So the Los Angels City inspectors have thrown everyone in a loop at a site I just finished. They are requiring that all music/paging systems be connected to the fire alarm so they can be muted during an alarm.

I'm looking for recommendations for a mixer/amp that can mute all inputs (not ducking). It needs to be 50 to 10 watts into 8 ohms (don't ask) with two inputs minimum.

I already have the NC/NO connection to the fire alarm.

Any help is appreciated.

Not an unusual request. Usually we just kill the power. I'm sure you can figure out how to do that with a relay or contactor in the circuit supplying the power to the amp and controlled by the contacts in the alarm panel.

-Hal

Thought of that but it doesn't seem very professional.

Nothing unprofessional about that at all. It's all about making things work. Viking probably makes something that will do just what you want to do, otherwise, put a relay on the input side of your paging amp if you don't want to mess with power. The alarm panel no doubt had a contact that's designed for just this sort of thing.

Unless the code is such that you have to kill everything except for one mic to make emergency announcements, then that IS the way to do it. Matter of fact the code may require it to be done by killing power. They do make sub-panels with an internal contactor, mainly used for remote turn-on but also for this purpose. Good for multiple circuits feeding large amps etc but I think it would be overkill for just one.

-Hal

Just doing a Google search on this (as I wanted to learn more) took me to a pro sound forum and one of the recommendations from a poster who did tech support for Peavy amps was talk to your amp vendor as they probably have something available as its a common issue.

I'm a member there also. If you read through all those posts instead of picking out one that doesn't apply, the recommended way is to shut down the power unless it's needed for emergency announcements. I really don't understand why you people have a problem with this?? Oh wait! Is it because you only have a LV license and don't want to get the EC involved?

Also, notice the good advice about talking to the fire marshal about how he wants it done...

-Hal

It's all about what the local inspectors want and there is no code requirement for this that anyone can find.This is the City of Los Angeles and they live in their own strange world.

Hooking up to the fire alarm is the easy part and with this just thrown at us on Friday we are all scrambling for a solution that the inspectors will accept.The client that I was doing the work for had finals scheduled for Monday and I was looking for some recommendations of what others have used.

I have told the client that we'll talk to the inspector on Mondays and get them to clarify what we can and can't do to meet their requirement. The fire alarm company has also been working on this as they too are scheduled for finals.

Solved the problem today once I was able to talk to the fire alarm company tech. The fire inspector requirements are that all inputs had to be able to be muted or the power could be removed from the Mixer/Amplifier and it must be able to return to the same state it was in prior to being turned off.

I was able to verify that the Stereo receiver amplifier that the owner provided would return the state it was in when power was removed and I ended up using a Furman CN-15MP MiniPort from their Contractor Power Sequencing line. The bonus was another store used it too and the fire inspector had already approved its use so I didn't have to worry about it being approved.

Thanks to everyone for their input.

Thanks for that! I wasn't aware that a small controller like that was available.

-Hal

When I originally posted the question I hadn't thought of it either but when I went to the site that morning the thought was kinda of these and when I was shown what the other store didn't it jumped out at me. I think the suggestions of cutting the power from here started me thinking that way.

Funny how our minds and memory work like that.