Nyquist is the right choice for a site that is being cabled or recabled anyway and wants one vendor to supply the speakers, the amplifiers, the intercom stations and the software as a single supported system. Multilarm is the right choice for a building whose speakers already work, where replacing them is not the project.
This page is written by the makers of one of the two products, so the only version worth publishing is one that is specific about where the other one wins. Every section below names a buyer who should not choose Multilarm.
Nyquist is an ecosystem, not an application. Bogen supplies the network appliances, the IP speakers, the intercom stations and the software that drives them, and the value is that they are designed, tested and supported together.
It is sold heavily into schools, where a single system covering bells, classroom intercom, paging and emergency announcement — installed by a dealer and supported by a manufacturer — is exactly what the buyer wants.
Cells reading “Not published” mean we could not find the answer in Bogen Communications’s own documentation on 2026-08-30. That is not the same as “no”, and this table will not pretend it is.
| Capability | Bogen Nyquist | Multilarm |
|---|---|---|
| Uses existing analogue speakers and amplifier | Possible with gateways; the system is designed around IP endpoints | Yes — the normal case |
| Speaker supervision and fault reporting | Yes | No — planned; named as a gap |
| Two-way classroom intercom and call buttons | Yes | One-way paging only |
| Zoned paging | Yes | Yes — relay-driven; multi-zone targeting is built but unverified on hardware we do not own |
| Date-scoped schedule overlays that revert automatically | Not published | Yes |
| Offline text to speech | Not published | Yes — English only |
| REST API, MQTT, webhooks, CLI | Not published as a general-purpose open API | Yes — all four, with an OpenAPI description |
| Runs on hardware you already own | Not offered — the system is Bogen appliances and endpoints | Yes |
| Installed by a dealer with manufacturer support | Yes | No — self-installed, with a commissioning service available |
| Certified life-safety equipment | Consult Bogen for the specific model and standard | No — not fire-alarm equipment |
Multilarm’s own capabilities are published as machine-readable data at features.json, including every feature it does not have and the ones it has deliberately declined to build. Measured performance figures, with the method for each, are on the measured data page. The canonical facts about licensing, offline operation and the fire-alarm boundary are at facts.json. If anything on this page is wrong, say so and it will be corrected.
Can Multilarm drive IP speakers?
It plays to the sound devices of the machine it runs on, and can mirror to several at once. Network audio endpoints are not a supported output today — synchronised multi-machine playback is on the roadmap and listed as absent in the feature matrix.
Does Multilarm know if a speaker has failed?
No. This is the clearest thing a professional paging ecosystem does that Multilarm does not, and it is published as a gap rather than hidden.
Is a Raspberry Pi really appropriate for a school?
For driving an existing amplifier on a schedule, yes — it is a supported target with a ready-made card image, signed self-reverting updates and an on-device diagnostics battery. It is not appropriate where site policy forbids a general-purpose computer, and in that case an appliance is the right answer.
Everything stated here about another product is taken from that vendor's own public documentation on the date shown, and is limited to what they publish about themselves. Products change; if something below is out of date or wrong, tell us and it will be corrected. Where we could not find a published answer the table says so rather than guessing.
Not sure this is the right purchase for your building? Ask a specific question — including whether you should be buying something else.