When something goes wrong, every staff member can raise the alarm in two seconds — from the phone in their pocket.

Lockdown · Evacuation · Medical · Panic. Announced over your existing PA. Every phone on staff told instantly, even on silent.

Emergency & Lockdown System turns one iPad plugged into your PA amplifier into a complete emergency alert station. Staff carry the free Emergency Remote on their own iPhone or Android: hold a button and the site hears the alarm, the office sees who raised it and where, and every registered phone gets a critical alert that cuts through silent mode. Raise it silently when sound would make things worse. No cloud, no server, no wiring beyond one audio lead.

Emergency Station for iPadComing to the App Store Emergency RemoteiPhone & Android
Silent covert alarms Overrides silent & Do Not Disturb Works with no internet iPhone and Android Runs behind your bell app
Emergency Station iPad showing a live lockdown: who raised it, where, and the live map
See it in action

The whole system in under three minutes

How the station connects to your PA, registering staff phones, raising a lockdown from a phone, the silent alarm, live location, and the All Clear.

Prefer to read? See the online manual or the installation guide.

Built for the worst day

Simple to use under stress. Thorough underneath.

Two apps that find each other on the site Wi-Fi. The iPad lives with the PA amplifier and does the announcing; staff phones are the triggers. Everything below is standard — nothing is an add-on.

Four alarms, one hold

Lockdown, Evacuation, Medical Emergency and Panic. Press and hold for 1.5 seconds so nothing fires by accident; the phone confirms "Received by station". The PA plays the siren pattern and a clear spoken announcement, twice, then repeats until All Clear.

Silent, covert alarms

Tap Silent Mode and the alarm makes no sound over the PA. The office and every registered phone are told quietly. Escalate to the full PA alarm later with one hold, once it is safe to make noise.

Cuts through silent

Emergency Remote uses Apple Critical Alerts on iPhone and Do Not Disturb override on Android, so a silenced phone in a drawer still sounds. Phones get a normal alert tone; the siren only ever plays over the PA.

Who, and where

The PA announces who raised the alert. Their GPS position goes with it and shows on a map on the station and every phone. On the alarm screen they can type where they are — "on the oval, west end" — and the PA re-announces it.

Staff notices and PA from anywhere

Admins send notices to every staff phone with a normal tone (wet-weather timetable, assembly moved), and make PA announcements from their phone — typed for the announcer voice, or recorded in their own voice and saved to a shared library.

Every phone approved, every event logged

Each phone registers with its own ID and security token and waits for the office to approve it. Star the admins, remove a phone in one tap. Every alarm, update and All Clear is logged with who and when, exportable as a CSV for your records.

How it works

Hold the button. The rest is automatic.

Designed around what a teacher actually does with a phone in a frightening moment: one hold, no typing, no menus.

Staff hold an alarm

Alerts tab, hold Lockdown for 1.5 seconds. Silent Mode first if sound would make things worse. The phone confirms it was received.

The PA announces

The station plays the siren pattern and the spoken announcement over the school PA — "Lockdown. Lockdown. This is not a drill. Raised by Sam Taylor." Then repeats until stood down.

Every phone is told

Every registered phone gets a critical alert with who raised it and where, a live map, the Call 000 button, and — in a lockdown — an "I'm hiding" button that silences that phone and tells the office they are hiding.

Updates, then All Clear

Anyone can add an update or their location; lockdown updates go to phones only, never the PA. The office or an admin holds All Clear and the PA gives the spoken stand-down.

On the iPad

Calm when nothing is happening. Unmissable when it is.

The Emergency Station sits on the PA and keeps listening in the background, even while a bell scheduler or another app owns the screen. When an alarm comes in it takes over the display with everything the office needs.

Station home: no active alarms, site is normal
Quiet: no active alarms
Live lockdown on the station with map and updates
Live alarm with map and updates
Devices tab: approved phones, admins, online dots
Approve phones, star the admins
History of every event with CSV export
Every event logged, CSV export
Announce tab: live PA and saved library
Live PA and saved announcements
Settings: voice, sounds, wording, emergency number, drill mode, PIN
Your sounds, your wording, your number
Register a phone by QR code
Register a phone with a QR code
History entry after All Clear
Who raised it, who cleared it
The free staff app

Emergency Remote — the same on iPhone and Android

Finds the station on the site Wi-Fi, registers once with a name and role, and reconnects itself from then on. Staff see calm status day to day; the alarm screen only appears when it matters.

Remote home tab: connected, no active alarms, critical alerts on
Home: connected, critical alerts on
Alerts tab with four hold-to-activate buttons and Silent Mode
Hold to raise. Silent Mode for covert.
Alarm screen: who, where, map, call, I'm hiding
Who, where, map, Call 000, I'm hiding
Admin PA tab: type or record an announcement
Admins: PA from anywhere on site
Android Remote home tab
Android: identical home
Android Remote alerts tab
Android: identical alarms
Notices tab with staff broadcasts
Staff notices with a normal tone
Registration screen
Register once: name, room, role
Designed with the hard cases in mind

What happens in an intruder lockdown

Every decision in the app follows one rule: never make a bad situation worse, and never leave the office guessing.

Silent first, loud when safe

A teacher who sees a threat can raise the alarm silently, so no siren gives away that the alert has gone out. When it is safe, anyone can escalate it to the full PA lockdown with one hold.

Lockdown updates never reach the PA

During a lockdown, updates and locations go to staff phones and the office only. Nothing is broadcast that could tell an intruder where people are.

"I'm hiding" silences the phone

One tap puts that phone into a no-sound, no-vibration state until All Clear, and tells the office that person is hiding. Only Lockdown and Panic show it; Medical and Evacuation don't need it.

Lockdown wins

A lesser alarm can't replace an active lockdown. The phone that raised it is told it was logged but not announced. Nothing silently disappears.

Call the right number

The alarm screen carries a one-tap Call button for your country's emergency number: 000, 911, 999, 112 or 111, set once on the station and sent to every phone.

Drills, without drama

Switch on Drill Mode and every announcement is prefixed "This is a drill", phones show a drill badge, and history is flagged. Everything else runs exactly as it would for real.

Installation

One iPad, one audio lead, and your existing PA

The station is just another audio source to your amplifier: it plugs into the line input like a CD player did. Already running a bell scheduler on an iPad? The station runs in the background on the same iPad.

NO ACTIVE ALARMS ● Site is normal iPad station in the office or comms rack, always charging 3.5 mm aux lead LINE IN PA amplifier Site speakers Staff phones Wi-Fi
iPads with a headphone jack (iPad 9th gen and earlier)

One 3.5 mm aux lead to the amplifier's line input. The charging port stays free for the wall charger.

iPads with USB-C only

Add a USB-C to 3.5 mm audio adapter with charging pass-through (about $20) so the iPad charges 24/7 through the same port.

Already have an iPad bell scheduler?

Install the station on the same iPad. It keeps listening in the background while the bell app runs in front, and takes the PA when an alarm comes in.

Staff phones

Any iPhone on iOS 16 or newer, any Android phone on Android 8 or newer, on the site Wi-Fi. Free, no accounts.

Full installation guide → Online manual →
Availability

Launching on the App Store and Google Play

The system is complete and in final testing with schools now. One station licence covers the whole site; the staff app is free for every phone. Pilot sites get direct support from the developer during rollout.

Emergency Station
Per site
One iPad on the PA. Unlimited staff phones. Pricing announced at launch; pilot schools are free during the pilot.
Emergency Remote for iPhone
Free
Unlimited staff phones. No accounts.
Emergency Remote for Android
Free
Identical features. Unlimited staff phones.

Request a pilot for your school →

Questions schools ask

FAQ

Does it work if the internet is down?

Yes. The station and the phones talk directly over the site Wi-Fi. Alarms, announcements, updates and All Clear all work with no internet. Only the push-notification path for phones that have wandered off the Wi-Fi uses the internet.

Will staff phones sound if they're on silent or in Do Not Disturb?

Yes. Emergency Remote is approved by Apple for Critical Alerts on iPhone, and uses Do Not Disturb override on Android. A phone in a drawer on silent still sounds. The siren itself only ever plays over the PA — a phone gives a normal alert tone.

Can an alarm be raised silently?

Yes. Tap Silent Mode, then hold the alarm. Nothing plays over the PA; the office and every registered phone are told quietly. It can be escalated to the full PA alarm with one hold when it's safe.

Do students hear panic alarms?

Panic uses coded wording over the PA so staff know exactly what's happening without alarming students. The wording of every announcement — and the sound for every alarm — can be changed on the station.

Can anyone with the app raise an alarm?

No. Every phone registers with its own ID and security token and waits in the Devices list until the office approves it. Removed phones can't re-enrol themselves. The station's Settings and All Clear can be PIN-protected.

Does the office have to be at the iPad?

No. Admins (starred phones) can send All Clear, staff notices and PA announcements from wherever they are on site. The iPad can live in the comms rack.

Does it need a server or a cloud account?

No. The iPad is the server. There are no accounts, nothing is stored off-site, and no data is collected. See the privacy policy.

We already use an iPad bell scheduler. Do we need another iPad?

No. The station runs in the background on the same iPad and takes over the PA when an alarm comes in.

Give every staff member a two-second alarm.

Pilot sites are being onboarded now. We'll set it up with you and run the first drill together.

Request a pilot