User avatar
DJ2226
Registered User
Registered User
Posts: 1415
Joined: Sat Mar 30, 2013 3:50 am
Real Name: Dennis Seldon
YouTube Username: DJ2226
Location: Columbus, Georgia

Alertus - 415/425 Hz Sirens In The US

Wed Jan 25, 2017 6:39 pm

Alertus is a company I found out about just a few weeks ago. They do mass notifications with a number of products from in-building systems to outdoor warning sirens and text-to-speech software. They also can integrate their products with existing systems from a few different companies like Whelen, ATI, FS, ASC, Cooper, and probably a few other companies not mentioned on their site if they get requests to do it. The interesting bit, for me anyway, is their sirens themselves. They are using what sound to me like a Telegrafia (German siren manufacturer) controller to drive their them, and they apparently source the speakers from the same company as Cooper, Telegrafia, and SiRcom with the company name on the sides of the horns. In attack/fire they run and peak at 415/425 Hz. Cooper's WAVES sirens by comparison are dual tone but peak at 850/1020 Hz like a dual tone UltraVoice panel. Since the Hörmann ECN and ECI series sirens aren't sold in the US (the ASI site itself is actually down currently) that makes this brand and SiRcom USA the only manufacturers in the US that sell sirens with that tone configuration.
Link: https://www.alertus.com/alertusproducts/hpsa
In the link there is a link to a demo of it running with a chime and voice. The chime is the some one used on the Telegrafia Pavian series sirens in Dresden, Gremany, except it's slightly lower pitched.

Image

Image

You can hear one running in attack at around 13 minutes in the video. It cycles with a 10/8 second on/off timing. With dual tone sirens like this that peak at almost the same pitch, the only thing that sets them apart is their ramp ups and wind downs. This one ramps like a Pavian siren - compare it to this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeyMEbfkRZA


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O69qZu6QPZM
Proud owner of a Model 1.
DJ2226's YouTube Page

User avatar
SirenMadness
Registered User
Registered User
Posts: 3746
Joined: Mon May 15, 2006 2:47 pm
Location: Windsor, Ontario
Contact: Website

Re: Alertus - 415/425 Hz Sirens In The US

Wed Jan 25, 2017 9:16 pm

I really like that narrow 415/425 Hz interval.
~ Peter Radanovic

User avatar
E57
Registered User
Registered User
Posts: 120
Joined: Tue May 24, 2016 2:19 pm
YouTube Username: Badischer Heuler
Location: Southwest Germany

Re: Alertus - 415/425 Hz Sirens In The US

Thu Jan 26, 2017 1:28 pm

So weird and cool to see a siren with the "german" sound to it :D It would be basically a fire-alert with a wrong timing ^^
German siren enthusiast
I apologize for possible mistakes in grammar or language, English isn't my native language.

Digisirran
Registered User
Registered User
Posts: 116
Joined: Tue Apr 10, 2012 2:16 pm

Re: Alertus - 415/425 Hz Sirens In The US

Thu Jan 26, 2017 2:59 pm

I've yet to hear an Alertus control box equipped Whelen or a Modulator with the same panel as these systems.

User avatar
DJ2226
Registered User
Registered User
Posts: 1415
Joined: Sat Mar 30, 2013 3:50 am
Real Name: Dennis Seldon
YouTube Username: DJ2226
Location: Columbus, Georgia

Re: Alertus - 415/425 Hz Sirens In The US

Sat Jun 10, 2017 5:25 am

Sorry to bump this topic, but Alertus has a few other videos on their YouTube page of their sirens sounding off. These videos are sitting in a playlist of product demos. Interesting thing is they left the videos as unlisted while the playlist itself is public, which kinda defeats the purpose of setting them unlisted in the first place. :roll:

This first one is from Methodist University during a drill. The are using their speech to text application to make the sirens talk. If I'm not mistaken they do this via VoIP, so in theory it could be done with something like a Cooper WAVES 8100-R. Washington University managed to do it with their Whelen. They sound pretty eerie to me.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VO0t7CZjJZg

Here's a clip of the Whelen with the TTS module installed. It's saying the same message that's prerecorded on the siren's controller. Somewhat quiet in comparison to the original, but it does give the siren quite a bit more functionality.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9UyzDlHMXo

This is from the clip in my original post of just the siren itself. The siren is 600 watts, four speakers, and has the TTS module.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yE-Bz3lUxgU

These next three clips are from a 300 watt mobile siren. Since it uses 150 watts per driver that makes for two speakers. This first one is of the voice and a chime. As I mentioned before it is basically the same chime found on the Telegrafia Pavian series sirens in Dresden, Germany, aside from the lower pitch. The intelligibility of the voice is very high similar to an ATI or Cooper WAVES siren. They are using the TTS module in this siren as well. This and the next clip were recorded from 450 feet away.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8NizWBqFbw

This next one is of the siren running in alert/all clear.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ayKoRYXiYg

Finally we have an undershot of the siren using the TTS module.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PzM9mzc4bY
Last edited by DJ2226 on Thu Jan 30, 2020 3:03 am, edited 1 time in total.
Proud owner of a Model 1.
DJ2226's YouTube Page

User avatar
DJ2226
Registered User
Registered User
Posts: 1415
Joined: Sat Mar 30, 2013 3:50 am
Real Name: Dennis Seldon
YouTube Username: DJ2226
Location: Columbus, Georgia

Re: Alertus - 415/425 Hz Sirens In The US

Sat Mar 17, 2018 1:48 am

Time for another bump. A few months ago I discovered that the German siren manufacturer Helin was using the same panels for their SONUS HES series sirens that Telegrafia was using in their Pavian lineup. Helin was around when the E57 was still made and kinda faded away as far as sirens are concerned, but they just recently got into electronic sirens. Their website shows their versions of Telegrafia sirens minus the Gibon lineup. Helin sirens are gaining popularity in Germany, and since more of them are being installed there are now some videos popping up online of the sirens running in fire signal, warning the population, and all clear. Now we know how the tone generators sound when running on a timing scheme. The only real differences between them and their Telegrafia counterparts are the logos and the modular style horns instead of the clamp-on ones. The reason why I mention it is because the Alertus sirens run on the same panels. Alertus released a video yesterday explaining their sirens. The video shows a couple of sirens along with pictures of the controls and a couple of drawings of the inside of the controls and a mini siren. It's all the same. The Alertus speakers are identical to the Telegrafia ones aside from the logos. I'm not too sure on who makes the panels originally. Since Telegrafia has been making electronic sirens longer I'm starting to believe they may have a deal where they ship their controls out to Helin and Alertus like ASI does with their UltraVoice equipped HA series or MadahCom did with SiRcom when they produced the WAVES STP-2000 series which were basically re-branded SiBT sirens.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qr6CR6gspY

The siren explanation gets a little more detailed at 14:33. The guy said they are working on two city systems which use the 2400 watt systems, so we could had a Dresden style system going up sometime in the near future somewhere in the country.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85x43rLlFMU
Proud owner of a Model 1.
DJ2226's YouTube Page

User avatar
DJ2226
Registered User
Registered User
Posts: 1415
Joined: Sat Mar 30, 2013 3:50 am
Real Name: Dennis Seldon
YouTube Username: DJ2226
Location: Columbus, Georgia

Re: Alertus - 415/425 Hz Sirens In The US

Thu Jul 26, 2018 3:40 pm

Alertus introduced the HPS 100 on their website recently. It's a self contained siren. Basically one of the linear arrays with an extended back cover that holds a battery and controls. For those familiar with Telegrafia's lineup this is basically a rebrand of their Bono siren, however they do not sell these with the smaller horn.

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/ ... 018_v4.pdf

Image

Here's a video of two Bono sirens tied to each other.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jkkrntix9wk

These are videos of Telegrafia's Screamer siren. It's basically the same deal except it gets its power from an external source. This one is sending the high and low tones through one driver. Usually they send the tones through different drivers to keep the sounds they're broadcasting clean. I'm not too sure how well that driver's going to hold up.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMifohHrYQQ

Here's another one doing the test tone. It's single tone. It seems that the controls react in the same way that ASC, ATI, and WAVES controllers do when they receive the cancel signal in that the whole thing just resets instead of preforming a wind down.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6XD0HrigWk
Proud owner of a Model 1.
DJ2226's YouTube Page

User avatar
DJ2226
Registered User
Registered User
Posts: 1415
Joined: Sat Mar 30, 2013 3:50 am
Real Name: Dennis Seldon
YouTube Username: DJ2226
Location: Columbus, Georgia

Re: Alertus - 415/425 Hz Sirens In The US

Thu Jan 30, 2020 2:59 am

I think it's time for me to bump this thread again. The city of Essen in Germany installed a system of Helin SONUS HES-2400 sirens. As I mentioned previously the company uses the same controls for their sirens as Alertus and Telegrafia. This particular system was installed with a slightly modified timing on the warning tone. As opposed to the usual 2 on 2 off timing that is standard in that part of the world the city went with a 5 on 5 off timing. This is the same timing that Federal Signal uses for attack. This confirms that the controllers can have their timing altered. They don't appear to handle the timing as well as Hörmann's ECN and ECI controllers do. When they sweep their volume stays at 100% during the wind down and wind up. They also seem to rush the wind downs during the cycle but have a normal wind down after the cycle completes. The cycle duration for this system is one minute as it would be with the normal warning tone. There aren't very many videos of European electronic sirens cycling in a more American style attack tone. Since Alertus actually uses the same controls for their siren installations here in the US it's neat to hear them do a 5/5 attack like this. Skip to 5:18 in the video to hear what it sounds like. The other sirens heard are at a nearby plant. I think they're Elektor S2A's. All clear starts at 0:14. At 10:20 this siren misses the second activation for all clear while the rest go off which gives a neat ambiance recording.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H45zJB1mazM

The second thing I want to mention is that a system of Alertus sirens have been installed in Torrance, CA. The system consists of at least four sirens. Two of the konw installations are HPSA-1200s and the other two are HPSA-2400s. As with the Helin siren from the video above the 2400 watt model uses 16 speakers, while the 1200 watt model uses 8. I've compiled a map of the system that can be seen below. This system isn't active as of yet, but there are enthusiasts in the area that will definitely be out to record.

Proud owner of a Model 1.
DJ2226's YouTube Page

User avatar
DJ2226
Registered User
Registered User
Posts: 1415
Joined: Sat Mar 30, 2013 3:50 am
Real Name: Dennis Seldon
YouTube Username: DJ2226
Location: Columbus, Georgia

Re: Alertus - 415/425 Hz Sirens In The US

Thu Sep 10, 2020 10:01 pm

I figured I'd bump this post again with more examples of the sirens doing different tones. Germany conducted a siren drill today, and the city of Dresden participated. This is one of the Telegrafia Pavian 2400 sirens in their system. The system also has a number of other models ranging from 300 watts up to the 2400 watt units like this one at at least one Giben 1200 (compact version of the Pavian series that has slightly less features on the controller side of things and a smaller horn). The most prevalent model seems to be the Pavian 1200 with most having the horns mounted side by side and a few with all horns stacked on top of each other like most of the installations we've seen from WAVES. For all intents and purposes the Alertus HPSA series and the Telegrafia Pavian series are one in the same besides the logos on the horns and cabinets. It's still unknown who makes the contols for the sirens, but considering the striking similarity between the Telegrafia and Alertus sirens I'd venture to say that that Alertus has some kind of deal with Telegrafia similar to what Cooper/MadahCom did with SiRcom back in the early 2000's.

With that said Dresden decided to go with a 5/5 timing for the warning tone on their sirens. As you can hear they sound identical to the Helin SONUS HES-2400 in the Essen video. The first video is of one up close and the second is ambiance. These have decent voice clarity similar to the Cooper WAVES HPSA-3108 I recorded back in 2018. The system of Alertus HPSA 1200's and 2400's that was installed in Torrance, CA will most likely sound like this when it's completed. It's inactive at the moment.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kF7lzzOxc3g



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6O3n5pTp4Y
Proud owner of a Model 1.
DJ2226's YouTube Page

Return to “Main Outdoor Warning Sirens Board”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Ahrefs [Bot] and 48 guests