Building on a previous project that determined that existing alarm sounds were often hard to localize, hear and learn, this project focused on the creation of new alarms sounds that would better meet the needs of our console operators. Twelve new sets of alarm sounds, developed by experts in the field of alarms, are available to members for download and implementation.
Part 2 of the proposal sets out to develop alarm sets and to test them in three different control rooms/plants, selected on the basis of their size, seeking at least one small, one medium, and one large venue according to the mapping protocol.
Part 1 of this project, the Alarms Theorem and Alarm Mapping Protocol, emphasized that beyond the core elements of good recognizability, ease of learning, audibility, and localizability, the way audible alarm signals are implemented in control rooms should vary according to the size of the control rooms and the number of consoles therein. At the core of this protocol are the twin issues of alarm similarity/difference and urgency.
In this project, the team developed 12 sets of alarms, each with four levels of priority. These 12 sets form a database of alarm signals which COP can make available for immediate and future use by members*. Most, if not all of these sets, were selected by COP members for testing and further assessment in Part 2b.