It’s one of the biggest sporting festivals in the world and the safety of its half a million visitors will be protected with high technology equipment designed and produced by a North East company.
Current Thinking, based in Sunderland, has supplied the massive network of integrated fire telephones and Disabled Refuge points installed throughout the Wimbledon complex during the multi-million redevelopment of the world’s most famous tennis centre.
The system, called VoCALL is a fully distributed Emergency Voice Communication System (EVCS), complying fully with BS5839-Part9:2003 and combines both Fire Telephones and Disabled Refuge Points. It covers all buildings including offices, media centre, main court complexes and museum across the South London site.
Through a network of a master controls, exchanges and outstations (handset and hands free points) VoCALL provides an easy and effective two-way communication for the reassurance of members of the public who cannot easily use the usual methods of escape and to assist the emergency services to locate them and reassure them during an emergency. VoCall is particularly suited to large flat sites making it ideal for venues such as sports stadiums and event arenas.
An important requirement of the Wimbledon system was that it should be able to produce a detailed record of every time it was activated. No such product existed in the Fire Telephone and Disabled Refuge sector. However, Current Thinking was able to design a tailor-made incident logging system software package. This enables logs to be made of all faults and telephone actions. It records conversations made over the VoCall system and creates a ‘time line’ audio file which can be played back at a later time.
The Incident Logging System remains unique to Current Thinking and is now available for all VoCALL systems. The choice of VoCALL equipment was greatly influenced by the ability of Current Thinking to create the software and was a joint decision by The All England Lawn Tennis Club, and the London based installer Comlite Ltd.
Chris White of Comlite said, “I hadn’t worked with Current Thinking or the VoCALL system before this project, and though the learning curve was steep I have found the company easy to work with and was and was impressed by the attentiveness of its staff, technical support, system testing and client handover. I have found them very flexible and we have worked very well together on designing a system for the Wimbledon Championships.”
Says Current Thinking’s Managing Director Anthony Smith “We were delighted to be chosen as the supplier for this project by Comlite. Wimbledon clearly wanted the best quality safety systems in the redevelopment and that’s what we were able to provide.
“Given the nature of Wimbledon, with its courts complexes, together with a wide range of administrative buildings and a museum, it has been a challenge to develop a network to cover all parts of the site and we have worked very closely with Comlite as the installer on developing the system including the creation of the unique Incident Logging System.
“Building regulations require that Emergency Voice Communication Systems are installed in all non-residential buildings over one storey. VoCALL has been designed to be the most modular and flexible system available and the logging software designed for the Wimbledon project keeps the company at the forefront of developments in the market place.”
Wimbledon is just one of many high-profile projects across the world where Current Thinking has gained recognition as the international leader in the development of fire telephones, voice alarm systems and induction loop products for people with hearing problems.
Current Thinking has developed a broad range of products including the latest in Voice Alarm Systems which have established it as the leader in the field
The company’s systems which assist hearing-aid users listening to information in noisy environments are in use on mainline stations on both the East and West Coast routes, as well as the new St Pancras International terminal for the Channel Tunnel.
Tags: Disabled refuge, EVCS, Fire telephone