Integrated Systems

University PA

by Mark Rowe

The Polytechnic University of Turin, Italy’s oldest technical university, is attended by over 33,500 students. Latest additions include three offsite buildings outside campus areas one and two: The Design and Sustainable Mobility Citadel, plus a newly remodelled Lingotto building and Fiat manufacturing facility. Campus officials sought to expand existing safety infrastructure. This proved challenging not only because of the complexity of the architecture and distances between buildings, but the need to comply with EN54-16 voice evacuation regulations. The Politecnico needed a certified public address and voice alarm system.

The first PRAESIDEO system in Italy was installed at the Politecnico in 2001. The university called again on Bosch for the PRAESIDEO Digital Public Address and Voice Alarm. Certified by security standards such as EN 54-16 and ISO 7240-16, PRAESIDEO provides a scalable solution for safety applications spanning locations, including campuses. It handles message routing, emergency voice evacuation, local amplification for lecture halls and other functions on a single platform. The system’s daisy-chain network topology also supports expansions.

The installers needed to take account of the campus architecture, a mix of new construction and historic remodels; and integrate the three new locations with the existing Bosch products. The result is a PRAESIDEO Public Address and Voice Alarm featuring eight network controllers, 80 basic amplifiers (a variation of 500 W, 2x 250 W, and 4x 125 W amplifiers) and ten call stations. The two call stations at the main entrances of campus areas one and two work together with the PRAESIDEO PC Call station client software; the other eight PRAESIDEO Call stations are distributed among the other campus buildings.

From a safety operator’s point of view, this integration provides a perspective of the entire campus and the ability to address a variety of loudspeaker zones separately in each building. For audio, installers added 1,500 Bosch loudspeakers plus sound projectors that match the interior design of the modern campus. All selected loudspeakers are EN 54-24-certified, making the solution fully EN 54-compliant. Inside buildings, the loudspeakers are a mix of water-protected wall mount metal cabinet speakers and LC1 modular ceiling loudspeakers for speech and music reproduction. Outdoor campus areas, sheltered or not, are covered by water- and dust-protected horn speakers as well as bidirectional and unidirectional sound projectors.

The installed network controllers allow staff to manage the public address and voice alarm functions on a central platform. In emergencies, the system supports voice evacuations. An evacuation starts with occupants closest to the threat – addressed by pre-recorded voice messages – then moves on to adjacent floors and areas. The voice evacuation instructions achieve time savings of up to 30 percent for emergency responders, according to the manufacturer.

“We are very happy with the system, especially thinking about the complexity of the university and its expansion,” said Andrea Carbonatto, Facility and Security Manager at Politecnico di Torino.

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