Why Open School Bell?

Open School Bell was originally developed for Longridge High School to replace an out-of-date radio triggered master-clock based system.

The main aim of OSB was to replace the system with a more reliable wired system, without breaking the bank. Commercial alternatives did offer what we wanted but also came with some concerns.

The spec for OSB to be a viable project was:

• Local only, all parts of the system should run inside our school.
• Network based and centerally managed, no jumping onto each pi or having to physically access hardware.
• Lockdown capable.
• Text-To-Speech for tannoys.
• Tie-in to existing bells.

Over the Easter Holiday’s in 2025 we installed Phase 1 of our OSB project. This was 1 sounder, amp and 10 speakers into a newly constructed building, and a Pi with a Pi Touch Display 2 plus relay to act as our lockdown trigger and link into the exisitng bells.