Building Services – a cool head with Liberator
Liberator-V320 Point-to-point wireless Ethernet bridge Building Services – a cool head with Liberator The maintenance requirements of a business complex comprising 50 buildings pose a significant challenge to building services engineers in Dubai. From small day-to-day incidents through to real emergencies, they must respond quickly and keep a cool head. Thanks to the flexibility of the Liberator wireless network from Sub10 Systems, the entire complex is looked after centrally, safely and effectively. Sweat pours from the building services engineer's brow. He has just rushed over to a building two kilometres away, because a lift alarm has gone off. Fortunately, it turns out that a tenant accidentally pressed the alarm button. During his conversation with the culprit, his pager goes off with the next emergency. A main power distribution fuse has evidently blown at the Technology Centre. Just then, his colleague, who has to monitor some 600 security cameras, phones him up on his mobile. Could he please quickly check camera 487 located in the building next door, which is transmitting a flickering video signal? Hard luck! He has forgotten his bunch of keys in the office. This example does not belong to the realms of fantasy. The small team of building services engineers who perform the maintenance work at a huge Dubai business complex are kept busy day and night at the site, which encompasses 50 buildings over an area of 12 square kilometres. The fire alarms, which frequently give spurious warnings, triggered by soaring summer temperatures in the desert city, do nothing to make their lives easier. “I've often wished that all the buildings were networked so that we could react more effectively and efficiently. False alarms and other irritations would be easier to diagnose,” says a maintenance worker. “But the huge expense of the cabling, which would involve digging up the pathways and streets, would not be practical or cost effective. Contact us: SUB10 Systems Limited, The Old Quarry, Caton Cross, Ashburton, Devon, United Kingdom, TQ13 7LH. Telephone: +44 (0)1626 818520, Web: www.sub10systems.com, Email: info@sub10systems.com
Building Services – a cool head with Liberator
Wireless Solution However, there is a solution for the problems described, and a simple one at that: the installation of an independent wireless network. Independent because, in the event of an emergency in particular, the available Internet connections in the buildings would be overloaded or inoperative. The same applies to the existing GSM data services. Furthermore, installing an independent network is not merely necessary for technical reasons. Sound economic arguments also speak in favour of it. It must be considered, for example, that each false alarm costs the owners of the properties at least USD 1860. Savings can also be achieved with regard to telecom costs because, unlike using leased circuits, the dedicated network involves only the one-off installation expenses.
Networked Command Centre The first prerequisite was a central office, the so called Network Operations Centre. From here, a wide variety of cases are managed, from small day-to-day incidents through to real emergencies. This centre required a reliable, independent and powerful communications infrastructure, which was created with using Liberator links. An infrastructure of this type must also be compatible with the standards of common safety applications of the control and monitoring systems. These include a central access control system, automatic lift monitoring, fire alarm, pager systems and security cameras. The network successfully entered into operation in December 2009 and has been operating faultlessly since then.
More time for the essentials The new network has made monitoring the security systems easier and more efficient and has optimised the processes. The building services engineers do not have less work because of this, but they are warned about incidents more quickly and accurately. They therefore save valuable time by knowing precisely where and how their efforts are needed.
Contact us: SUB10 Systems Limited, The Old Quarry, Caton Cross, Ashburton, Devon, United Kingdom, TQ13 7LH. Telephone: +44 (0)1626 818520, Web: www.sub10systems.com, Email: info@sub10systems.com