Fire Side Chat

Mass notification systems have received a lot of attention in recent years and represent a growing market for installing life-safety system contractors. Find out how this area developed, where it differs and overlaps with emergency communication systems, and where this market is heading.

Fire/life-safety pros unite to stem false alarms, or face disconcerting consequences.

Due to the criticality of their mission, fire/life-safety practices and systems tend to change more slowly than a lot of industries. However, even it is beginning to reflect technology’s accelerating pace. Find out what to expect in 2012 and just beyond.

Video image detection is pushing past the boundaries of long established fire safety systems. Able to detect smoke or flame anywhere within cameras’ field of view, this method is not limited by standard detectors’ reliance on distance and area.

While codes go into great detail about how to ensure fire and life-safety systems perform as intended, making sure the systems operate in concert with each other remains a work in progress. Integrated testing is a means to bridge existing gaps and maximize systems’ ability to mitigate loss of property and life.

Commissioning is a process of documentation, adjustment, testing, verification and training, performed to ensure the facility operates in accordance with the owner’s documented project requirements and construction documents. As a fire systems integrator, knowing commissioning fundamentals helps meet expectations for your aspect of the project.

The benefits of video technology are being extended from surveillance and intrusion detection to assisting in fire detection and verification. Find out what considerations, practices and codes figure prominently for successful deployment.

Voltage drop is critical to the proper operation of devices attached to a fire alarm system. Nowhere is this as true as with notification appliance circuits (NACs) that connect to a fire alarm control panel. Seven steps show how to do the calculations.

Combination fire-intrusion alarm systems are a viable life-safety and security solution, providing they adhere to NFPA guidelines. Key considerations include nothing impeding the fire detection function and that it also supercedes security alarm signaling.

Though not as quick to migrate to IT network signal transmission as other systems installed by security contractors, fire/life safety is nevertheless following suit. Find out the latest technology and code developments in this emerging area.

Maintaining power is one of the foundations of any fire/life-safety system. Find out the codes, standards and calculations you need to know to make sure batteries deliver when needed.

A Q&A session addresses code compliance challenges associated with projected beam smoke detectors, annunciators and keypads.

Al Colombo addresses comments prompted by the September's column, "Finding Faults in Fire Systems."

Al Colombo discusses the simple -- yet vital -- steps to better ladder safety.

Of all the troubles that fire alarm technicians are likely to encounter, ground-faults are one of the most difficult to locate and fix. When a ground-fault does occur in a fire alarm system, any number of things can take place.

An important part of what makes fire/life-safety systems easy to sell is that municipal and county governments, by way of sanctioned building departments and knowledgeable inspectors, have established laws or ordinances mandating their installation and maintenance ...

Fire alarm installation entails more than merely placing smoke detectors in strategic areas of a building. Technicians are often required to interface fire alarm systems with other building subsystems.

Veteran installers will undoubtedly remember when fire alarm panels worked almost exclusively by relay technology. As technicians, we encounter relays every day in the field on alarm panel motherboards, smoke detectors, addressable heat sensors and a host of other devices.

On April 8, the FCC issued a public statement in the form of a document titled, FCC Announces Broadband Action Agenda, that in essence says whether anyone likes it or not we’re going to phase out plain old telephone service (POTS), also known as the public switched telephone network (PSTN) and in its place create an IP-switched national infrastructure.

This past December, the FCC began a legal process that if successful will lead to the demise of plain old telephone service (POTS). This has paradigm-shifting and potentially catastrophic implications for our industry.

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Camera Captures Couple Stealing $1,400 Worth of Baby Formula from Target
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April 11, 2012
17th Annual SAMMY Awards
28 photos

April 10, 2012
2012 ISC West Show Highlights
22 photos

February 29, 2012
Roll Out the Red Carpet for SSI's 2012 Hall of Fame Inductees
25 photos