. We in the end put a switch in the control room to disable this function for ONLY the intercom and bell system so a fire alarm will still go through FOH.


So the fire alarm mutes the FOH system or the fire alarm goes through the FOH system?


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## calwalker1 (Sep 28, 2010)

museav said:


> So the fire alarm mutes the FOH system or the fire alarm goes through the FOH system?


At the moment it mutes the FOH system, However we are getting new buildings soon that will come with a new control system so that will be a bit different. I'm not sure how we will do that one


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