Radio based emergency lighting system wins award

Collaboration between P4 and Kablefree Systems, has won a prestigious national award for a leading edge development in emergency lighting systems.

A collaboration between P4, a leading self testing emergency lighting company, Kablefree Systems, an electronics company specialising in alarm systems operating via radio signals, and a team of microelectronics experts from Northumbria University have won a prestigious national award for a leading edge development in emergency lighting systems.

The group was honoured with a first place at the Technology and Innovation Awards 2007 in the SME and University Collaboration category for their work on a joint project to develop a radio-based computer addressable emergency lighting system.

The awards are backed by BAE Systems, the world's premier global defence and aerospace company.

Powered by batteries, it requires no data cabling and is efficient and clean to install anywhere, but this is a special advantage for hospitals, clinics and medical centres.

Kablefree Systems, which installs radio-based fire detection systems and sees the new lighting system as a natural progression, was an ideal partner for P4, whose FASTEL family of fully automatic self test systems have set new standards in emergency lighting over the past two decades.

"This is a perfect extension to our range of market leading computer addressable systems, " explains P4's Business Development Manager, Alan Daniels.

He adds: "Normally, emergency lighting requires an extra set of cables for control and information transfer".

"By producing a radio-based, computer addressable system it can be installed at great speed, without the cost of additional data cabling , without affecting the building's users and without causing damage to the structure".

"The system offers major advantages in buildings already occupied".

Thomas Lovell, director of Kablefree Systems, says it shows just what can be achieved when companies who understand their market place work together with university experts.

He said: "The new emergency lighting system has already been successfully installed in a leading London hospital, and this award is a credit to a whole group of people whose dedication and expertise will benefit thousands of users throughout the UK, and eventually beyond".

The development team included Safwat Mansi, Associate Dean of Enterprise at Northumbria's School of Computing, Engineering and Information Sciences, university engineers Bill Frain and Peter Gale and John Wilkinson, Knowledge House Manager at Northumbia University, who encourage and source funding for projects which see companies working with universities.

Their particular contribution was to incorporate non-return to zero (NRZ) data coding, which allows twice as much data to be encoded in the signal compared to the most common Manchester coding, and design a customised electronic device, known as a data slicer, to recover digital information.

The result is a system that transmits high quality, error free data and also increases the range of radio modules.

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