6 Helpful Hints to Keep in Mind When Selecting a Fire Alarm System

Campuses looking to upgrade their fire alarm systems should be sure to choose a system that can be upgraded beyond their immediate expectations and needs.

January 18, 2011 Robin Hattersley

1 “A lot of manufacturers out there have multiple distribution sources. The campus may be directing us to one manufacturer, but we’ve still been able to get competitive bidding from several installation contractors that use the same equipment. That’s also important from a maintenance standpoint. It’s important that you are not tied into the same company that installed the equipment. You can bid out a maintenance contract from multiple providers.” – Michael J. Madden, senior engineer for Hughes Associates Inc.

2 Consider using video-based fire alarm detection: “Instead of having to add smoke detectors to an area, which can be costly to maintain, you can put this system on your video camera feeds to find smoke and set off an alarm like smoke detectors. You can take a large area that might need a dozen or more detectors and install a camera looking at the area, which you might have done already. Ultimately, we’d like to get that camera feed to the fire department and command post so they can see what is going on inside the building while the guys are preparing to go in to fight the fire.” – Greg Jakubowski, principal and chief engineer for Fire Planning Associates

3 Use voice evac systems for general purpose paging. “There is nothing in the code that restricts you from using it that way. The only difference is we take precautions to override that input any time there is an active emergency. It is also a good idea to get that extra use out of it because it is another form of supervision. If it is being used all of the time as a paging system, you know when it works and when it doesn’t.” – Michael T. Madden, national sales manager for Gamewell FCI

4 “Be sure to choose a fire alarm system that can be expanded well beyond your immediate expectations. Growth is inevitable if a campus is to continue providing viable services to a growing community. One way to do this is to ensure that the system selected has the ability to report to a central head-end via network technology of some kind.” – Al Colombo, technical writer for Security Sales & Integration magazine

5 The new version of NFPA will come out in 2013: “If you are going to be spending capital at any time, it only makes sense that you start thinking about how you are going to start adopting some of these codes.” – Ted Millburn, vice president of marketing for Cooper Notification

6 “All equipment must be UL-listed for the application, so be sure that it is code compliant.” – Al Colombo, technical writer for Security Sales & Integration magazine

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About the Author

Robin Hattersley, Editor-in-Chief

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Robin has been covering the security and campus law enforcement industries since 1998 and is a specialist in school, university and hospital security, public safety and emergency management, as well as emerging technologies and systems integration. She joined CS in 2005 and has authored award-winning editorial on campus law enforcement and security funding, officer recruitment and retention, access control, IP video, network integration, event management, crime trends, the Clery Act, Title IX compliance, sexual assault, dating abuse, emergency communications, incident management software and more. Robin has been featured on national and local media outlets and was formerly associate editor for the trade publication Security Sales & Integration. She obtained her undergraduate degree in history from California State University, Long Beach.