1. 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

2. 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