Increased investment in sporting facilities throughout the educational and leisure sectors makes value for money a vital aspect in the area of building services for the professionals who manage a sports complex, their architects and M&E consultants.
This is particularly applicable in the crucial area of emergency lighting because for multipurpose buildings that are used by the public seven days a week, safety is paramount.
To meet these requirements, Sport England's National Indoor Badminton and Netball Centre at the University of Loughborough chose a FASTELink computer addressable fully automatic self testing emergency lighting system. It provides a reliable, simple and rapid response to any maintenance requirement. The brand new £4 million state-of the- art Whitefriars Sport and Recreation Centre at Coventry University's city-centre campus is also using FASTELink.
Monitored mandatory inspection of the luminaires is a lengthy process, with specialist testing and observation being a statutory requirement to BS 5266. At both Loughborough and Coventry, considerable thought was given to the practical and operational aspects of the system,and how it would integrate into the buildings’ overall management.
The new Whitefriars Sports Centre offers a four-court hall (suitable for volleyball, basketball, netball, cricket and football), a two-court hall (suitable for table-tennis andbadminton), a dance studio (ideal for exercise classes) and a physiotherapy service, all of which are situated on the ground floor. On the first floor is the fitness suite that has a wide range of cardiovascular, resistance, functional strength and free weights section. A state-of-the-art, air-conditioned health and fitness suite, comprising over 378 square metres floor space, is home to 85 Cybex fitness stations containing modular/fixed weights,and cardiovascular machines that cater for every muscle exercise.
Whitefriars uses a FASTELink computer addressable version,which is linked via a two core communication bus to an enduser chosen central monitoring point. It also has the capability to be linked to a building management system,or even via modem to an administrative point, 14,000 miles distant. The system is failsafe; should there be a computer failure, the system defaults to each individual luminaire performing its own test in excess to BS5266 and automatically reports any faults back to the central PC upon re-connection.
It is less costly to install than a central battery system, having no expensive fire rated wiring between the base unit and the luminaire. It also has the advantage of having no standard maintenance costs, and is intrinsically safer, as each luminaire works independently in the case of an emergency, as opposed to a vulnerable central battery source. It is also easier to extend after installation than a central battery system,as each luminaire carries its own battery and is not limited by a central definitive capacity.
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