North Building Technologies

North products have been used by a variety of suppliers in a broad range of integration scenarios, from major shopping centres and commercial developments to multiple repeater sites for telecoms providers. The notes here outline just a small selection of the projects that North products have been involved in.

Highcross Shopping Centre, Leicester

North's systems partners - Robell Controls Ltd in partnership with Intelligent Controls Ltd (integration specialists), have installed a North Building Technologies management and integration system at the new Highcross shopping centre in Leicester. A North overlaying network will bring in data from Cylon HVAC controllers, Pelco CCTV, Protec fire panels, Ski Data car park management systems, Grosevenor Janus intruder and door access and Colt smoke vent systems. North's Webview product is serving data onto the sites IP backbone as HTML pages. Engineers and managers can take full control of any system via the web interface. read more...

10 Lancelot Place, London

70 high-end apartments in Knightsbridge have been fitted with North Building Technologies control panels and Zip Display modules. Display modules fitted throughout the apartments give the occupant access to lighting, heating and ventilation controls via a Zip network. North's powerful Commander modules provide control and offer future exandabilty to control Audio Visual, blinds and other services.

KPNQwest, Europe

Over 350 sites are monitored from KPN’s European headquarters in the Hague via Commanders over IP or Modem Compass Points. Engineers can confirm alarm statuses and schedule engineer site visits more effectively and reduce engineering overhead dramatically through increased site visibility. read more...

Citibank, London

Citibank’s prestigious new head quarters in Canary Wharf has a large HVAC Control System installation and over 150 Compass points providing interfaces to variable speed drives, third party HVAC Control System and Fire detection systems.

Westdeutsche Landesbank (WestLB), London

A large Compass installation provides interconnection between systems including HV and LV switchgear, generators, fire panels, sprinkler systems and the HVAC Control System at the prestigious new headquarters for German banking giant WestLB in London. read more...

Microsoft European Headquarters, Reading

Compass is integrating an extensive energy metering system to the building management system across all four buildings of Microsoft's European Headquarters.

Metropolitan Police Stations, London

A major upgrade is being made to the cells in a large number of Police stations in London. Zip is used to monitor the cells which Compass then routes to a custom designed activeX link. This display allows cell statuses and alarm conditions to be actioned by the Police on duty in over 40 stations so far.

National Gallery, London

The National Gallery, London, is home to one of the greatest collections of European painting in the world. Here as climate control is extremely important, both for the visitors and also the works of art, Compass is used to integrate the chiller system with the HVAC.

Oxford Brookes University, Oxford

At Oxford Brookes University a large multi campus HVAC Control System has been upgraded to run over Commander and Compass utilising both the internal PABX system and IP networks to get all building data back to the energy managers’ office. Over 50 ZiP 7013 boiler controllers have been used to control Domestic hot water in 47 buildings.

Guy's Hospital, London

ObSys is used to integrate a Trend heating and ventilation system with a Philips' LightMaster lighting system. Through the IPBus ObSys module information can be seen on multiple displays across the site.

OCDEM - Churchill Hospital, Oxford

Values from a Staefa Nico system and from a Zip IO network are put on to the IP network via a Commander. Monitoring and control can now be achieved across the hospital from several ObSys displays.

South Western Area Health Board, Eire

A small Compass and ObSys installation not only provides an integrated user interface for the air conditioning and Heating systems, but also provides an energy saving interlock between the heating and cooling systems via a simple ObvEngine strategy.

Lakeside Shopping Centre, Thurruck

Over 300 shops are being monitored by an extensive ObSys display with over 400 pages. Amongst the systems being monitored via a large Compass network are fire, ventilation, smoke control, all lighting (including car park and Christmas), wall sockets, door access, escalators and lifts.

Chimes Shopping Centre, Uxbridge

The £70 million, 39,000m² Chimes shopping centre development benefits from a fully integrated user interface and highly interoperable security and safety systems. This is provided by a comprehensive Compass and ObSys installation. read more...

Vodafone Offices, UK

The world's largest mobile phone network, Vodafone, is having Compass installed across their estate to bring back information from the fire, power and HVAC Control systems to a common user interface at their Headquarters in Newbury.

Orange Offices, UK

Across the UK, Orange offices are using Compass to bring data from fire systems, power monitoring and generators to their HVAC Control System.

Motorola Offices, Basingstoke

At Motorola's UK corporate headquarters, a small Compass network is passing information from the power monitoring and fire systems to the HVAC system. This enables the HVAC system to log data from the power monitor and to take action in the case of a fire alarm.

Pfizer Factory Complex, Sandwich

This huge complex has many small to medium sized Compass and Commander installations across many buildings. These provide everything from a simple HVAC Control System to Chiller interface to a full Fire management system.

BBC Broadcasting House, London

Broadcasting House, spiritual home of the British Broadcasting Corporation, has a Compass Network integrating the McQuay chillers with a Lon-based Carel air conditioning system.

MTV Offices, London

In the headquarters of MTV Europe, Compass is being used to integrate to different Trane systems. Trane Carel controllers are able to communicate to a Trane BACnet system via North's Compass Network.

Travis Perkins Head Office, Northampton

Over the three buildings at Travis Perkins' Head Office Zip and Compass are used to provide a complete door access solution. Over 25 door controllers are monitored and controlled by a third-party head end that also involves Compass to integrate with Esser fire and Galaxy security systems.

Case study submissions

If you are a North Approved Systems Partner or one of our Engineering Houses with an interesting case study to report on, please consider submitting your details to James Palmer who would be delighted to hear from you.

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