Company:Acoustic Technology Incorporated

From HandWiki
Acoustic Technology Incorporated
IndustryPublic safety
Area served
  • United States
  • Israel (distributed by a different company but produced by ATI)
Products
Websiteatisystems.com

Acoustic Technology Inc. (ATI), doing business as ATI Systems is an American electronic speaker and siren manufacturer based out of Boston, Massachusetts.[1]

History

According to ATI, they began as an acoustic consulting firm.[1] In the late 80's the company started production of sirens.

Products

Sirens

HPSS 16[lower-alpha 1]

An HPSS 16 siren in San Francisco, looks like 4 speakers on a pole
An HPSS 16 in San Francisco.

The HPSS 16 is an omni-directional siren.[2] It is the most common model produced by ATI. A system of these sirens was installed in San Francisco, however it currently inactive due to fears of cyber attacks.[3]

HPSS 32

The HPSS 32 is an omni directional siren.[4] It is essentially 2 HPSS 32 sirens stacked on top of each other.

MHPSS[lower-alpha 2]

The MPSS is essentially an HPSS 16 mounted on a mobile cart[5]

Notable systems

San Francisco, California

In a period from 2004-2005, ATI replaced the system of STL-10's with ATI HPSS 16's and 32's.[6] It was deactivated due to the threat of a cyber attack in 2019[3][7]

Controversy

System failures

  • On March 15, 2026, an EF1 tornado touched down in the village of New Athens, Illinois.[8] The county sirens, consisting of ATI sirens, failed to sound automatically when a tornado warning was issued.[8] County officials didn't realize until 15 minutes before the tornado touched down: when they did realize, they manually activated them.[8] Technicians arrived to inspect the sirens, and luckily no injuries were reported.[8] The sirens in question were completely installed by ATI in June 2025, while the installation spanned for over 2 years from sometime in March 2023.[9][10]

Security issues

  • Around 2017-2018, experts discovered a security vulnerability that made ATI sirens vulnerable to hacking and false alarms. [11][12] It was discovered in San Francisco, California, which is the reason they have been deactivated.[12] ATI has made the relevant patches to fix this issue.[11]

Business practices

  • In August 2022, ATI released a press release announcing the release of their new product, the Multiple Stacked Circular Speaker Array, which heavily resembled a Federal Signal Modulator.[13] [14]This was their second "attempt" at a modulator clone, as previously they released the same product under a different name; none have ever been installed.[14]
An MSCSA siren that looks exactly like a Federal signal modulator.
The MSCSA siren, that was shown on ATI's website for a short period of time.
A Federal Signal modulator, looks like a stack of mentos on a pole.
A Federal Signal modulator for comparison. The ATI picture is identical. Note: The Modulator shown has a different paint job than the default.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "About ATI" (in en-US). https://www.atisystems.com/about-ati/. 
  2. ↑ "1600 Watt High Powered Speaker Station" (in en-US). https://www.atisystems.com/products/outdoor-warning-systems-and-sirens/high-powered-speaker-station-2/. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Civil Grand Jury concludes San Francisco lacks clear emergency alert strategy" (in en). 2026-07-22. https://abc7news.com/post/san-francisco-outdoor-public-warning-system-civil-grand-jury-concludes-city-lacks-clear-emergency-alert-strategy/19422254/. 
  4. ↑ "3200 Watt High Powered Speaker Station" (in en-US). https://www.atisystems.com/products/outdoor-warning-systems-and-sirens/3200-watt-high-powered-speaker-station2/. 
  5. ↑ "MHPSS | Mobile High Powered Speaker Station" (in en-US). https://www.atisystems.com/products/mobile-warning-systems/mhpss-mobile-high-powered-speaker-station/. 
  6. ↑ Dowd, Katie (2015-08-25). "Everything you ever wanted to know about San Francisco's noon siren" (in en). https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/What-is-that-San-Francisco-noon-siren-6462186.php. 
  7. ↑ "All 119 San Francisco sirens are going silent-- for now" (in en). 2019-12-04. https://abc7news.com/post/all-119-sf-sirens-are-going-silent---for-now/5732342/. 
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 Cortes, Lexi (27 April 2026). "St. Clair County probes siren failure after tornado|Belleville News-Democrat". https://www.bnd.com/news/local/article315255666.html. 
  9. ↑ Cortes, Lexi (5 June 2025). "St. Clair County installs new tornado sirens after delays|Belleville News-Democrat". https://www.bnd.com/news/local/article307865415.html. 
  10. ↑ Cortes, Lexi; News-Democrat, Belleville (2024-04-02). "St. Clair County, Ill., Still Waiting for Tornado Sirens" (in en). https://www.govtech.com/em/preparedness/st-clair-county-ill-still-waiting-for-tornado-sirens. 
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Zorz, Zeljka (2018-04-10). "Emergency alert systems used across the US can be easily hijacked" (in en-US). https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2018/04/10/emergency-alert-systems/. 
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Kan, Michael (2018-04-10). "Researcher Hijacks Emergency Sirens With $30 Radio, Laptop" (in en). https://www.pcmag.com/news/researcher-hijacks-emergency-sirens-with-30-radio-laptop. 
  13. ↑ "ATI Systems announces release of its Multiple Stacked Circular Speaker Arrays" (in en-US). https://www.atisystems.com/press-release/ati-systems-announces-release-of-its-multiple-stacked-circular-speaker-arrays/. 
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Systems), Acoustic Technology, Inc (ATI (2022-08-17). "ATI Systems announces release of its Multiple Stacked Circular Speaker Arrays" (in en-us). https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2022/08/17/2500299/0/en/ati-systems-announces-release-of-its-multiple-stacked-circular-speaker-arrays.html. 

Notes

  1. ↑ HPSS is short for High Powered Speaker Station
  2. ↑ MHPSS is short for Mobile High Powered Speaker Station



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