National Indoor Arena Invests in Advanced Fire Detection

An event at National Indoor Arena (NIA), Birmingham

Advanced Electronics intelligent control panels are at the heart of a large fire detection system upgrade at the National Indoor Arena (NIA) in Birmingham. The NIA is one of the busiest large- scale indoor sporting and entertainment venues in Europe, with over 4 million visitors having passed through its doors since opening in 1991. The arena can seat up to 14,500 people, but flexible seating allows the layout to be adapted. Four car parks are also located within the NIA.

The upgrade was installed by BDS Fire & Security Limited and consisted of six Advanced Mx-4400 fully-networked fire control panels interfaced to 1000+ Apollo Discovery loop devices, including fire sensors, call points and I/O. In addition to the Mx 4400 control panels the system utilised networked repeater panels and Advanced’s PC-NeT Graphics software. The extensive cause-and-effect programming in the Mx-4400 panels was used to control over 100 loop driven I/O devices interfaced to automatic smoke doors, extract fans, catering gas valves and access control doors. The fire system was interfaced to the PA/VA system to form a fully integrated fire detection solution to ensure staff and visitors are quickly and safely evacuated in the event of a fire.

The PC-NeT Graphics software runs on a standard PC connected to the fire network. It is a highly configurable system allowing the use of site maps, images and text to display a visual representation of the fire system to the end-user. Any device can be isolated or its analogue value obtained by simply clicking an icon on the screen. Comprehensive event and alarm history logs can be viewed and reports easily generated for analysis and auditing. As the use of the NIA changes from event to event it is sometimes necessary to change the detection mode of a group of fire sensors to reflect the changed environment. This can be achieved quickly and easily from the PC-NeT software without the need to programme any of the fire panels.

The six Mx-4400 panels are interconnected using Ad-NeT, Advanced’s fire network. The network can be configured to allow the inter-connection of up to 200 panels (nodes) in a fault tolerant configuration. The maximum cable length between nodes is 1.5km, with a total loop length of 20km. The network is capable of withstanding a single fault between nodes without loss of communications to any single panel. This is all achieved using standard two-core fire resistant cable.

Advanced Electronics Ltd manufactures a comprehensive range of intelligent control and indicating panels, software and peripherals for fire detection, smoke control and the emergency lighting market. The EN54 approved Mx-4000 series and the UL 864 approved Ax-Series fire systems offer advanced features for the end-user, system designer and installer. Advanced also manufacture the ifeLine family of DDA-compliant fire safety products for the deaf and hearing impaired.