Two recent voice alarm installations demonstrate that they are just as suitable in historic buildings as they are in contemporary ones. Systems from Baldwin Boxall have been installed in the striking new 35-storey Broadgate Tower, and in the historic Victoria & Albert Museum, both in London.
The system for the Broadgate Tower and adjoining 13-storey building, 102 Bishopsgate is being installed by Hall & Kay Fire Engineering. It covers a total of 55 loudspeaker zones, and at the heart of the system are Vigil EVAS router and Vigil 2 amplifiers. The system will be fed and controlled by a combination of annunciator panels, fire and paging microphones.
The two fire telephone systems consist of a 96-way and a 64-way master control panel and a total of 125 fire telephones with beacons.
VA at the V&A
At the V&A, meanwhile, the system consists of nine networked VA racks – each fitted with Vigil EVAS router and Vigil2 amplifiers. The project was completed over a ten week period, with the new system being installed in racks from which the older system was removed on a rack for rack basis.
The layout of the building is such that the racks are spaced far apart and are placed behind the scenes in some unusual places – one of the areas was a wine cellar to the restaurant in the 1860s. The nine racks service nine separate zones and a BVR16M voice alarm controller/microphone provides centralised system control. Each rack incorporates a mounted fire microphone for local broadcast.
Adrian Hill of Adrian Hill Electronic was appointed by Honeywell Building Solutions to supply and install the system.
