Notifier New York City Station Case Study

Project Pro le New York City Station ABOARD NOTIFIER PROTECTS ONE OF WORLD BUSIEST TRAIN STATIONS took a full two years to commission a massive network of three NOTIFIER ONYX Series re alarm control panels 53 subpanels and more 2,600 devices throughout 550 rooms tunnels and platforms within one the world busiest commuter hubs In additional to sprinkler monitoring system integrates with a number of ancillary building systems to perform controls of escalators and elevators plus fans for smoke control to some savvy engineering and state of the art technology this 50 year New York City train station is now out tted with a single integrated re and emergency communications system er com WORLD HEADQUARTERS Clintonville Road Northford CT 06472 USA 203 484 7161 Fax 203 484 7118 er com CONTROL major challenge was the execution of this momen installation without disruption to the station 20 hour train service and the more than people that pass through every day we only had four hour windows in the of the night where we could work trackside the trains were not present relates Bob Farm engineer United Fire Protection Corp UFP the NJ based NOTIFIER distributor that pro and installed the major systems on the project the owner requirements for a proven offering multiple layers of exibility and an means of monitoring and control Code Consul designed the system as an open speci cation was put out to bid electrical contractor and United Fire team with their plan to complete the project what really sold the job explains the system William J Aaron Jr senior project manager Code Consultants in St Louis addition had the support system to get the equip to the distributor UFP on time and to provide in the eld when it was needed a combination of ber optic and copper wire networking UFP went with Class A Style 7 which provided a high level of survivability we were able to install subsystems and ers throughout the facility we were able to home run wiring to a minimum notes Farm to the station Engineering Fire and Life Project Manager system ability to net multiple panels that distribute the power and capabilities throughout the station enabled to protect a very large facility with a myriad of to operate as one overall system entire re alarm and emergency communica system is monitored and controlled from three command centers two onsite and one in state Staffed 24 7 each command center a digital voice command panel DVC to monitor the entire re alarm network The are equipped with a microphone and pro to allow users to broadcast live voice an and temporal evacuation tones through facility hundreds of speakers or to any of its ve cation zones 05 12 heighten monitoring and control of the network primary onsite re command station is also with a NOTIFIER ONYXWorks graphic work providing oor by oor views of the entire and its major re alarm and emergency com system components Through simple switches programmed to perform a number functions ONYXWorks can control fans and other network components For example speci c detector zones can be temporarily shut down maintenance or when welding is taking place a particular area the variety of environments and ambient noise present throughout the station the audio of announcements had to be highly intelligi Farm refers to this system audio as being quality Similarly the visual noti cation had to be signaling a possible re or highlighting the of emergency noti cations the system can be used for both re alarm and mass cation events day we turned that system on which required more than 1,000 strobes and saw the strobes ashing across all of the train that was quite an amazing sight recalls terms of going with one uni ed re alarm and communications system the station Fire and Life Safety Project Manager that it was really a no brainer due to cost reduced power requirements and more operations so many components and such complexity built the system the technology modular exibility the team to bring parts of the system on line they were completed had to build this thing pieces and do the nal hook up in the end That made the NOTIFIER technology great for this because we could pre test each component we went along explains Farm ENGINEERING smoke and heat detection devices were in most of the terminal areas However ar presenting a challenge for detector installations spaces comprising ceilings with too many in high voltage substations and on the tracks themselves where overhead high voltage power lines could not be shut down heat detection cable offered a great solution utility rooms while substations were tted with detectors serving to keep transmitters and away from high voltage equipment for the train platforms engineers had to get a more creative Considering the trains travel environmental extremes without any means separation the facility had to be prepared for any situation brought about by an incoming such as a re that application we used a technology used Europe but new to the United States which is ber optic linear heat detection explains Aaron keep the electricians away from those overhead lines on the tracks we used berglass conduit it not conductive as opposed to steel integrate the train platforms heat detection with NOTIFIER system the engineers established contacts from the subpanels and using moni modules they sub divided the outputs to be through the central re alarm panel important aspect of this re alarm and communications system was its ability to adapt to future changes and expansions were looking for a system that would not only the building now but give its owners the ex that whatever happened in the future we could more functionality into the system Aaron ecting on the project that dominated two years his life Aaron recalls the thrill of turning on the system was quite humbling to see a project this scale perform exactly as it was designed over 60 years NOTIFIER has been a leader in the re alarm industry Today we are the largest of engineered re alarm systems with over 400 distributors worldwide and regional operations on every continent for the exibility and options your business needs Leaders in Life Safety Technology