Integrating easily with almost all existing paging and public address systems, Paging Cloud records paging messages and sends them directly to registered smartphones, enabling visitors in environments such as schools, museums and airports to hear announcements or emergency information on their own mobile devices.
Barix has announced Paging Cloud, an innovative software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution that brings paging into the smartphone-enabled mobile era. Integrating easily with almost all existing paging and public address systems, Paging Cloud records paging messages and sends them directly to registered smartphones, enabling visitors in environments such as schools, museums and airports to hear announcements or emergency information on their own mobile devices.
Paging Cloud customers can page directly to mobile phones through their existing in-venue paging solutions, enabling them to reliably reach people who might not clearly hear the announcements over the facility’s public address (PA) system. Paging Cloud is ideal for delivering emergency alerts and event updates to visitors in public spaces; school students and teachers wherever they are on campus; and even volunteer firefighters at their homes. It also provides an easy solution for delivering less-critical pages such as conference session start time reminders, or informing parents at home of school schedule updates caused by weather.
“Particularly in emergency situations, it is critical to make sure that everyone gets the message, but background noise or gaps in speaker coverage can cause people to miss PA announcements,” said Reto Brader, CEO, Barix. “By extending the paging to mobile phones, all subscribed end-users will receive all pages made by local staff as voice recordings on their smartphone wherever they are, and can listen to them as many times as necessary to understand the information. For example, no matter where a visitor is within a sprawling zoo, you can reach him or her with an alert about an escaped animal and instruct them to proceed to the nearest exit.”
Paging Cloud is a complete solution consisting of a hardware device for receiving and sending pages; a pay-for-use cloud service for receipt confirmation logging, system monitoring, and subscriber and device management; and free end-user mobile apps for Android and iOS devices. Integration with existing paging and public address solutions is as simple as connecting audio from the current system to the analog input of the Paging Cloud hardware, allowing customers to extend their pages to mobile phones without changing their workflows, retraining their staff or replacing their equipment. Paging Cloud works seamlessly with both Barix’s and other vendors’ paging and PA solutions.
Ideal for visitor notification, Paging Cloud makes it easy to reach variable recipient groups. An unlimited number of end-users can download the Paging Cloud app from their device’s application store or via QR code, then self-subscribe to the venue’s paging system using another QR code. Operation without the app is also possible using SMS to distribute paging messages.
“Paging Cloud is simple to use for both administrators and recipients,” said Brader. “Combined with its ease of integration and affordability, any venue can ensure its visitors never miss an announcement again.”