System Upgrade Sets Course for University’s Fire Protection
After a fire marshal placed the sports arena at Northwestern State University of Louisiana under fire watch, administrators took quick action to resolve the issue. A local fire systems provider came up with a temporary fix prior to renovating the facility with an advanced fire alarm and emergency communications system.
A boom lift hoists a technician to reach the top of the 52-foot-high arena ceiling to install speaker-strobe devices.
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It’s like any retrofit building. Those facilities that were built back in the 1960s were built to last. To retrofit a building like this we had to make penetrations in concrete walls,” Case explains. “That was our challenge, being able to access all the areas of the building that we needed in order to run wire. Everything is concealed.”
Reaching the top of 52-foot-high ceiling posed a considerable conundrum as well. The university had recently installed an expensive wooden floor in the arena and care had to be taken to prevent it from being damaged. So, a special track boom lift was brought in from Houston in order to better distribute the pounds of pressure per foot the flooring would be exposed to.
Adding a performance-based design twist to the installation, McBride performed a calculation to prove to the authority having jurisdiction (AHJ) that the ceiling-mounted strobes would provide the required candela, or light intensity, at floor level.
To ensure the intelligibility or clarity of the system’s audio messages, the team went with more speakers at less wattage, all strategically placed. “We tend to utilize more speakers to get the decibel level and the intelligibility to match,” explains Case. “More well-placed speakers means you don’t have to turn the volume all the way up, therefore reducing distortion.”
Fast-Tracked Project Aided by Good Relationships
In addition to the sports arena, Prather Coliseum houses a weight room, sports medicine department for athletic training and storage areas. There are also offices for the vice president of external affairs, athletic compliance, sports information, news bureau, basketball, softball, soccer and volleyball.
With a student population of more than 9,000 spread across NSU’s main campus and its satellite locations, the renovated arena can now hold roughly half of the student body. The installation crew had to work around academic and campus schedules as facility operations continued throughout the project.
Crediting a great working relationship between the end user, distributor and fire protection consultant, the team describes the two-month project as a prime example of a successful fast-tracked job.
“The school worked with us hand in hand, and it was one of those jobs that went just as planned,” Case says. “We couldn’t have asked it to be smoother for a facility of that size and age.”
The integration of multiple features into one system was noted as a major factor in simplifying the design and installation of the Farenhyt IFP system.
“We looked at other equipment, but it just did not have the capabilities, and would have required adding a lot of parts and pieces,” says Case. “Silent Knight’s IFP system exceeded the need. Everything is integra
l within the system, which made for a faster and easier install.”
Unlike the typical public address systems or even distributed recipient mass notification solutions such as E-mails and computer pop-ups, the IFP-1000ECS is fully supervised. If a speaker or detector is in need of repair or completely offline, the central monitoring station and NSU facility management are notified immediately.
Although NSU is currently utilizing the IFP-1000ECS to send out prerecorded voice evacuation messages, the solution can be easily expanded to offer a faster, more immediate means for disseminating mass notifications in real-time. As many as eight Farenhyt remote control units can be tied in and conveniently placed throughout the facility to provide authorized personnel quick access to a microphone for live paging and a control board of buttons to disseminate prerecorded audio messages. All in all, it is an economical system that can be easily upgraded as code requirements or facility changes transpire.
“In this facility, the system they chose has the capability of giving more messages and being able to do more than just fire alarm,” Case says.
Although NSU’s general approach to facility upgrades is to take on projects when it is time to replace older systems, Bourg says he would definitely consider installing a similar combined fire alarm and emergency communications system at some of the campus’ other larger facilities such as the theater and gymnasiums.
“I’m very pleased with the products and the end result,” Bourg says. “I have a lot of faith in our consultant and contractor, and whatever they recommend, our staff is able to easily use and maintain.”
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