Dear Dorothy.

Radio-Paging of Alarms.

We were not free to choose a 'preferred system' because our procurement
rules insisted that we sought competitive
tenders, as we have to do for all our capital schemes.

So our design team here, with the advice of our in-house electrical and
communications experts prepared a performance specification, based on a
framework agreement and went out to tender on that basis. Not an easy
thing to do when most systems are bespoke.

However Blick Communications, paging specialists, won the tender and
their 'Saffire' sytem is installed in many of our main buildings. The
system is new, and is settling in, because the way that R.F behaves is
complex, especially when there are multi-linked sites. In short the main
campus is networked, so we are talking about quite a few buildings here.
So our system was just not 'out of the box' it was fine-tuned to suit
our needs.

Blick as I suspect most reputable companies would carry out an in-depth
survey of your operational needs and site restrictions.

However so far the sytem appears to be successful and we appear to be
getting the signal penetration to many areas of muti-story reinforced
concrete and steel framed buildings, some of which generate their own
R.F problems with power sources, laboratories some with large magnets
etc (MRI's)as we do a lot of research. It was important if we had a
hearing impaired member of staff who was servicing equipment, even in a
plant room or basement, that the signal reached these difficult to
penetrate areas. We also have other radio-based systems. So we might be
a lot more complex problem to a supplier I suspect than the average
single or two storey school. Because Blick have many emergency-call
sytems in hospitals who also tend to have labs, x-ray equipment,
scanners etc they are used to the kind of environments we have in some
buildings, which was a part of our performance spec'.

You would be advised also to get advice on the British Standard that
advises upon features of such sytems as the way they must operate is
quite unique and some features of the BS might seem a bit odd, if they
are not explained to you. 

In addition all our buildings report to a central control room to their
operations desk which was interfaced to P.C monitor to track the sytem,
as it does all our other and diverse alarm stystems. So we are talking
about a fairly sophisticated sytem here, with software interfaces. This
may or may not be required by you for a school, it depends if you want
to monitor alarm-alerts, zones etc.

I would recommend that the Blick 'Saffire' sytem is worth evaluating
along with all your other suppliers that you might have on your shopping
list, the company went to quite a lot of trouble to see that we got the
right system.

One problem with multi-site paging is that signal over-lap is
inevitable. R.F is not like paint and does not stop when the wall do. We
find that when we testing the fire alarms in buildings, which we do
frequently and in batches because of the numbers of buildings involved,
that any pager-user in that locality will pick up all the test alarms.
Which they should do quite frankly, because the alarms will be heard by
hearing people. But hearing people wont have a pager going off.

Which can be a nuisance to them until they understand why. If all you
are doing is page-alarming just one building (on its own frequency for
which you will need Home Office approval by the way)then your problem
will be much simpler. Just test the alarm before the children come to
school or after school, when pager users are off the premises and out of
range of the R.F.

We considered it advantageous for the signal to spread outside the walls
of the premises. Because hearing people would hear the fire-alarm going
and so hopefully would not come into a building that was in alarm.
Non-hearing people can benefit from the same if their pager alerts them
as they are approaching the building. So disadvantages can sometimes be
advantages.
Previously we had experienced non-hearing people still trying to enter
the building after the fire-alarm had gone off. And you don't really
want to be having to explain to someone in the middle of a fire-drill.

The benefit of having all the buildings grouped in close proximity on
the same frequency is that it saves all the complication of getting and
managing separate Home Office licenses, but also that the one pager will
work in each building without having to have different pagers on
different frequencies for each building, which would be a nightmare when
say a deaf student or member of staff left a lecture hall for the
library then onto the Students Union for lunch then left for another
site for their afternoon lecture or tutorial somewhere else. That little
scenario would involve 3 changes of pager alone. Hence we have all on
the same frequency, one pager does all.

We use warning lights however in our swimming pool and in our drama
studio/theatre where the general public also have access.

So you have quite a number of things to consider here. I wish you well
in your project.

Regards,
Glynn 
G.D.Williams



-----Original Message-----
From: Accessibuilt list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
Of Dorothy Wilson
Sent: 24 November 2005 09:19
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [ACCESSIBUILT] Education


Thanks Glynn,
The pager system you have installed, which one is that and what is your
feedback on the sytem's effectiveness/ease of use? Dorothy


>

----------End of Message----------

Run by SURFACE for more information on research, consultancy and the distance taught MSc. in Accessibility and Inclusive Design programme visit:

http://www.inclusive-design.it

Archives for the Accessibuilt discussion list are located at http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/accessibuilt.html