Installers BBC Fire Protection were called in after the system was judged inadequate for the demanding environment
BBC installed Vimpex Fire-Cryer voice sounders which gave good intelligibility throughout the building.
“The specification for the new system called for three independent members of the Cathedral’s staff to approve the sound quality and sign-off the project,” said Paul Field, project engineer with BBC.
“They found that the Fire-Cryers gave good intelligibility throughout the building – quite an achievement considering relatively few sounders were used to cover the interior of this grand cathedral.”
The key to the success of the project was the Maxi Fire-Cryer, an industrial sounder designed for open spaces, warehouses and harsh industrial environments.
Each delivering an output of 116dBA, six of them were installed in the triforium above the nave and in the north and south transcepts, with six standard Fire-Cryers in various offices, the shop and a storage area.
The Fire-Cryer is said to be a cost-effective solution for this type of application and is increasingly being installed in ecclesiastical buildings, including St Martins in the Field in Trafalgar Square.
Units can be programmed with up to seven messages from a library of thousands, many of which are multi-lingual. Low current consumption is said to allow simple replacement of existing sounders and bells.
The Vimpex website (see link on right) has sample messages and a range of video clips covering the history and application of voice sounders.