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Designing a public address or voice alarm system starts long before the first loudspeaker goes up. Every zone needs enough sound pressure to rise clearly above its background noise, speech that stays intelligible in reverberant spaces, amplifiers sized with proper headroom, and cabling that does not waste power on long runs. This free PA / PAVA System Designer brings those checks together on your own floor plan, whether you are working with a traditional 100 V line system, a fully networked IP / PoE system, or a hybrid of the two.
Load a drawing or start on a blank grid, draw your zones and choose the space type to fill in typical ambient noise, reverberation time and ceiling height. The tool can lay out ceiling speakers, horns or projectors automatically and pick the tap power, then predicts SPL, margin above ambient, uniformity and an estimated STI as colour heatmaps. Alongside the acoustics it works out amplifier channels, 100 V cable loss, PoE switch ports and budget, network bandwidth and battery capacity, and builds a riser diagram and a full bill of quantities. You can listen to any point on the plan, test what happens when one loudspeaker circuit fails, and play a phased evacuation sequence zone by zone.
The tool is built for consultants, contractors and technicians preparing concept designs, tenders and early coordination with typical values for EN 54 / BS 5839-8, NFPA 72 and commercial PA projects. Predictions use simplified acoustic models and typical values, so final voice alarm designs must be completed, commissioned and verified by competent persons against the applicable standard, local authority requirements, manufacturer datasheets and on-site STI measurement. Your work saves automatically in your browser, and you can export PNG images, CSV tables, a JSON project file or a printed report.
PA / PAVA System Designer v1.0
Design analog 100 V line, IP / PoE and hybrid public address and voice alarm systems on your floor plan: zones, loudspeakers, SPL and STI heatmaps, amplifiers, cable loss, PoE, battery, riser diagram, listen-here and evacuation simulation, and BOQ.
Heatmap view
Standard & targets typical · check the standard edition
Zones (0)
Loudspeakers (0) typical presets
Auto-place
100 V / 70 V line
Cable loss check
IP / PoE network
Battery / PSU
Listen here (simulation)
Evacuation sequence (phased)
Timeline · zone states
Riser / single-line diagram (auto-generated)
- Choose the system type (analog 100 V line, IP / PoE or hybrid) and the standard (EN 54 / EN 50849 / BS 5839-8 voice alarm, NFPA 72 EVACS / MNS, or commercial PA). Targets, circuit rules and battery times follow the standard.
- Load your floor plan (PNG, JPG or a PDF page) or start a blank grid, then set the scale by clicking both ends of a known dimension.
- Draw zones as rectangles or polygons. Pick the zone type to fill typical ambient noise, reverberation time (RT60) and ceiling height, then adjust them to your project. The target SPL is worked out from ambient noise plus the standard's margin.
- Press Auto-place to lay out ceiling speakers on a grid (edge to edge, minimum overlap or centre to centre) or horns / projectors on walls, with the tap chosen to meet the target. Add, drag, aim and edit speakers by hand, and place the rack for cable lengths.
- Check the SPL, margin, uniformity, STI estimate and pass / fail views, and test a circuit A or B fault. Use 🎧 Listen here to hear any point, and play the phased evacuation sequence.
- Review amplifiers, 100 V cable loss, PoE switches and bandwidth, battery capacity, the riser diagram and the BOQ, then save the project, export PNG or CSV, or print the report.
