After years deploying panic button apps to schools, we learned speed and reliability are critical. Here’s why we built Punch Rescue’s emergency communication infrastructure.
First we built a panic button app. Then we learned what emergencies actually demand, and redesigned everything.
As CEO of Punch Technologies, Greg Artzt spent years building and deploying the PunchAlert platform to schools and districts across the country. He built a great product, which is now called Notify (under Lightspeed Systems, where he’s still a Senior Director of Product). Apps like this are powerful tools for alerting, coordinating, and communicating during an emergency response.
But over those years Greg and his team also learned that when it comes to that very first moment this technology is needed, speed and reliability are critical. People need a wearable device that activates with one press, on a network the school fully controls, to remove variables no app can eliminate. It involves just a button and a confirmed signal.
That’s why we built Punch Rescue. And it’s so much more than a button.
Punch Rescue provides the right emergency communication infrastructure on site, with a dedicated LoRa mesh network with no single point of failure. Repeaters connect via Wi-Fi. If Wi-Fi goes down, they continue relaying over mesh so the Base Station can submit via Ethernet or multi-band cellular. Battery backup exists on everything, so a power outage doesn’t take the system offline. When a Rescue Card activates, Repeaters and Base Stations trigger strobe lights and audible alarms color-coded by emergency category.
How Do Our Color-Coded Panic Button Alerts Work?
Rescue gives clear, visual confirmation only after your alert is received.
- Green for tests
- Yellow for minor alerts
- Red for serious emergencies
These color settings are also fully customizable. They make it so everyone in the building knows what’s happening before they check a screen.
From there, Rescue pushes Critical Alerts that override Do Not Disturb, sends SMS, email, phone calls, and connects to platforms like Notify. For serious events, the system makes a direct, silent 911 connection without anyone picking up a phone.
This all comes with something phones were never built to solve, namely precise real-time indoor location. First responders get a live map as they approach the scene. They know exactly where to go before they ever walk through the door.
Apps and hardware aren’t competing. They’re layers. But that first layer—the one that has to work no matter what—should be engineered to a higher standard. And we’re proud to provide it.
