North Building Technologies

The £70 million, 39,000m² Chimes shopping centre development in the heart of Uxbridge, West London, is the latest state-of-the-art retail development to be opened by major developer Capital Shopping Centres plc. Chimes provides 3 shopping levels with a total of 81 stores, cafes and restaurants. These include some of the biggest names in retailing, with a 9,500m² Debenhams outlet, stores for Boots, BhS and Next, and a 1600-space multi-storey car park. A 9-screen Odeon multiplex cinema completes the scheme. The project also incorporates the refurbishment of a grade 2 listed building, the partial rebuilding/refurbishment of a historic locally listed building and the re-creation of two timber 15th and 16th century frame buildings, which had previously been in storage for over 15 years.

Challenging specification

The bms specification drawn up by Ove Arup & Partners called for a fully integrated system, to include interoperability between the Fire detection, Heating & Ventilation, Air Conditioning and CCTV systems. All of these were to be managed from a PC package in the control room, with client software connected over IP in the managers' offices.

Cause and effect

The visual confirmation of fire alarms was of key importance to the client and this became the primary function of the integration scheme. A Ziton ZP3 fire panel is connected to the Compass system along with CCTV controls from Pelco. The primary function of this connection is to enable a cause and effect strategy that moves the position of a pan-tilt camera to any active fire zone and automatically display the camera image on a dedicated "Fire Monitor". The result of this strategy is that the on-site security and engineering team can quickly approximate the number of people in the active zone and the seriousness of the fire, in order to optimise the effectiveness of their subsequent actions.

Power monitoring

The site is equipped with Autometers IC2000 power meters which monitor incoming mains and loading across different aspects of the site. The Compass system provides data from the meters which can be viewed, logged and monitored by the ObSys management software system. Logging channels within the Cylon Unitron HVAC controls are used to store historical data, and these data logs are then archived periodically by the ObSys software.

Shop alarm messaging

The central Shop Alert system provides instant messaging to individual or groups of shops for security threats, thefts and general warnings. Any alarms or warnings sent by the Shop Alert system are additional routed into the ObSys package for archiving and analysis. The Shop Alert was specicially enhanced to communicate directly with the Compass system, linking to a Compass Point supporting the open standard COL protocol.

Client perspective - Centre Manager, Mike Wynne

"On a site as technically complex as this, we needed to have robust and reliable integration services between many disparate systems. The Compass network has allowed high levels of interoperability to be achieved between the fire detection and CCTV systems and also provides a common protocol for our ObSys supervisors. This allows a common user interface to the Cylon HVAC controls, Shop Alert message routing system, Pelco CCTV and Ziton Fire detection systems. It is also very important that we get the highest levels of technical support and I can say that where there have been snags, North have worked quickly and effectively to solve them."

Products

2 CP/COL/RS232 Compass Point for PC connection
1 CP/CYLON/RS232 Compass Point for Cylon Unitron bms
1 CP/ZITON/RS232 Compass Point for Ziton ZP3/ZP5 fire detection system
1 CP/AUTOMTRJ/RS422 Compass Point for Autometers IC2000 series power meter (MODBUS option)
1 CP/COL/RS232 Compass Point for Shop Alert message routing system
1 CP/TRANSMAX/MRTC Compass Point for up to 1000 additional transfers
2 OBS/1000 ObSys with 1000 licence units

Client

CAPITAL SHOPPING CENTRES PLC
Chimes Shopping Centre
The Chimes Shopping Centre
PO Box 368
High Street
Uxbridge
UB8 1GE UK

Tel: +44 (0) 1895 819400
Fax: +44 (0) 1895 819401
Email: mike-wynne@capshop.co.uk
Web site: www.the-chimes-uxbridge.co.uk

Contact: Mike Wynne, Technical Manager

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