Use live PA and voice announcements

Audio reaches people who are not looking at anything. MassComs supports both prepared announcements — recorded or synthesised — and live speech during an incident.

1. 01

   Create a voice announcement

   Voice announcements are created with a name, an announcement type and either uploaded audio or text to synthesise. Types align with the incident types — Evacuation, Lockdown, Invacuation, Medical Emergency, All Clear, Test/Drill.

   Field or control	What it does
   Announcement Name	How you will find it later. Name the situation.
   Announcement Type	Evacuation, Lockdown, Invacuation, Medical Emergency, All Clear or Test/Drill.
   Recorded Audio	Upload MP3, WAV or M4A, up to 10 MB.
   Text-to-Speech	Convert message text to natural voice. Preview before saving — synthesised pronunciation of building names is frequently wrong.

   

2. 02

   Choose recorded audio or synthesis deliberately

   A recording in a familiar voice is more likely to be obeyed and never fails at the moment of use. Synthesis is faster to produce and easy to change.

   The practical compromise most organisations reach: record the handful of announcements you would use in a real emergency, and synthesise the rest.

   !

   Text-to-speech depends on an external provider being reachable. If your network filters by domain, api.elevenlabs.io must be allowlisted or synthesis will fail.

3. 03

   Preview before approving

   Use Preview Text-to-Speech and listen to the whole thing. Check site names, building names and any abbreviation — synthesised speech reads Block C as one thing and CDT as another.

   ✓

   Confirm it worked

   Play the announcement through an actual Agent speaker at the volume it will be used at, not through headphones at a desk.

4. 04

   Approve the announcement

   Announcements carry an approved state, the same principle as scenarios: prepared audio that will be broadcast to a whole site should be reviewed before it can be used.

5. 05

   Attach announcements to scenarios

   In the scenario wizard, Audio Announcements on the Channels step selects what plays on kiosk and Agent displays at activation, and the Axis Audio PA System section selects what plays on the PA. The Rules step can repeat it automatically at an interval. The All Clear step selects the announcement that plays when the scenario is stood down, how many times, and for how long the message stays on screen.

   i

   The All Clear announcement type exists for exactly that last setting. Leave the scenario's All Clear step blank to fall back to the organisation's default.

6. 06

   Use live PA during an incident

   Live PA lets an authorised responder speak through connected audio in real time, from the dashboard or the mobile app. Use it for the things a prepared announcement cannot cover — specific instructions, updates, reassurance.

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   Prepared announcements handle the predictable; live PA handles everything else. Most incidents need both.

7. 07

   Test the audio path before you need it

   Audio has more ways to fail silently than any other channel: muted machines, missing output devices, disconnected amplifiers, filtered synthesis. Test at real volume in the real space.

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   See Fix Agent audio or connection problems for the per-machine checks.