This Standard was prepared by the Standards Australia Committee FP-002, Fire Detection, Warning, Control and Intercom Systems, to supersede AS 1670.4:2018, Fire detection, warning, control and intercom systems — System design, installation and commissioning, Part 4: Emergency warning and intercom systems.

The objective of this document is to specify the design, installation and commissioning requirements for emergency warning systems and emergency intercom systems used in buildings for the evacuation of building occupants in the event of a fire or other type of emergency.

This document specifies the use of emergency warning control and indicating equipment (EWCIE) which conforms to AS 4428.16, Grade 1, and emergency intercom control and indicating equipment (EICIE) which conforms to AS 4428.4

The major changes in this revision of the document are as follows:

(a) Revision of the definitions.
(b) Withdrawal of legacy product standards (AS 2220.1 and AS 60849).
(c) Referencing new editions of product standards and updating Table 1.8.
(d) Alignment of common definitions, clauses and appendices with AS 1670.1.
(e) Removal of the dispensation to fit VADs when speech intelligibility cannot be met, except in spaces with high ambient noise.
(f) Revise speech intelligibility requirements for car parks.
(g) Simplified the requirements for not measuring speech intelligibility in SOUs.
(h) Updated the terminology and measurement methods for sound pressure level and speech intelligibility.
(i) Clarified requirements for termination of optical fibre cables used in the emergency warning and intercom system.
(j) Clarified the application of AS 7240.13 to demonstrate compatibility.

Maintenance requirements for emergency warning and intercom systems are given in AS 1851.

Appendices have been aligned with AS 1670.1 where the topics are the same.

The terms “normative” and “informative” have been used in this Standard to define the application of the appendices to which they apply. A “normative” appendix is an integral part of a Standard, whereas an “informative” appendix is only for information and guidance.

This edition also permits the use of two editions of relevant Standards relating to components. See Table 1.8 for the list of relevant editions of the Standards which apply throughout this document.