Case Study
Somerset House
Somerset House is a heritage property dating back to 1547 in the heart of London. Although it is well known for it’s outdoor skating rink at Christmas and open air concerts in the summer, it has many other uses and accommodates many other tenants. It hosts the UK’s largest creative community working globally across art, technology, business and social enterprise.
The South Wing of Somerset House had a mix of hard wired fire detection system, an obsolete radio / wireless fire detection system and many aspiration systems, most no longeroperational. The project was to replace all of the systems in the South Wing with a single fire detection system for all areas and provide graphical representation of this wing and two other wings with legacy systems on a single graphics platform.
This was all to be carried out within a listed building with mixed use and different tenants with minimal disruption to day to day operations.
The Challenge
The challenge was to find a system that could replace 3 different individual systems, take advantage of the wiring infrastructure where it was installed whilst using radio / wireless technology in other areas. Many areas had thick concrete walls, high ceilings, ornate ceilings / decoration and a real mix of different architecture / construction to overcome.
It was also challenging to find a graphics system that would work not only with the new system proposed for the South Wing, but also with legacy systems installed in two other wings.
The Solution
The solution was to use the Notifier Agile system. This uses a combination of traditional wired loops with hard wired detectors / call points along with wireless gateways on the loop. Each wireless gateway supports up to 32 wireless devices. These use “mesh” network where each device acts as an independent router, allowing for multiple communication paths. The Agile solution is designed so that if one link is broken, all of the devices continue to communicate with each other without any loss of coverage.
The Agile system is supported by Agile IQ, a powerful 3-in-1 software application that is a tool for the effective Design, Configuration and Diagnostics of the robust mesh network.
We utilised an independent graphics package which worked with the new Notifier system and we had software written to communicate to the existing legacy systems in the two other wings. Therefore, this system gave a graphical representation of the whole site and allowed all fire detection devices to be visible on a single graphics platform.
The Result
The Notifier system could re-use all existing loop wiring of the hard-wired system and we carried out thorough radio survey of all other areas. We could then confidently install the wireless devices in all other areas, despite the challenging architecture. We worked around multiple tenants, exhibits and within a listed building to deliver the project with minimal disruption.
The security staff can now see the entire fire system on a single graphics platform to respond to emergency events more efficiently to keep occupants and the buildings safe.
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Plus, our work is backed up by a range of accreditations, approvals and certification, proving our competence and showing we’re the best company for the job.
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