The PA/VA system, marketed as Cerberus PACE (Public Address and Controlled Evacuation), can incorporate multiple redundancy levels and is also suitable for step-by-step modernisation of outdated public address and voice alarm systems (PA/VA systems). Real-time engineering supports maintenance and configuration changes during business hours, while professional sound quality and low latency enable clear communication.

PA/VA systems are important elements of the safety infrastructure in commercial and public buildings. They are crucial for addressing people within a building in case of an emergency and for their prompt evacuation. Cerberus PACE enables effectively moving people out of a building by pre-recorded evacuation messages, which can be initiated by the fire protection system, manually or by any other emergency system. Through a fire brigade call station, live announcements can be made by the emergency forces to the entire building or to manually selected zones only. In case of fires in high-rise buildings, where stairways with limited capacities are used as escape routes, phased evacuation can be utilized as well. The system can be connected to any fire detection system from Siemens or a third-party system that has a compatible I/O interface.

Safety-critical systems like voice alarm systems need to guarantee maximum reliability. The new Cerberus PACE PA/VA system from Siemens is fully compliant with EN 54-16 and local codes of practice in European countries. It can cover all redundancy levels from individual backup components to complete double structures. Moreover, the network can be made redundant by expanding the EN 54- 16 standard single-loop network topology to a double-loop or double-tree topology as well as combinations thereof, which can be a requirement in power plants. To ensure the availability of the speaker lines, 100 V loop isolators keep the speaker line functional in case of short circuits, and end-of-line modules (EOL modules) report any malfunctions.

To facilitate convenience applications of the public address system like live announcements in public buildings, advertisements in shopping malls or background music, Cerberus PACE has high-quality sound and low audio latency. These outputs ensure optimum intelligibility and quality of sound in any part of the building. In case of an emergency, the voice alarm system overrides any convenience applications. Hence the system can be used in both daily business activities and in emergency situations.

The modular and scalable Cerberus PACE system offers the full range of components, from control panels, call stations, and digital audio matrix to network switches, power supplies and batteries, thus enabling flexibility in size and redundancy levels to meet all requirements. For this reason the PA/VA system matches the requirements of airports and stations, shopping malls, stadiums, hotels, schools and universities. Applications also include industrial facilities and power plants as well as high-rise buildings, where especially stringent requirements apply.

For convenient setup and management of all components, Cerberus PACE comes with dedicated configuration software and real-time engineering. The system can be configured live, while the system is running, without causing any interruption. There is no need to shut down the system for maintenance or to change the configuration. Cerberus PACE can also be controlled via remote access for maintenance and for convenience applications.

Old PA/VA systems that were built in compliance with outdated standards can be modernised step-by-step, keeping legacy speaker line structures including the speakers, to achieve EN 54-16 compliance. By installing smart EOL modules, past investments can be safeguarded. In a second step more resilient and state-of-the- art line structures including the corresponding speakers are installed.