Honeywell collaborates for unified MN system

LAS VEGAS--In a collaboration designed to enable a unified, targeted, and rapid response to emergencies, Honeywell announced at ISC West a collaboration with REACT systems.

At its booth here, Honeywell demonstrated how its security management platform (Pro-Watch) and its access control platform (WIN-PAK) work with REACT's notification technology.

The new collaboration enables the “many subsystems including the fire system” to be tied together for a unified response in a “critical communications system,” said Rajeev Dubey, senior product manager for Honeywell.

Frequently, a disaster plan does not include instructions for people other than first responders, observed Jeremy Krinitt, vice president of marketing for REACT.

Unlike a PA system, which is best used for instructing crowds, this technology can send different messages via different mediums (video, text, voice) to visual displays, PDAs, lap top computers, PA and radio.

Emergency messages can be pre-programmed or manually sent out, depending on the nature of the alert or emergency.

“Pro Watch and WIN-PAK have a very large installed base, where this system can be added on to improve [mass notification capabilities],” said Dubey. “It can be used across multiple vertical markets, for our enterprise customers, global customers, health care facilities. It can be taken across the board,” he said.

It's particularly efficient for global companies when offices or personnel are located miles away, “when something that happens in the Bay Area impacts someone on the East Coast or even in Southeast Asia,” Krinitt said.

Asked for an example of a common application, Krinitt cited a K-12 school system. If a door is forced open, security may be notified through Pro-Watch, he said.

After viewing video, security may want to give instruction to one or more classroom teachers. The REACT system enables this and gives the option of multiple modes, which is important, because you want to avoid alarming the students.

“It can send the teacher a message using the PA or a discreet message could be sent to a teacher's desktop computer [and the message could include video].”