Sydney installs emergency loudspeakers
Providing citizens with updated information during emergencies is a crucial aspect of preparedness; some cities build elaborate systems which “push” information into citizens’ PDAs, laptops, and cellular phones; Sydney installs old-fashioned loudspeakers
Alerting people and providing them information during emergencies is an important aspect of preparedness, and much emphasis has been placed by both governments and private companies on creating alert systems which “push” updated information to individuals’ PDAs, laptops, cell phones, and more. The trouble with such systems is that during major disasters the affected region’s communication system itself collapses, and if some parts of it remain in operation, they soon become so congested as to be unusable (but see the solution Rockville, Maryland-based TeleContinuity offers in this regard).
The city of Sydney, Australia — that country’s largest city — has a different approach. It has installed dozens of loudspeakers to tell residents what to do in a terrorist attack, said the state police minister for New South Wales, David Campbell. He said that forty speakers should be operational in time for next month’s meeting of twenty-one world leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation. “If there were a terrorist event and there were people in the streets, this is a way of giving them information,” he said.
