Refuge and Accessible Toilet Integration, PCMS and 2nd Signalling Outstations
The UK-based Nottingham Trent University has been driving innovation since 1843, making it one of the UK’s most established and renowned creative universities. With 33,255 students split over several campuses across the city, it is one of the top providers in higher education.
The Challenge
The University already had a wide range of Refuge Systems which had been historically installed through capital projects and internal refurbishments spanning over 20+ years. Several of their older systems required an upgrade due to being either obsolete or no longer BS compliant.
With 100’s of designated refuge points across campus, the majority of which were standalone hardwired systems, the University were looking for a solution that could centralise all activations to their security hubs as well as incorporate their existing fully functioning systems.
The University also wanted to integrate their stand-alone accessible toilet alarm systems, so that these could be always monitored. Additionally, they had several single storey buildings where refuge points were not currently present. Therefore, a system was required where refuge outstations were not solely required upon to centralise these activations.
The Solution
The solution was to install our wireless Refuge Alerter system with an emphasis on second signalling their existing refuge systems and signalling back their accessible toilet alarms where no refuge system was present.
Firstly, by installing our site wide repeater units and site wide master station panels in each location, we could ensure that the signal infrastructure was in place across all three of the campuses.
To transition and integrate our system alongside the current functioning hard-wired refuge systems, a second signalling outstation was interfaced with their hard-wired master station panel. This meant that any activation from the hard-wired system would be triggered through our integrated outstation and would send a signal back centrally. We also followed the same approach for the accessible toilet integration where the requirement was in a single storey building and no refuge system was present.
The Result
This gave the client a comprehensive solution to centralising a fully functioning system that had previously been a stand-alone building specific system. This ultimately enabled them to monitor all buildings from one central location. The solution also gave the client a cost-effective approach and meant that the existing systems could be utilised until the requirement was needed to upgrade.
Finally, we installed our PC Master Station software (PCMS) across all three campus security hubs. This solution enabled the client to manage all refuge and toilet activations at any one of the three locations if required. In the event of one security hub being compromised due to unforeseen circumstances such as a fire, the security hub on an alternative campus could take charge and still monitor, receive, and respond to any potential activations.
