Fire alarm control panels from Advanced Electronics are at the heart of a fire protection system at the new £65m Nationaal Muziekkwartier theatre complex in the Dutch city of Enschede.
The 18,000 m2 building houses a 1000-seat theatre, two music stages, a music school, studios, catering outlets and offices.
Due to the nature of the building and its environment a number of different fire protection technologies have been installed by Advanced's local partner Hertek, in partnership with electrical contractor Kropman Installatietechniek. Two 4-loop Mx-4000 fire alarm control panels are connected to over 700 fire detectors. The panels are also used to control aspirating smoke detection systems and flame detectors for the 30m high stage area, as well as controlling sprinklers, smoke curtains, fire door release and elevator shutdown.
The Mx-4000 panels are networked together with three remote repeater panels and three fire brigade mimic panels, giving the fire service and building operators access to system status from different points around the complex.
"The challenge was to meet the needs of the different users of the complex," said Peter de Jonge, electrical engineering manager at Kropman Installatietechniek. "Phased evacuation was implemented to ensure that the whole building wasn't evacuated in the event of a localised incident or nuisance alarm, whilst keeping staff and visitors safe in the event of a real fire. The power and flexibility of the Mx-4000 panels were key to achieving this."
Advanced says its fault tolerant network Ad-NeT+ is capable of withstanding a single fault between nodes without loss of communications to any single panel. Up to 200 panels (nodes) can be connected on the network with a total loop length of 20km using standard two-core fire resistant cable. The network in the Nationaal Muziekkwartier allows the status of all 700 devices and detection systems to be interrogated on any of the fire panels, repeaters or fire brigade mimics.
