Want to be in the know? Come to the NFPA show

QUINCY, Mass.—The 2013 edition of NFPA 72, the National Fire Alarm and Signaling Code, will come out this fall. And one of the best ways to learn about content changes in the code is at the 2012 National Fire Protection Association Conference & Expo this June in Las Vegas, according to Lorraine Carli, VP of communications for the NFPA, based here.

That's because the annual show, which runs this year from June 11-14, will have three separate panel presentations on significant content changes approved by the nine technical committees of NFPA 72.

“The people who are on those panels are experts and have been involved in the code process itself, so it's a great opportunity to get an up-close and personal discussion of what the new edition is going to look like,” Carli told Security Systems News.

The first panel will cover documentation, new in the 2013 code, and fundamentals, inspection, testing and maintenance, supervising station alarm systems, and public emergency alarm reporting systems, according to the NFPA.

The second panel will cover circuits and pathways, emergency control functions and interfaces, protected premises fire alarm systems, and single- and multiple-station alarms and household fire alarm systems, the NFPA said. And the third panel will focus on initiating devices, notification appliances, and emergency communications systems.

There also will be a post-conference seminar on NFPA 72, Carli said. Post-conference sessions were added for the first time last year and proved so popular they've been brought back this year, she said. The show also offers pre-conference seminars, as it has done for several years now.

“We find if people make the trip they really want to get as much out of it as they can, so we're offering them as many options as possible,” Carli said.

Among other highlights of the show—for which attendance is usually about 5,000 and which has more than 300 exhibitors and more than 130 educational sessions this year—are sessions on ECS or mass notification.

“Mass notification continues to a very important and hot topic so there are several sessions on it,” Carli said.

For example, she said, there's a session on the voice intelligibility requirements of the current 2010 edition of NFPA 72.

Carli said, “There's a lot on sprinklers as well.” That's because the 2013 edition of NFPA 13, Installation of Sprinkler Systems, also will be released this November.