Like entertainment venues up and down the country, Chelmsford Civic Theatre cannot wait to welcome patrons back when lockdown restrictions ease later this year.
And when they do return, theatre-goers will have the added reassurance of improved fire safety protocols, courtesy of a system supplied by Brentwood Communications.
Like many commercial premises these days, Chelmsford Civic Theatre has an addressable fire alarm system which, among other things, is able to pinpoint the potential location of a fire by indicating which detectors were triggered on a main control panel.
It also includes a pre-alarm feature, which provides an early warning of an alarm going off so staff can investigate the source (i.e. to see whether it is a false alarm or not) before the main sirens sound.
But all of this useful information is only displayed on the main panel. The theatre’s owners wanted a solution that would ensure staff got pre-alarm warnings wherever they were in the building, allowing them to make faster, informed decisions on evacuation, or shut down false alarms before the main system triggered and caused panic.
Remote alerts
Theatre management approached us to see if we had a solution, and we were more than happy to help.
Modern digital two way radios can be set up to communicate with fire alarm systems and as a remote channel for alerts, which is especially useful for pre-alarm messages.
We supplied the theatre with a set of Motorola DP4800e handsets for this purpose. Among a long list of advanced features, integrated WiFi and a four-line display makes the digital DP4800e perfectly suited to connecting and exchanging data with external systems, displaying status messages to whoever is carrying the radio – exactly what the Chelmsford Civic wanted with its fire alarm.
To allow the fire alarm panel to communicate with the DP4800e handsets, we also needed to install a platform that would mediate between the two. For this job, we supplied R-LinX, a data-to-text application specially designed for sending alarm system alerts via email, SMS or to two way radios. This means any staff carrying one of the handsets instantly gets a text alert whenever a pre-alarm warning is issued.
To make sure the whole system was in perfect working order from the get go, we liaised with the company that supplied the fire alarm system to install and configure R-LinX and the DP4800e radios.
Want to learn how two way radio can boost health and safety protocols for your organisation? Get in touch with our team on 01245 403520 and we’d be more than happy to talk through your needs.