Woolwich Arsenal station is an extension of the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) to Woolwich town centre, and will provide a much needed alternative crossing of the River Thames. The new station has been designed to a very high quality, and incorporates ultra-modern passenger facilities.
The voice alarm system is clearly a very important aspect of these facilities. To provide excellent audibility in such a demanding environment, PEL Services is using a Bosch Praesidio digital PA and emergency sound system.
Freedom in systems design
Bosch Praesidio is ideal for this installation as its optical network offers total freedom in system design, interference-free audio and a high level of redundancy. Furthermore, all the equipment can be contained in one rack – a very important consideration when space is at a premium.
PEL Services has installed the voice alarm system with Penton column speakers in the concourse and Penton projection speakers on the platforms. There’s also a zoned station microphone located within the station Operations Room for general announcements, plus local station microphones located within the passenger emergency points for use by station staff at platform level.
A fully programmable system, the Bosch Praesidio has been interfaced by PEL with the fire alarm system and incorporated ambient noise sensing throughout to adjust the customer information systems announcements to cope with changing noise levels, while also ensuring that the fire alarms remain at a pre-set level for complete safety.
Long Line Public Address
The new voice evacuation system at Woolwich Arsenal station is part of the Long Line Public Address system for the DLR, which allows messages to be obtained from a pre-programmed standard suite and quickly assembled. There’s also a scratch-pad for the operators to assemble messages for later transmission or they may be produced directly from a microphone.
Announcements can be sent simultaneously to all stations, groups of stations or individual stations. A dedicated workstation in the network Control Room at Poplar facilitates these announcements.
Working with Section 12 stations
PEL Services was awarded the contract by Transmitten (Siemens) to supply and commission the voice alarm system at Woolwich Arsenal station as a result of the company’s extensive experience of working with Section 12 stations (ie those that are sub-surface).
PEL has already proven itself at Section 12 stations, completing installations for Mersey Rail and Thames Link, and is both experienced and well-equipped to meet the demanding set of standards to which all Station 12 installations must adhere at all times.