PAVA and safety sound maintenance for London and the South East

Every box ticked
can still mean silence in the corridor.

It sounds like the voice alarm is one of many systems you're responsible for, and the one that needs specialist equipment to test. So its condition reaches you second-hand: a tick sheet, a certificate, a quote that's hard to check. Let's start from where you are.

Where are you now?Speak to Nigel or David

Where are you now?

Pick whichever is closest to what's in front of you.

None of these, or more than one? The system health check is eight questions. Your answers come back to you with things you can do yourself. No email needed.

Before you call anyone

It's fair to wonder what a specialist is selling.

If you've been told before that the whole system needs replacing, or handed a report full of standards and left to work out what it means, it's reasonable to be wary of the next specialist. So the testing is quoted on its own, and any repair separately afterwards: the person who finds a fault does not price the fix. If the answer is that you need nothing, we'll say so.

A report should be something you can act on.

  • A tick sheet records the visit, and can still leave you asking: What does this result mean? What do I do? Is this a compliance issue? Am I exposed if I leave it?
  • A report built on proper testing answers them: what is wrong, your exposure, the cost to fix and the next step.
  • Plan the fixes around your budget and scheduled work, with peace of mind: in an emergency the system will perform, or you know where it is at risk.
  • The same report makes the case for budget in the meeting, and shows the care you've taken over the system.

The whole system

Not just the panel, and not just the loudspeakers.

Fire alarm contracts are written around the panel, and most look after it well. The voice alarm behind it, its amplifiers, controller, charger and standby batteries, its wiring and its loudspeakers, is a specialist system with its own standard, and it can be visited for years without anyone testing it to that standard. Nobody has to have done anything wrong for that to happen.

That gap is where systems fail.

Closing that gap is the job. For contractors who want to offer genuinely comprehensive PAVA and safety sound maintenance without building an internal capability. For facilities managers who want certainty, not reassurance, that their system will perform. For building owners who carry the accountability for what happens when the system is called upon.

These risks end here:
× Liability with no name on it
× Reports that leave every reader less certain than before
× Compliance gaps discovered only during an investigation
× Remedial work that never gets done
× A system whose condition nobody truly knows
× Circuits that pass on paper and fail in an emergency

Start with your own system

Three things you can do before anyone visits.

  • Your Maintenance Proposal: ten questions, and back comes every inspection and test your system should have across the year, and the reports you should receive. No prices.
  • Check what you're getting now: go through that list with your current maintainer's last report, and see how much of it is being done.
  • The system health check: eight questions about how the system is behaving, and things you can do yourself.

See the services

Levels of protection

What should a year of maintenance include?

It's hard to compare maintenance offers when each one lists different things. Ten questions give you the full list for your system, so any quote, ours included, can be checked against it.

Get your Maintenance Proposal

See the three maintenance levels

Who this is for

Is the voice alarm the one system your team cannot test itself?

Facilities, estates and venue managers responsible for a stadium, an airport, an exhibition or conference venue, a visitor attraction or a multi-site estate in London and the South East. Your team knows most of the building services and handles them in house. The voice alarm is the one that is specialist, life safety, and hard to judge without the test equipment.

The venues that trust us

Organisations in environments like yours already work with us.

Aviation.

Gatwick Airport.

Emergency sound systems across one of the UK's busiest international airports, where system failure during an incident is not an abstract risk.

Exhibition & Events.

London Olympia.

Voice alarm and PA systems at Olympia London, serving complex multi-zone event environments with high and variable occupancy.

Stadia & Sport.

Fulham Football Club.

Emergency sound and PA systems at Craven Cottage, a Premier League venue where crowd safety and zoned evacuation are critical.

Conference & Entertainment.

Brighton Centre.

Safety sound and legacy infrastructure compliance for Brighton's principal conference and entertainment venue: a site-wide communications system installed in 2025 and designed to expand as areas are refurbished, and BS 6259 compliance across large-format spaces with high public footfall.

Leisure & Attractions.

Drusillas Zoo Park.

Site-wide safety sound system using Bosch Praesensa: centralised PA with supervised zones, building the technical foundation for progressive BS 5839-8 compliance across a mixed indoor-outdoor visitor attraction.

We also maintain systems across commercial office estates, maritime and offshore facilities, education, healthcare, and retail, for facilities managers, M&E contractors, fire and security companies, and building owners.

Words you can use in your own report

If you're asked why you didn't go with the cheapest option, this is the gist.

These are sample lines, not quotes from clients. Copy them into a board paper or an email and change them to suit.

For a board paper. We appointed an ISO 9001 certified PAVA specialist who tests the loudspeaker circuits, not just the panel. Every fault they find is recorded with its risk level and a recommended action.

For your manager. I selected a provider whose reporting I can present directly to senior management. The system's condition is measured and the evidence is documented.

Before you switch

The questions buyers ask first.

Our fire contractor already services the PAVA.
Then the last report should list an impedance reading for every loudspeaker circuit, next to last year's. If it does not, they cannot be shown to have been measured. Fire and security contractors can also bring ProAudium in under their own name.

We already have a certificate.
A certificate records that a visit happened. The readings record the condition of the system. It's worth asking for the readings.

Changing contractor means starting from nothing.
The first round of visits sets the baseline: every circuit is measured within the first year on Recommended and Comprehensive, and every loudspeaker is photographed and logged with its location where access permits. From then on, every reading has one to compare against.

Who fixes what you find?
ProAudium carries out repairs and upgrades, quoted separately from the visit. You can accept the quote, or hand the findings to another contractor.

We cannot reach full compliance this year.
It does not have to happen in one year. A compliance roadmap phases the work across budget cycles, and each phase stays valid.

Every fault, evidenced

Every fault in a ProAudium report comes with its reading, its location and, where possible, a photograph.

Legislation

Martyn's Law: what should your venue be considering?

Status on 1 October 2026: the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025 received Royal Assent on 3 April 2025 and the Home Office published statutory guidance on 15 April 2026. The Security Industry Authority expects commencement in spring 2027; no date has been set (SIA update, 11 September 2026). Standard tier 200–799 people, enhanced tier 800 or more.

Ten questions, two minutes, no email required to see your result. The Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025 requires qualifying venues to have four procedures: evacuation, invacuation, lockdown and communication. This tool gives you a steer on your likely tier and on the question that is easiest to leave until last: whether your building can actually deliver the communication those procedures depend on.

Use the checker Prefer to read first? Read the full Martyn's Law guide.

Tools

Check the numbers on your own building before anyone quotes for it.

Each tool shows its working. No email is needed to see a result; an optional calculation check sits under it.

  • Maintenance Proposal: ten questions, and the year's inspections and tests for your system, with a check of what you're getting now.
  • System health check: eight questions about your system and what matters to you, with things you can do yourself and a sheet to print.
  • Battery calculator: the ProAudium battery method, with the standard's own clauses beside each step. Your next voice alarm battery quote should be smaller than your last.
  • ZOE: how much Voice Alarm amplifier power does your building need?
  • Martyn's Law checker: your likely tier, and whether the building can deliver the communication procedure.

See all tools

Consultancy

See what the room will do to the sound before a single loudspeaker is installed.

If the announcements are hard to follow and the suggestion on the table is more loudspeakers, let's first find out whether the room is the limit. More loudspeakers won't fix the room.

When the announcements sound awful

Knowledge Hub: free expert content

Guides you can use without a sales call.

Technical guides, testing advice and honest analysis, written for the people who maintain and manage these systems. No gate, no form, no follow-up call.

Browse the Knowledge Hub