Fire Alarm For Deaf People Installed at Imperial College London

Imperial College London, rated the fifth best university in the world for 2009, is the latest college to install DeafWatch - the Fire Alarm for Deaf and Hard of hearing people developed by Wireless Alert Solutions.

Fire Alarms for Deaf and Hard of Hearing People

Imperial College is a science-based institution with such a superb reputation for excellence in teaching and research that it attracts 13,000 students and 6,000 staff of the highest quality. The innovative research at the college explores the interface between science, medicine, engineering and business, so naturally they would insist on the highest quality products and systems to be used in and around the Imperial College Campus. When such systems are to be used to help protect students and staff, then such a prestigious college places paramount importance on choosing the right systems.

Coverage Problems

Imperial had previously looked into fire alarm solutions for Deaf and Hard of hearing people in the past, but the large scale buildings of the South Kensington Campus meant that paging licenced and unlicenced systems always encountered coverage problems. Poorly licenced options required multiple transmitters to cover just a single building, while the size and complex nature of the laboratories and dense materials contained within them made full coverage difficult.

Further Testing

For DeafWatch, the scale and variety of the Imperial College buildings proved less troublesome. A single fire alarm and a single DeafWatch transmitter achieved complete coverage of whole buildings from the ground floor using only a low power five inch antenna. Imperial College earned its place as the fifth best university in the world by detailed investigation, testing and problem solving. One problem occurred when DeafWatch was used in conjuction with Imperial's sophisticated central control system for identifying fire activations and co-ordinating the management. The system operates over a variety of cabling, the correct method for information only services that are operating and performing well. Appending DeafWatch to this system would make it part of the fire alarm system, so non-fire retardant cable was inadequate. This meant that the college buildings would have to be considered individually or in clusters.

Deaf Fire Alarm Solutions

With the infrastructure of Imperial College meaning some buildings are securely interconnected, twenty six buildings could be secured by only nineteen DeafWatch transmitters, which meant that, along with the bulk purchases for such a large project, significant savings were possible. The flexibility of the Wireless Alert Solutions approach meant that a strong working relationship was built with the in-situ electrical sub-contractor, simplifying the installation. Having local engineers on site with resources and facilities in central London also proved a significant cost saving.

Imperial College London has the legal title 'Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine' and this is reflected in department after department of sophisticated technology. The laboratories of Mechanical Engineering, Aeronautics, Biochemistry and Electrical Engineering all threw up unusual and difficult challenges. A combination of different small antennas and a maximum power output of 5W meant that DeafWatch could securely cover all buildings.

Within the college Halls of Residence, DeafWatch utilized its daytime and night time programming protocols, ensuring that daytime messages would not be received by sleeping students, while those still awake would still receive Fire Alarm for the Deaf coverage.

Cost-Effective Conclusion

Imperial College London provided an excellent example of a cost effective Fire Alarm for the Deaf solution despite the challenging circumstances. Even though the inter-building infrastructure was not able to be exploited in most cases, a flexible approach meant that a cost effective solution was possible in Central London. This resulted in Imperial College London considering a comprehensive approach to their Fire Alarm for Deaf and Hard of hearing people system within a year's budget.

After a successful expansion from the original two transmitters, Imperial College have already expanded the DeafWatch Fire Alarm for Deaf people system two a total of twenty two transmitters, covering a total of twenty nine buildings across the whole South Kensington Campus and other sites besides.

"DeafWatch has turned a potential risk into a thorough success within six months. We have achieved complete coverage at a reasonable price. Their flexibility with our strategic partners and their approach to corporate responsibility has been crucial. We are very pleased with the results. For their size, Wireless Alert Solutions Limited punches comfortably above their weight."
Andrew Hammond, Support Services, Imperial College London.

MP3 FM Modulator Pitfalls - The 3 Biggest Mistakes People Unknowingly Make and How to Avoid Them

Many people unknowingly make the mistake about MP3 FM Modulators and mix them up with FM Transmitters. Even though they are very similar they can be very different and give you very different results. We will attempt to help clarify the difference between the FM Modulators and FM Transmitters in this article.

FYI, for the sake of simplicity we will assume that you are going to use this in your car and when we talk about FM Transmitters we are referring to a personal FM Transmitter you can buy off the shelf not a big commercial one or a homemade one.

Mistake #1 Installation Complexity

Most people do not realize that if you go with a FM Modulator instead of a FM Transmitter that you will be required to install it next to the FM Radio. This means you will have to pull out your car's FM Radio and hard wire it into your car's electrical system plus mess with your car's audio system.

This is not only time consuming but you can easily ruin your car's electrical and audio setup as well as potentially get yourself hurt. That is why most hire a professional to install a FM Modulator but that will cost money which could end up being more than the cost of the MP3 Player, Modulator and FM Radio combined.

Mistake #2 Transmitting

The second mistake people make about FM Modulators is they do not realize that the reason it needs to be close to the FM Radio is because it is transmitter the signal from your audio source, which in this case is your MP3 Player, to the car's FM Radio.

And since a FM Modulator typically only goes a few inches or a foot or two are best it needs to be very close to the FM Radio which requires the installation process mentioned above.

Mistake #3 Frequency Options

Third mistake most people do not realize when going with a FM Modulator is the number of frequencies you can select from. Since manufacturers know that you will not be able to change the frequency once it is installed they usually only give you one frequency to pick from or a few at best.

What that means for you is you have to either pick a frequency that is not on the public FM Band of 88.0 to 108.0 such as 87.7 or 87.9 FM for example or you will have to hijack a frequency that is on the public band and hope you do not run into a commercial station trying to broadcast on that frequency as well.

So how do you avoid making those 3 big mistakes?

Very simple if you want to broadcast the audio from your MP3 Player to your car's FM Radio (or any radio for that matter) you will want to buy a GOOD FM Transmitter. I say good because there are so many out there that just flat out stink. Either they don't go very far or the audio quality is just not acceptable. FYI, you can click on the links below to see a good FM Transmitter to consider.

So let's just assume for a moment that you picked a quality FM Transmitter. With it, you can use it not only in your car but also in your home, office, etc. if you wanted to. Plus you can easily power it without having to hard wire it to your car's electrical system. And you can plug in your MP3 Player without dealing with the car's audio systems setup. Finally, if you pick the right kind of good FM Transmitter you can also broadcast your other audio sources like your satellite radio, home stereo, computer and even your TV.

This way you can avoid having to deal with the cost and time of installation and hard wiring as well as possibly screwing up your car's electrical and audio systems. Plus you can transmit further than a modulator and on more frequencies so you won't have to compete with commercial radio stations.