Liberty University, located in Lynchburg, Va, is committed to providing quality education within a Christian environment. They are proud to represent more than 15,000 students from all fifty
states and over seventy countries around the world. Their campus
spans across 5,000 acres making it the largest evangelical higher
educational facility in the United States.
Because of the size of the property, the campus employs theirown emergency response team, responsible for monitoring over80 buildings for fires, crime and the overall safety of students andstaff. Due to the number of buildings on the property, Liberty’semergency response team wanted the ability to supervise all oftheir fire alarm systems simultaneously. However, none of theprevious systems were networked and there was no way tomanage them at one time or from one location. Liberty Universityofficials decided to re-evaluate their current systems hopingto find one fire alarm system that could protect the entirecampus and be monitored from a single location.
When Liberty University evaulated the Fike Cybercat® panels, they were impressed by the user-friendly ability to install newdevices to the system, and to do all programming in-house.
Liberty University contacted Greer’s Supply, a local Fike distributor, for a consultation. To all parties knowledge, there wasno prior history of protecting a campus of this magnitude with the requirements that Liberty University requested. Greer’sSupply worked closely with a team of Fike engineers to find a solution.
“The challenge was that the campus had no interconnecting copper or fiber communication lines that would help providea backbone for a networked fire alarm system,” said Kevin Montgomery, Product Manager for Fike Alarm Systems. “Theuniversity also utilized voice over IP for phone service. This created additional challenges for using digital alarmcommunication transmitters (DACTs) in the fire alarm panel for off premises or out of building communication andmonitoring.”
After some investigative research and testing, Greer’s Supply presented a solution to the university. Using Fike’s EthernetModule, the control panels are able to communicate via the internet, linking over 80 buildings to one central location.
Additionally, Fike’s CyberCat fire alarm system is designed to eliminate polling delays and nuisance alarms around thecampus. The system delivers information simultaneously from the intelligent sensors to the alarm panel and other deviceswithin the system without any dedicated phone lines or the need for fiber or copper to be networked.
“The Fike CyberCat system has met our needs giving us a reliable system that allows us to network the buildings together,”said Michael Holmes, Liberty University Fire Alarms official. “Our police department can easily monitor the campus for firealarms allowing our emergency response team to react quickly during an emergency situation.”
And because Greer’s Supply and Fike had such a successful installation of the Cybercat fire alarm panels, Liberty Universityhas also decided to add the lastest Fike Alarm Systems technology, Fike’s Precise Vision™ event management software. Thenew software works hand-in-hand with the Cybercat panels allowing Liberty University’s key personnel to quickly assess andreact to alarm and trouble situations throughout the entire campus.The university now has the capability of zooming in and out of building floor plans to view active alarms, troubleconditions, water supplies, evacuation routes, access routes, utility shut-offs and other facility hazards that might occur.
They also have the potential for personnel to access the event history and the progression of events through time sequence.”The Precise Graphics package allows us to have a visual reference and gives us the option to give step by step directionson how to respond to trouble or alarm situations,” Holmes said. “It will also keep a history which allows us to get rid ofprinters and save paper.”
The installation of this software is set to be completed during the winter break of 2008.With new technology always evolving, the need for improvements at universities like Liberty are always in the plans. Findingunique solutions to fit certain requirements like this one is what Fike strives to achieve for their customers.
“We have never had a contractor (Greer’s Supply) and a manufacturer such as Fike take such an interest in what we dohere at Liberty,” said Holmes. “Everyone has really gone the extra mile for us and we are grateful for that. If I have anyconcerns, Greer’s Supply and Fike have been there to help resolve the issue in a timely manner.”
Critical Project Success Factors:
- Liberty University wanted to protect all their buildings with one fire alarm system networked throughout the wholecampus without any dedicated phone lines or the need for fiber or copper.
- The Fike Cybercat fire alarm panel was successfully installed, linking over 80 buildings to one central location usingthe internet.
- Liberty University now has the capability to quickly assess and react to alarm and trouble situations via the Fike Precise
Vision, which allows them to have a visual reference to all building floor plans, evacuation routes and other facilityhazards that might occur during an emergency situation.
