Assistive Listening Knowledge Base
  • Standard (publisher overview)

BS EN 50849:2017: Sound systems for emergency purposes

From https://assistivelisteningknowledgebase.org/evidence/bsi-2017-en-50849/ · record checked 13 October 2026

  • British Standards Institution; CENELEC
  • British Standards Institution

Standards body (CENELEC standard published by the British Standards Institution)

Summary

The European emergency sound-system standard replaced EN 60849, with fire evacuation expressly excluded from its scope.

Key findings

  • The publisher overview describes performance requirements and test methods for emergency sound systems intended to protect life and mobilize occupants in indoor or outdoor areas, using voice announcements and attention or alarm tones.
  • The overview expressly excludes sound systems used for fire evacuation, whether or not connected to a fire detection and fire alarm system.
  • BSI states that EN 50849:2017 supersedes EN 60849:1998 and that its intelligibility-measurement annex was updated in line with EN 60268-16.
  • The overview identifies system safety, technical requirements, software monitoring, installation, operation and speech intelligibility among the topics covered.

Limits

Publisher overview only; the full standard was not read. The European replacement should not be described as a universal replacement for every fire-alarm application of the withdrawn IEC standard. No assistive-listening clause or technology approval is established by this page.

Read the original

knowledge.bsigroup.com/products/sound-systems-for-emergency-purposes

Link checked . We link to the original and do not host copies.

Cited in

Cite this source

British Standards Institution; CENELEC. BS EN 50849:2017: Sound systems for emergency purposes. British Standards Institution. 31 March 2017. https://knowledge.bsigroup.com/products/sound-systems-for-emergency-purposes (accessed 13 October 2026).

The accessed date is when this library last checked the link; use the date you read it. To point readers to this summary instead, link to https://assistivelisteningknowledgebase.org/evidence/bsi-2017-en-50849/

Every finding here cites its source, and who funded each source is labelled. This site does not recommend products. Found an error or a missing study? Suggest a correction.