The Championship football club Cardiff City FC play in a 28,000-seat stadium, the second largest in Wales after the Millennium Stadium. Tiger Fire & Security Ltd. was approached by the project’s electrical contractor, NG Bailey, at the planning stages to design and install the life safety equipment.
Work began in 2007. Gareth Pezzack is Tiger’s Managing Director. He says: ‘We became involved at design and concept stage for both the fire detection and combined public address/voice alarm (PAVA) systems. Our level of input was considerable and we advised on the fire standards that had to be adhered to, including The Green Guide (Guide to Safety at Sports Grounds) and other relevant British Standards for the fire, PAVA and disabled refuge systems.” The Green Guide covering spectator safety at sports grounds came as a result of the 1989 Hillsborough disaster and details ground management at sports grounds. Tiger specified a BS5839-1: 2002 compliant Category L5 addressable fire detection system. A Category L5 system is one in which the protected areas or location of detectors is designed to satisfy a specific fire safety aim. Often the design is based on a fire risk assessment. Tiger based a system around Hochiki’s Enhanced Systems Protocol (ESP). Gareth says: “Hochiki’s proven reliability made it the obvious choice for this installation and I knew that it would act as a one stop shop for all the stadium’s fire detection needs. The ESP protocol is extremely robust and we’ve never experienced any issues or problems with it.” As for the scale, the fire detection system and PAVA system used a combined total of 20km of cable and 350 Hochiki devices, including smoke detectors, multi-sensors, loop base sounders and beacons, and input/output units. These components are linked to four networked panels, around the stadium, with the master control panel in the stadium’s match control room.
ESP is a total communications solution for intelligent fire detection and fully integrated systems. It has a multi-purpose structure that provides the flexibility and expansion to accommodate simple addressable systems through to sophisticated integrated building management and safety systems.
The stadium’s West Stand has five levels with hospitality suites, player changing areas, media rooms, club shops, and chief executive suite, while the general concourse area is effectively an outside environment. In this area Tiger used Hochiki’s multi-sensors and addressable beacons to reduce the likelihood of unwanted alarms. The fire detection system was fully integrated with the PAVA system and it operates in two modes – match day and non-match day, each specifically designed to ensure maximum safety at different times. Hochiki’s ALG-EN optical smoke sensors were also installed which feature the company’s High Performance Chamber Technology. Hochiki’s chamber design minimises the differences in sensitivity experienced in flaming and smouldering fires. The result is an optical chamber that is, the makers say, equally responsive to all smoke types and helps to reduce the possibility of unwanted alarms.
Aesthetics were a key consideration. Gareth says, ‘Although they are a functional part of the building’s infrastructure, Hochiki’s fire detection products have the added bonus of looking good. In modern buildings this is an important quality.’
Wayne Nash, Stadium Manager at Cardiff City adds: ‘With so many people in such a relatively small space, accessibility is very important and compliance with the guidelines as set out in the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) is a definite must for us. We have to consider the needs of people of all abilities and so we made sure that all the areas have the requisite number of beacons and beacon/sounders in order to comply.’
This was the first football stadium that Tiger Fire & Security Ltd. had worked on but since then it has received a number of tender invitations from football clubs around the country for similar work. The Cardiff City Stadium won the Local Authority Building Control Wales Award for public/community buildings. Graham Bond, senior building control surveyor at The Building Control Safety Advisory Group, says: ‘Tiger Fire & Security’s input was greatly appreciated by myself and the rest of the design team in delivering design experience and solutions to what was a particularly complex and challenging project.’
For further information please contact Hochiki Europe on 01634 266566, email: [email protected] or visit www.hochikieurope.com.
