Abstract: A speaker controller for a fire alarm system including a control panel and at least one speaker to broadcast tone and/or voice signals during a fire alarm condition acts between the control panel and the at least one speaker. The speaker controller includes a signal recognizer to monitor tone and/or voice signals conveyed to the speaker. Manually actuable switching means are provided to disable the speaker. A reset circuit is responsive to the signal recognizer and resets the switching means thereby to enable the speaker upon a predetermined signal condition being detected by the signal recognizer.