Disclaimer: This article provides general information only and does not constitute fire safety or building compliance advice. Specific requirements for your building should be confirmed with a licensed building surveyor or fire safety engineer.

Emergency Communication Systems for Buildings: What Australian Building Managers Need to Know

For building managers, strata committees, and developers in Australia, emergency communication is one of the most consequential technology decisions in a building's lifecycle. Get it wrong and you face compliance exposure, potential liability during an evacuation event, and — most seriously — a system that fails the people who depend on it.

This guide covers the two primary emergency communication frameworks for Australian buildings — the Emergency Warning and Intercommunication System (EWIS) and the Public Address (PA) system — along with the standards that govern their design, installation, and ongoing maintenance.

What Emergency Communication Systems Do in Buildings

An emergency communication system allows building wardens, fire brigade personnel, and building management to coordinate a safe and orderly evacuation. It also provides audible warnings to occupants across multiple floors or areas simultaneously.

In a multi-storey building, a fire event on one floor may be completely unknown to occupants on other floors. Without a structured warning system, occupants may evacuate too slowly, or too quickly in the wrong direction, causing dangerous congestion in stairwells. A properly designed emergency communication system addresses this by:

• Broadcasting standardised alert and evacuation tones audible throughout the building
• Enabling floor wardens to communicate directly with the chief warden and each other
• Allowing the fire brigade to issue live voice announcements to specific floors or the entire building
• Providing a clear chain of command for the Emergency Control Organisation (ECO)

There are two primary system types relevant to most commercial and residential buildings in Australia.

EWIS: Emergency Warning and Intercommunication System

The Emergency Warning and Intercommunication System — referred to in current Australian standards as a "sound system and intercom system for emergency purposes" — is the primary life safety communication system in Australian buildings. It combines two distinct functions:

Emergency warning: Automated and manually triggered tones and voice messages broadcast through ceiling-mounted speakers throughout the building. AS1670.4 specifies two standardised signal types: the alert signal (a three-beep pattern) and the evacuation signal (a continuous tone), which all building occupants are trained to recognise.

Warden intercommunication: A network of telephone handsets — Warden Intercommunication Points (WIPs) — installed at floor warden positions, fire stairs, and plant rooms. WIPs allow floor wardens to communicate directly with the chief warden in the fire control room without relying on the building's general phone network or mobile reception.

Public Address (PA) System

A PA system provides broadcast capability for announcements throughout common areas and occupied spaces. In some buildings, a PA system is integrated with the EWIS to share speaker infrastructure. In others, it operates independently for non-emergency purposes such as lobby announcements or background music.

A standalone PA system does not fulfil the EWIS compliance requirement. Conversely, an EWIS can be designed to incorporate PA functionality, provided the design maintains the integrity of the life safety system. Any integration requires careful engineering to ensure that routine PA use cannot compromise EWIS operability.

When Is EWIS Required Under the BCA?

The National Construction Code (NCC), which incorporates the Building Code of Australia (BCA), specifies when an EWIS is required. The relevant provisions are in NCC Volume One, Section E (Services and Equipment), which applies to Class 2 through Class 9 buildings.

As a general principle, EWIS is required in buildings with an effective height exceeding 25 metres. Effective height is measured from the floor of the lowest storey providing direct access to a road or open space, to the floor of the topmost storey (excluding plant rooms and the like). At this height, a single floor fire event creates a credible risk that occupants on distant floors have no reliable way of being warned.

Certain building classes may trigger EWIS requirements below the 25-metre threshold depending on occupancy type, floor area, and the specific deemed-to-satisfy pathway selected by the building's design team. Class 2 buildings (apartment buildings), Class 5 (office buildings), Class 6 (shops and retail), Class 8 (factories) and Class 9 (healthcare, assembly) all fall under Volume One.

Important: The exact threshold that applies to a specific building is determined by a licensed building surveyor assessing the NCC deemed-to-satisfy provisions or an approved alternative solution. Floor area, occupancy type, fire compartmentation, and sprinkler status all influence the final determination. Do not rely on a general height rule alone.

The Australian Standards That Govern Emergency Communication

Two distinct Australian standards are frequently cited in the context of building emergency communication. They serve entirely different purposes and should not be conflated.

AS1670.4 — The Technical System Standard

AS1670.4 (Fire detection, warning, control and intercom systems — Part 4: Emergency warning and intercom systems) is the primary technical standard for EWIS in Australian buildings. It specifies:

• System design and performance requirements
• Component specifications including panels, WIPs, speakers, and amplifiers
• Installation requirements and cable specifications
• Commissioning procedures and acceptance testing
• Maintenance obligations (in conjunction with AS1851)

AS1670.4 is the standard that a fire systems engineer and licensed contractor works to when designing and installing an EWIS. The NCC deems compliance with AS1670.4 as the pathway for meeting the performance requirement under Section E.

A 2024 edition of AS1670.4 has been published by Standards Australia, updating the previous version. Projects should confirm with their fire safety engineer which edition is applicable under their jurisdiction and consent conditions.

AS3745:2010 — The Emergency Management Standard

AS3745:2010 (Planning for emergencies in facilities) is fundamentally a management standard, not a system standard. It does not specify what hardware must be installed. Instead, it specifies how the people and procedures around emergency response must be organised.

Key requirements under AS3745:2010 include:

• Establishment of an Emergency Control Organisation (ECO) with a chief warden, floor/area wardens, and a communications officer
• Development and validation of an emergency plan for the facility
• Training of ECO members at intervals not exceeding six months
• Emergency exercises for all occupants at least once every 12 months
• Documentation of warden positions on evacuation diagrams, including the location of WIPs where installed

AS3745 is relevant to building managers and strata committees because it governs the ongoing operation of the emergency communication infrastructure they are required to maintain. A building with a fully compliant EWIS still fails its obligations if the wardens are untrained and the emergency plan has not been reviewed.

EWIS vs PA System: A Comparison

EWIS Components in Detail

The Main EWIS Panel

The EWIS panel is the control hub of the system, typically located in the fire control room or at the building entry in smaller buildings. It provides zone control for warning signals, a master microphone for live voice announcements, connection to the fire detection system, and status monitoring for all system components. In most modern buildings, the EWIS panel interfaces directly with the fire indicator panel (FIP).

Warden Intercommunication Points (WIPs)

WIPs are red telephone handsets — the colour is specified to make them immediately identifiable. They are located at each floor warden position, in fire stairs, and in plant rooms. Pressing the handset button connects directly to the fire control room and to any other active WIP on the network. This allows a floor warden discovering smoke on Level 7 to immediately advise the chief warden without competing with general building phone traffic or relying on mobile coverage in a stairwell.

AS3745:2010 requires that WIP locations be clearly shown on evacuation diagrams.

Emergency Speakers

Ceiling-mounted speakers distribute alert and evacuation tones, and carry live or recorded voice announcements to all areas of the building. Speaker placement and coverage levels are specified by the acoustic engineer working to AS1670.4 requirements, ensuring intelligibility of voice messages in every occupied space.

Alert and Evacuation Tones

AS1670.4 defines standardised signal types. The alert signal — a repeated three-beep pattern — indicates a potential emergency and instructs occupants to stand by for instructions. The evacuation signal — a continuous tone — requires immediate evacuation. These are national standards, meaning any occupant who has been through an emergency exercise in any compliant Australian building will recognise the signals.

Amplifiers and Audio Distribution

The audio distribution infrastructure carries signals from the EWIS panel to speakers throughout the building. Amplifier capacity, redundancy, and line supervision requirements are all specified in AS1670.4. For IP-based systems, the network infrastructure supporting audio distribution must meet specific reliability and latency requirements — discussed further below.

Lift Emergency Phones Are Not EWIS

A point of common confusion: lift emergency phones are a separate and distinct requirement from EWIS. They are governed by AS1735.19 and NCC E3.6, which require a continuously monitored emergency communication path in passenger lift cars, accessible 24 hours a day.

Lift phones serve a different purpose — communication for a trapped or lone worker in a lift car — and are connected to a monitored call centre, not to the building's warden intercom network. They do not replace, and are not replaced by, the EWIS.

For a detailed breakdown of lift emergency phone requirements, including the transition from copper-connected systems to LTE-based solutions, see Pickle's guide to lift emergency phone requirements.

Maintenance Obligations Under AS1851

AS1851-2012 (Routine service of fire protection systems and equipment) is the maintenance standard that governs ongoing inspection and testing of EWIS in Australian buildings. Section 6 of AS1851 addresses occupant warning systems and EWIS specifically.

Key maintenance obligations include:

Monthly: Functional testing of specific components including battery condition, panel status indicators, and selected speaker circuits. Records of monthly checks must be maintained.

Six-monthly: More comprehensive testing of all system zones, WIPs, signal levels, and emergency power supply (battery backup). This is typically conducted by the building's fire services contractor.

Annual: Full system test to AS1851 Section 6, Table 6.4.3.2, conducted by a licensed fire systems technician. The annual service includes acoustic testing of speaker output, inspection of all WIP handsets, verification of tone sequences, and review of system logbook entries.

Five-yearly: Battery replacement cycles and extended system performance testing are typically required at five-year intervals.

Maintenance records must be kept and made available to the relevant building authority on request. In New South Wales, fire safety measures including EWIS are subject to the Annual Fire Safety Statement (AFSS) regime under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Regulation. Requirements vary by jurisdiction — confirm obligations with your fire safety practitioner.

PA Systems Beyond Minimum EWIS Compliance

Many building developers and owners choose to install a PA system capability beyond the minimum EWIS requirement. Common applications include:

• Background music in lobbies, car parks, and common areas
• Tenant communication systems in commercial buildings
• Retail announcement systems in mixed-use developments
• Integration with digital signage for visual and audio messaging

These non-emergency PA functions can share the speaker infrastructure installed for EWIS, which is architecturally efficient and avoids the cost of duplicating ceiling speaker runs throughout a building.

However, the design must strictly maintain EWIS integrity. This means:

• The EWIS must always be capable of overriding PA audio automatically and immediately upon an alarm signal
• PA inputs must not be able to generate spurious signals on the EWIS network
• The EWIS panel must retain full priority over all audio distribution zones

In practice, this requires close coordination between the fire systems engineer (responsible for AS1670.4 compliance) and the AV or building services contractor responsible for the PA design. The fire systems engineer should review and sign off on any PA integration before commissioning.

For broader context on how technology systems in apartment and commercial buildings should be planned in coordination, see Pickle's guide on technology infrastructure planning.

Network Infrastructure for Modern EWIS

Newer IP-based EWIS systems — which use building network infrastructure to distribute audio signals and system data — introduce network dependencies that building managers and IT staff must understand.

Dedicated VLAN

EWIS network traffic must be carried on a dedicated VLAN, isolated from the building's general data and internet services. This is not optional. Shared bandwidth creates a risk that high network utilisation during a non-emergency event could introduce latency or packet loss into the audio distribution path — with potentially life-safety consequences.

The dedicated VLAN must be configured with appropriate QoS (Quality of Service) prioritisation to ensure EWIS traffic is never de-prioritised by other network activity.

Redundant Power Supply

The network infrastructure supporting an IP-based EWIS — including switches and any routing equipment in the signal path — must be backed by an uninterruptible power supply (UPS). AS1670.4 specifies minimum battery backup periods; the network infrastructure must match the overall system's power resilience requirements.

No Shared Bandwidth With Building Internet Services

The EWIS VLAN and the network equipment it traverses must not share bandwidth with tenant internet services, shared Wi-Fi networks, or building management systems in a way that creates contention. Physical separation is preferable where practical; logical separation with enforced QoS is acceptable where reviewed by the fire systems engineer.

For guidance on correct VLAN design for life safety and building management systems, see Pickle's article on VLAN for building systems.

The intersection of IP networking and fire systems is also relevant to broader building system network security considerations — a compromised building network should never be able to affect the operability of emergency communication infrastructure.

Responsibilities by Role

Building managers and strata committees are responsible for ensuring the EWIS is maintained to AS1851, that the fire safety statement obligations are met, that the emergency plan under AS3745 is current, and that wardens are trained at the required intervals. They are also responsible for ensuring that any fit-out or tenancy works do not compromise the EWIS — for example, ceiling modifications that affect speaker coverage or cable runs.

Architects and building designers are responsible for specifying EWIS requirements at design stage, coordinating between the fire systems engineer, acoustic engineer, and AV consultant, and ensuring the fire control room location and WIP layout are adequate for the building's ECO structure.

Developers should engage a fire safety engineer early in the design process to determine the applicable EWIS requirement, budget appropriately for both the system and its ongoing maintenance, and confirm network infrastructure requirements with their IT and communications consultant before cabling is installed.

For a broader view of how emergency communication systems fit within overall Australian building technology standards, the standards landscape covers structured cabling, network infrastructure, and telecommunications as a unified discipline.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Is EWIS required in all Australian apartment buildings?

A: Not automatically. EWIS is generally required in Class 2 buildings (apartments) with an effective height exceeding 25 metres. Buildings below this threshold may require a simpler occupant warning system, or may have EWIS triggered by other factors such as floor area, number of storeys, or the specific deemed-to-satisfy pathway. A building surveyor must determine the applicable requirement for each specific building based on the NCC and any applicable state variations.

Q: What is the difference between AS1670.4 and AS3745, and which one applies to my building?

A: Both are likely to apply, but they govern different things. AS1670.4 is a technical standard for the design, installation, and maintenance of the EWIS hardware. AS3745:2010 is a management standard that governs how your building's Emergency Control Organisation is structured, trained, and exercised. A building manager's obligations under AS3745 are ongoing — the ECO must be maintained and trained regardless of how well the installed hardware performs.

Q: Can we use our existing PA speaker system to satisfy the EWIS requirement?

A: Only if the PA system has been specifically engineered and certified to comply with AS1670.4 as a sound system for emergency purposes. A commercial PA system designed for music and announcements does not meet the life safety requirements of AS1670.4 without significant re-engineering. Consult your fire safety engineer before assuming an existing system satisfies the EWIS requirement.

Q: How often must the EWIS be tested?

A: AS1851 requires routine service at monthly, six-monthly, and annual intervals, each with defined scope. The annual service must be conducted by a licensed fire systems technician and must follow the specific testing regime in AS1851 Section 6. Records of all service activities must be maintained and are subject to audit by building authorities. In NSW, the EWIS is a scheduled fire safety measure under the AFSS regime.

Q: Who is responsible for EWIS maintenance in a strata building?

A: In a strata building, responsibility for maintaining common property fire systems — including the EWIS — sits with the owners corporation (body corporate). This includes engaging a licensed fire systems contractor, funding the AS1851 service program, and ensuring the obligations under AS3745 (emergency planning and warden training) are met. Some strata managers engage a specialist fire safety practitioner to manage this on behalf of the owners corporation. Confirm your specific obligations with your strata manager and fire safety consultant.

How Pickle Supports Emergency Communication Infrastructure

Pickle provides network infrastructure design and deployment for commercial and residential buildings throughout Australia, including the structured cabling, VLAN configuration, and UPS-backed switch infrastructure that IP-based emergency communication systems depend on.

For buildings where EWIS, lift phones, PA systems, and building management networks must coexist on a shared physical infrastructure, Pickle works alongside licensed fire safety engineers and AV contractors to ensure the network layer is correctly designed, documented, and handed over.

Pickle does not design, install, or certify fire systems. All EWIS work is coordinated with licensed fire systems contractors and fire safety engineers appropriate to the project.

To discuss network infrastructure for your building project, contact Pickle:

Phone: 1300 688 588 Email: [email protected]Web: thinkpickle.com.au