A fire detection, alarm and voice evacuation system has recently been installed at the Northcott Theatre in Exeter. The theatre is situated on the University of Exeter campus and the system was installed by Alarmtec, a university preferred supplier of fire protection.
The system specification changed a number of times during the design phase, but because the equipment used is extremely flexible, changes were straightforward. The fire detection control panel is a Kentec 4-loop syncro with 72-hour standby, together with two display-only repeater panels, strategically placed to enable early indication of fire information. The detection equipment is a mix of Hochiki detectors and Vesda air sampling.
“The air sampling did cause us some initial concerns; theatres are notorious for using pyrotechnic and smoke effects,” said Peter Newman of Alarmtec. To avoid this problem, Alarmtec designed and built their own disablement time controller, indicating fire conditions and preventing accidental switching off of disablements.
The 6-zone, DSP-controlled routing matrix voice and public address rack, with hot swappable amps, was built by Baldwin Boxall to Alarmtec’s specification. Two zonal firefighter’s microphones with message control were installed at the public entrances, to allow the fire services to make live direct announcements in the event of an emergency. A zonal paging microphone was also installed in the front of house manager’s office.
During performances, the fire system is switched to ‘double knock’ mode. As part of this, access is only allowed to the paging microphone in the front of house and bar areas, so preventing accidental paging in the auditorium during performances.
