Clarity

ASC Clarity
American Signal Clarity on the EKU Campus in Richmond, KY. Image credit to 4j25.
Company	American Signal Corporation
Produced	2020-Present
Type	Directional Electronic
Sound output	-
Wattage	400-1600 W

The Clarity is an electronic siren currently produced by American Signal Corporation, and is the newest siren produced by the company as of 2023. The Clarity is designed as cheap alternative to the E-Class and i-FORCE, as its small size allows it to be shipped through standard shipping instead of by trailer, weighing less than 30 pounds. The Clarity is designed with voice clarity in mind over raw performance and is mainly meant for campus and office park use.

History and design

A black-painted dual section Clarity.

The Clarity was originally developed as a prototype sometime in the 2000s, using a very different design than the final product, and used a different name, the Clarity Voice. This early prototype heavily resembled the common stacked cell sirens of the time, such as the Federal Signal Modulator or Whelen's WPS-2800 and 2900, but with closely spaced cells with external supports. This prototype was never put into production, and currently sits at ASC's warehouse alongside an i-FORCE (see Acoustic Technology, Inc.), the Tempest-128 prototype, and a Hurricane 130 MKII.

A single Clarity section, fitted with optional strobe lights.

In 2020, ASC released a new version of the Clarity. This version uses a significantly different design, consisting of 4-16 speakers inside of an octagonal frame. The Clarity is a modular siren, coming in sections of 4 speakers inside of the octagonal frame, supporting up to 4 sections on one siren for a total of 16 speakers. This octagonal frame is what contains the drivers and wiring, and the speakers are easily removable to service the siren. In addition to the speakers themselves, the Clarity can also have strobe lights fitted to the empty sides of the sections. The Clarity is a very small and light siren, weighing in at less than 30 pounds and only 23 inches in width.

The speakers are JBL Selenium HM17-25 model speakers, which are normally used in studio monitors and car speakers. As a result, while these speakers cannot output the same volume that purpose-built siren speakers can, the tradeoff is excellent voice clarity at both near and long range. This makes it perfectly suitable as a campus siren, which is its target market. The speakers likely use JBL's titanium speaker drivers, which are rated for 100 W each. This means the Clarity ranges from a 400 W to 1600 W siren. The Clarity is a direct competitor to Sentry's SV-8 campus siren, which is similarly small, inexpensive, and with a focus on voice capabilities.

As of 2023, very few Clarity units have been sold, likely due to low demand for campus sirens. This problem has also plagued the SV-8, with poor sales of both sirens. The most notable system of Clarity sirens is at the Eastern Kentucky University. It remains unknown how popular this siren will be, but only time will tell.