Bosch Gets Diamond Voice of Approval for Evac System

Employees and visitors at the UK’s largest scientific facility, Diamond Light Source in Oxfordshire, are being protected by a sophisticated public address and emergency sound system using reliable Praesideo technology from Bosch Security Systems.

The system was designed, programmed and commissioned by Advanced Safety

Communications (ASC) who recommended the use of Bosch technology, which was then

installed by Chubb Fire. The futuristic building is doughnut-shaped, and covers the area of five

football pitches. This immediately presented a challenge, according to Steve Komarek,

Technical Sales Director of ASC: 

“Bosch Praesideo is a reliable solution for the most demanding sites,” he says. “We know that

larger projects require more integration with other systems, frequently over greater distances,

so when this is the case we always recommend Bosch’s Praesideo technology.”

It proved the prefect choice for Diamond, as Steve explains: “The system comprises six racks interlinked by a redundant glass fibre optic loop, with each rack having its own paging panel. We designed it to accommodate up to 16 different evacuation and alert messages, for phased evacuation of the peripheral sectors and centre core of the building.”

Praesideo’s architecture uses the daisy chain principle so that units can be added or removed anywhere on the network without compromising the performance of other equipment – making the system easily expandable. This particular installation uses ancillary equipment from the entire range including call stations, power amplifiers, and ceiling-mount, surface-mount, horn and cabinet speakers.

It also includes a custom-made multi-zone master fireman’s microphone complete with manual evacuation and routine message facilities. Full battery backup was provided in each rack to BS5839 Part 8, using Advanced Safety Communications CS2, fully monitored 48V intelligent battery charger.

Paul Wong, Managing Director of Bosch Security Systems, agrees it was a challenging site: “The building is state-of-the-art and demands similarly state-of-the-art safety systems,” he says.

The Praesideo PA and Emergency Sound System was the first system to bring advanced digital technology to the public address market.  Its digital sound quality rapidly gained a reputation for its freedom from interference and signal corruption while maintaining excellent speech intelligibility.  Moreover, as well as being the first fully digital PA and Emergency Sound System, the Praesideo also complies with the stringent IEC 60849 EVAC standards and was the first PA and emergency sound system to receive IEC 60849 certification.  

Part of an integrated security solution, the Bosch Praesideo's open platform can communicate with third-party systems and peripherals such as building-management, fire-alarm, and message-information systems.

The latest Praesideo system (Version 3.3) recently became the first Public Address and Voice Alarm System to attain the new EN54-16 accreditation, and existing installations have a clear upgrade path.

Diamond Light Source is a state-of-the-art scientific facility, housing a third generation synchrotron light source. Diamond produces x-rays, infrared and ultra-violet beams of light that enable scientists and engineers to probe deep into the basic structure of matter and materials, answering fundamental questions about everything from the building blocks of life to the origin of our planet.