Comply and demand

Usually when someone strikes up a conversation about ‘regulatory compliance’, you can sense the tumbleweed making its way across the corral. But with sustainable A/V at the top of everyone’s business development agenda, and an uncertain world of security advisories and evacuation protocols, A/V integrators need to take such topics very seriously indeed.

There will be a department at every corporation or public agency whose job it is to make sure that personnel are aware of and take steps to comply with relevant local laws and regulations. ‘Compliance’ means the conformity to a written specification or policy, a standard or law that has been clearly defined, and A/V professionals have a number of them to consider. And when it comes to A/V, a highly globalised industry, most of the important ones have truly international status.

The latest standards apply to the components of those construction products that service fire alarms, including how they’re operated; what sounds or signals they make to communicate the status of emergencies; how those signals are distributed to selected areas; and how faults are dealt with. As far as installation-orientated audio and A/V brands are concerned, these priorities have stepped up the Health & Safety inspection rates from factory to distributor and dealer. In Europe, for example, products launched after an April 2011 deadline won’t get a CE mark unless they conform to Part 16 and Part 24 of the EN54 standard, whatever it costs to build that compliance into them, and anything that reaches the market in the hands of specifiers and installers after that date without being stamped EN54-16 and EN54-24 will be illegal.

Regional focus

What does this mean for markets outside of Europe? The EU ‘equivalents’ in Asia are best described as a collection of importable regulations subject to a wide variety of interpretations.

‘EN standards are by definition European,’ points out RH Consulting’s Roland Hemming. ‘Some countries outside of Europe refer to them, and may ask for compliance on a voluntary basis: project by project, local council by local council. Even some BS standards are enforced, particularly in the Middle East. Local governments are at liberty to dictate that any given project must be in accordance with certain standards, even if they originate abroad. It turns up quite a lot on tenders for safety systems. Some countries that haven’t adopted their own standards will turn to European and British ones, especially in the realm of sound systems. It happens all the time.’

Quite often the consultants are European, and therefore will want to set out a basis on which the project should work – in which case it will be the consultant, not local government, who dictates. The crucial trend that makes all of this relevant to pro audio is the convergence of ‘PA’ and ‘VA’, where ‘public address’ means entertainment systems as well as information systems. Integrating music and other distractions with voice alarm has become eminently possible with the advent of DSP and the digital audio matrix, in which switching from one source to another is relatively simple and much of the management of it can be automated.

But it does mean that regulations that once troubled only fire alarm engineers now impinge upon the realms of background music, zone amplification, intercoms and even DJing, to the extent that manufacturers are often obliged to position their products very carefully in order to take on or avoid costly compliance.

Does compliance give manufacturers a competitive edge? The market leaders share an understanding of sound quality that might well enable them to integrate VA and PA in tandem with emerging standards. Both Martijn van Overveld, product marketing manager at Bosch, and Brett Downing, sales & marketing director at TOA, see the advantages of compliance to the largest corporations.

‘Recognising the general trend for integration, and especially the combination of fire and voice evacuation in overall security systems, Bosch is committed to producing systems and components that are compliant with all the latest quality and safety standards,’ comments Mr van Overveld. ‘Whether standards are universally implemented is not the issue for us. The standard subscribes to ensuring that voice alarm control and indicating equipment provides the best possible communication for users, installers, the public and fire brigades, as well as providing uncompromised system availability and system supervision.’

‘The primary reason for using a voice alarm system instead of the coded warnings given by sounders is to reduce the time taken for those at risk to recognise that an emergency exists, and to give clear instructions on what to do next,’ adds Mr Downing. ‘This means that voice alarm loudspeakers need to achieve a minimum acoustical performance, as well as constructional and environmental requirements, to be suitable for use in fire detection and fire alarm systems.’

Neil Voce, MD of Ateïs UK, is guarded about the subtle requirements of pro audio solutions and the overall pressure to conform to fire alarm prerogatives. ‘We’re pressing ahead with the process of getting our kit fully stamped to the EU standard. It’s a very expensive step, both in terms of the costs for testing and the small alterations that are needed to ensure compliance.

‘Having recently worked for a fire alarm manufacturer which owned our VA brand – Millbank – I know that the standards are being driven hard by the fire alarm companies who tend to be large enough to influence them and, of course, to afford to implement them. I was also witness to the huge efforts put in by my previous company in ensuring that once compliance was achieved, it required a lot of maintenance. Believe me, compliance is not an easy option.’

‘For specifiers and integrators, standards mean that systems and speakers have to be tested by an independent third party, and cannot be self-certified,’ confirms Brett Downing. ‘The cost of this is very high and consequently only manufacturers that have deep pockets can afford to do it, which will limit the choice for specifiers. It takes around 600 hours (three months) to complete a full test – and if it doesn’t pass, the whole process starts again where it failed.’

Earlier this year TOA launched the VM-3000 Series PA/VA system, billed as ‘fully compliant with the new EN54-16 European safety and security standard’, while Bosch has made its own response. ‘Our Praesideo Public Address & Emergency Sound System set the benchmark for the evacuation market from the time it was introduced,’ claims Martijn van Overveld. ‘Its functionality already covered most of the requirements that are now included in the EN54-16 standard. With the latest release of the Praesideo voice evacuation system, the company has extended the functionality of the system to ensure full compliance with the new standard.

‘But Bosch takes its commitment far further, actively supporting a worldwide-based network of dealers by means of training courses, knowledge bases and design tools. This support is of great importance for promoting standards like ISO 7240-19, which are set up to safeguard system design and installation of voice evacuation systems and to specify the planning, the installation, the commissioning and the service requirements for emergency sound systems.’

Part exchange

ISO is the International Organisation for Standardisation, a network of institutes across 163 countries with headquarters in Geneva. Standard number 7240 is concerned with fire detection and alarm systems: Part 16 deals with ‘sound system control and indicating equipment’ and Part 19 is concerned with the design, installation, commissioning and service of those sound systems. They were last updated in 2007, which is decidedly recent in the timescale of gradually evolving regulations, and they are the fixed international points that any given territory can refer to.

‘Not everyone has to comply,’ reveals Roland Hemming. ‘It’s a question of whether the government in question has chosen to accept and adopt those standards. They exist as international standards, but you’d have to confirm on a country-by-country basis whether it’s mandatory or not – and good luck with that! The issue with voice alarm standards is this: even if a country adopts them, by their very nature they can effectively be renegotiated at a local level for each project.’

This is because the way the standards are written allows for ‘variation’ – or ‘deviation’ as it used to be called. Because buildings are complex places you cannot set out rigidly how you should evacuate every single one. It’s therefore common and accepted to have some flexibility – which is the not the same as avoiding the standard.

‘Where the standard is clear, you cannot vary from it,’ continues Mr Hemming. ‘But if there’s good reason to change some parameter or other – be it battery time, sound level, whatever it might be – providing it’s put into the risk assessment and agreed by the local safety authorities it is acceptable. It’s part of the management of the project.

‘Fundamentally, and this doesn’t vary worldwide, it’s the owner of the building who has the onus of ensuring that it has a compliant system. It’s their building; they need to make sure it’s safe. They may well employ competent consultants and installers to assist with that, and if faults appear they may choose to sue for negligence, but the bottom line is that it’s their problem to sort out. It is for them to present their safety plan to the local licensing authorities for sign-off, and that plan will include details of the design, the evacuation strategy, the systems used and what standards they comply to.’

Standards are set on the one hand for product compliance, so that they are manufactured to a certain quality, and on the other hand for use and application. You can take an approved, compliant product and use the wrong amplifier with it, say, or put it in the wrong place. That’s why codes of practice also exist, like 7240-19, that sit side by side with product compliance. But they only become pressing concerns for integrators when, as is happening in Europe right now, they become mandatory according to some wider construction regulations – in this case, the EU’s Construction Products Directive (CPD). When this happens, integrators can only specify compliance-tested products.

This is important as it affects the worldwide picture: there may be manufacturing standards that dictate whether a given product has a ‘CE’ marking or not but, unless there is CPD-type legislation enforcing exclusive use of those products, they won’t become global standards. There may be some dissemination of the standards because of the international impact of certain brands, but it would be happening by default rather than by design.

In many parts of the world, including Asia, there is no equivalent of the CPD. It hasn’t even been adopted in Europe by the UK, Sweden and Ireland yet, although this seems to be timetabled for 2013. Meanwhile endless discussions take place about the very definition of ‘construction projects’, and how the international organisations involved with them may be variously compliant. But that’s the thing about standards: the more detail you go into, the less common ground exists on which to establish them. There goes that tumbleweed again…

Pro Audio Asia would like to thank UK-based consultant Roland Hemming in the preparation of this article. Mr Hemming’s company RH Consulting is currently advising manufacturers, distributors and installers on compliance. Mr Hemming is co-author of a guide to voice alarm systems, available from Avitas-Global.com

Case study: Pakistan pursues an Asian Institute of Standards

To improve international trade, Pakistan has been developing what it calls the Metrology, Standards, Testing & Quality (MSTQ) infrastructure, which is vital for industrial progress, it says, and ‘the prosperity of not only a country but also a whole region or a continent’. This began soon after the inception of Pakistan itself and the Pakistan Standards Institution (PSI), which was set up in 1951. These organisations were transferred to the Ministry of Science & Technology in 1995.

To provide greater standardisation and quality control, the Pakistan Standards & Quality Control Authority (PSQCA) was established a year later, merging various disparate organisations. Today, the PSQCA is a member of the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) and several other international bodies for developing standards. Last year the PSQCA adopted all 14,000 ISO Standards as Pakistan Standards.

Now Pakistan is calling for an ‘Asian Institute of Standards (AIS)’, to facilitate trade among Asian countries. ‘The harmonisation of standards among Asian countries, with the acceptance of each other’s certificates for testing of products and development of Mutual Recognition Agreements, would be essential to facilitate and expand trade among Asian countries – especially members of the World Trade Organization (WTO)’, says a statement by PSQCA. ‘The PSQCA could become the focal point to establish an Asian Institute of Standards by Asia-wide cooperation.’

Case study: InfoComm

InfoComm International is an accredited Standards Developing Organisation (SDO) for the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). Such accreditation by ANSI signifies that the procedures used by the standards body in connection with the development of American National Standards meet the Institute’s essential requirements for openness, balance, consensus and due process.

Typically for an international trade association, InfoComm’s Board of Directors established a Standards Committee in 2006 to begin phasing in voluntary compliance. There are now more than 200 volunteers involved in task forces discussing various standards, and members are regularly encouraged to ‘get involved’ and advance the performance standards development process. InfoComm Certified Technology Specialist (CTS) designations are internationally recognised A/V certifications, according to the association.

Check your country

You can contact the standards organisation in your region to establish subscription to ISO and other regulatory requirements at government level.

Asia-Pacific technical standards organisations

* PASC — Pacific Area Standards Congress

* ACCSQ — ASEAN Consultative Committee for Standards and Quality

 Middle East

* AIDMO — Arab Industrial Development and Mining Organisation

* IAU — International Arabic Union

 National standards organisations

Asia

* Australia — SA — Standards Australia

* Bangladesh – BSTI: Bangladesh Standards/Bangladesh Standards & Testing Institution

* Brunei Darussalam – CPRU: Construction Planning & Research Unit, Ministry of Development

* China — SAC — Standardisation Administration of China

* China — CSSN — China Standards Information Center

* Hong Kong — ITCHKSAR — Innovation and Technology Commission

* India — BIS — Bureau of Indian Standards

* Indonesia — BSN — Badan Standardisasi Nasional

* Japan — JISC — Japan Industrial Standards Committee

* Kazakstan — KAZMEMST — Committee for Standardisation, Metrology and Certification

* Republic of Korea — KATS — Korean Agency for Technology and Standards

* Kyrgyzstan — KYRGYZST — State Inspection for Standardisation and Metrology

* Malaysia — Department of Standards Malaysia

* New Zealand — SNZ — Standards New Zealand

* Pakistan — PSQCA — Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority

* Papua New Guinea — NISIT — National Institute of Standards and Industrial Technology

* Philippines — BPS — Bureau of Product Standards

* Singapore — SPRING SG — Standards, Productivity and Innovation Board

* Sri Lanka — SLSI — Sri Lanka Standards Institution

* Taiwan – BSMI: The Bureau of Standards, Metrology & Inspection

* Thailand — TISI — Thai Industrial Standards Institute

* Vietnam — TCVN — Directorate for Standards and Quality

Middle East

* Algeria — IANOR — Institut Algérien de Normalisation

* Armenia — SARM — National Institute of Standards and Quality

* Egypt — EO — Egyptian Organisation for Standardisation and Quality Control

* Iran — ISIRI — Institute of Standards and Industrial Research of Iran

* Jordan — JISM — Jordan Institution for Standards and Metrology

* Kuwait – KOWSMD: Public Authority for Industry, Standards & Industrial Services Affairs

* Lebanon — LIBNOR — Lebanese Standards Institution

* Morocco — SNIMA — Service de Normalisation Industrielle Marocaine

* Oman — DGSM — Directorate General for Specifications and Measurements

* Palestine — PSI — Palestine Standards Institution

* Saudi Arabia — SASO — Saudi Arabian Standards Organisation

* Syrian Arab Republic – SASMO: The Syrian Arab Organisation for Standardisation & Metrology

* Turkey — TSE — Türk Standardlari Enstitüsü