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 | | FROM THE MODERN .... TO THE HISTORIC | | | Baldwin Boxall Communications Ltd. | | 30/05/2008 | | | THE MODERN: Broadgate Tower, City of London, is a very impressive building in the making. Standing 35 floors (164 metres) above ground level, needing 14,000 tonnes of steel, a total of 877 steps in the staircases and 40,000 square metres of glass cladding. Adjoining the tower is 201 Bishopsgate, a 13 storey building, and between the two is a covered area for retail use. Both structures are home to Baldwin Boxall Voice Alarm and Fire Telephone systems.
Baldwin Boxall’s VA systems for the two buildings cover a total of 55 loudspeaker zones. The equipment supplied includes: 11 DSP controlled routers; an incredible 436U total rack height; 1,274 Kilos in batteries and a massive 32,560 Watts available in power output! 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.
A state-of-the-art large project such as this requires an equivalently large VA system – easily achieved with the VIGIL EVAS router and VIGIL2 amplifiers. The system will be fed and controlled by a combination of annunciator panels, fire and paging microphones.
Taking on the mammoth task of installation is Hall & Kay Fire Engineering who, together with Baldwin Boxall, have ensured that the system is designed to meet the demanding specification and installed at the appropriate stage. Commenting on the project, Darren Mussell, Sales Manager, Hall & Kay said “We were delighted to be chosen to head this project and are happy in the knowledge that Baldwin Boxall’s system will easily cope with the demands of this amazing skyscraper in the heart of the city.”
THE HISTORIC: A VIGIL voice alarm system has recently been installed at the Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A, London) and we are delighted to have been involved in such a prestigious project. Consisting of nine networked VA racks – each fitted with VIGIL EVAS router and VIGIL2 amplifiers – the project was achieved by working on a ‘rolling’ basis over a ten week period. The new system had to be installed in racks already on site, from which the older system first had to be removed.
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 (Adrian Hill Electronics) was appointed by the Project Management Team of Honeywell Building Solutions to supply and install the system and, together with Steve Jessup of Honeywell, carried out the work each Sunday night, for ten weeks, replacing the existing VA system one rack at a time.
Edmund Fosbrook, the Senior Facilities Manager for the V&A is very pleased with the way the installation has gone and with the system itself. “It was vital that the project ran smoothly – to have to close even10% of the museum due to problems was simply not an option as far as we were concerned. Our prerequisite was for a system that offered quality, reliability, well-proven technology and provided a long term solution. Baldwin Boxall’s system is exactly what was required and we are delighted how well the project has come to fruition. Adrian Hill and Honeywell are to be commended for running the project so seamlessly.” | |
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