Although their tones and timbres vary, sirens and alarms are universal harbingers of emergency. Mounted in homes and offices; on police cars, ambulances, and fire engines; and in airports, schools, and hospitals, they save precious lives every day with their cacophonous caterwauls that scream for all to hear: “Danger!”
In business and industry, events often occur that are their own kind of alarm. Although they’re not always as obvious or audible as a fire alarm or tornado siren, the warnings they give can be just as consequential. Streaming entertainment, for example, was a siren for the television, video rental, and cable TV industries. Smartphones were an alarm bell for analog photography and landline telephones. E-commerce was a distress signal for the retail sector. And once upon a time, automobiles were warning sounds for carriage makers and blacksmiths.