This British Standard gives recommendations for the design, planning, installation, testing and maintenance of sound systems intended for communicating speech, music and/or other signals, including systems conveying emergency messages or signals that are not connected to a fire detection system. NOTE1 For systems used for conveying emergency messages, recommendations are given in BS5839‑8 . This standard is intended for use by clients, designers, installers and those responsible for commissioning, testing, operation and maintenance of sound systems. This standard is not applicable to: voice alarm systems within the scope of BS5839‑8 or BSEN54‑16 or BSEN54‑24 ; emergency voice communication systems within the scope of BS5839‑9 ; emergency sound systems within the scope of BS7827 ; simultaneous interpretation systems (see ISO2603 ); some of the aspects associated with recording studios, and applies only to some types of broadcasting studio; home entertainment systems; systems intended only to modify the perceived acoustic characteristics of the space; manual fire detection systems; or audio conferencing systems. This standard is not applicable to cinema sound systems. NOTE2 Cinema sound technology is evolving very rapidly at present, due partly to the elimination of film stock in favour of digital distribution and the increased practicability of multichannel sound systems with tens of channels. Existing standards such as BS5550‑3.4.9 are likely to be replaced by completely new standards within a few years. It is therefore not at present practicable to give advice on these systems in this standard.