Product category:
Fire and Smoke Protection, Detection and Alarms
News Release from: Apollo Fire Detectors | Subject: Fire system upgrade at NIA
Edited by the Buildingtalk Editorial
Team on 13 February 2008
Apollo performs at the National Indoor
Arena
The National Indoor Arena in Birmingham is benefiting from a fire system upgrade that has equipped the 13,000-seat venue with a new Apollo intelligent fire detection system.
The contract to upgrade the current Apollo system was awarded to BDS Fire and Security Limited, who recommended a range of detectors and ancillary products from the Discovery range to meet the client's specification Representatives from the client also visited Apollo's headquarters and inspected the manufacturer's production and testing facilities
This article was originally published on Buildingtalk on 1 Oct 2004 at 8.00am (UK)
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The NIA is a multi-purpose arena that can stage more than 30 different indoor sports as well as concerts, entertainment and business events.
With regular use of pyrotechnics and diesel-powered equipment, as well as full catering and merchandising facilities, the multi-use nature of the building is a potential source of false alarms.
The new fire system needed to provide protection to the main four storey building and its four linked multi storey car parks.
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Graham Hawkins, Sales and Services Director at BDS Fire and Security ., comments: "We identified the areas of high risk for unwanted alarms and recommended the Apollo Discovery range because it features multisensors with five programmable sensitivity settings that make it extremely adaptable to differing environmental conditions".
"We have installed over 750 multisensors forming part of a complex and highly integrated cause and effects schedule, delivering peace of mind and continuous fire detection for the client".
In fact, Apollo's Discovery range of intelligent fire detectors offers a number of features to ensure that warnings are particularly reliable and nuisance alarms are kept to a minimum.
Examples include automatic drift compensation, a feature that adjusts for environmental conditions such as dust to ensure the detector is not adversely affected, and sophisticated self-monitoring that rejects transient alarms.
In total, over 1,300 devices were required to upgrade the existing system, including 782 multisensor detectors, 154 manual call points and in excess of 300 Klaxon sounder beacons.
110 interfaces connect the fire system with the NIA's automatic smoke doors, extract fans, catering gas valves and access control doors.
In the event of an alarm being raised, a phased evacuation sequence is activated with instructions relayed via a Signet PA/VA system.
Designed around six Advanced MX4400 panels, the fire system is networked together and includes a Graphical User Interface.
BDS has used the Advanced Graphics package in a novel way to switch groups of multisensors between different operating modes in a preset sequence to take into account the varying fire detection requirements of the building at different times of day.
BDS Fire and Security's aim was to install the new fire detection equipment with as little disruption as possible to the customer's operations.
Thanks to Apollo's policy of using the same open digital protocol for all its intelligent devices, BDS Fire and Security had no difficulty in sourcing detectors that were compatible with the existing Apollo devices and were, therefore, able to offer full protection throughout the phased schedule of works.
Graham Hawkins concludes: "In this case, forwards and backwards compatibility was a very important aspect of the system".
"The end result was that the NIA was never without a working fire detection system".
"Throughout the upgrade, the arena remained fully operational with minimal disruption to its day-to-day operations.".
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