Adroit Technologies and Cape Town-based system integrators (SI), Devcotech – joined forces to upgrade the communication and alarming systems at the De le Bat Residential Community for the hearing impaired in Worcester.
Undertaken as a corporate social responsibility programme, the installation delivers vital daily information to the residents enabling them to lead independent and secure lives within this adult community.
De le Bat is comprised of approximately 40 complete flats grouped together in seven blocks. Each flat is equipped with panel and strobe lights in the main living area, toilet and bedroom, as well as in the outside areas. Using the light system, the proprietors can make information available to the residents that they would not have access to if normal audible alarms, bells and other hearing related tools were used.
Wake-up calls, bedtimes, notification of visitors, mealtimes and warning alarms for fires and other emergencies are all communicated to the light-sensitive residents using this system. By using different coloured lights, the community coordinators are able to convey to the residents the nature of the signal, for example, a red light might mean danger and that the resident should evacuate the building.
The installation boasts 800 digital tag points. All the rooms can be called from the Adroit system, if, for example, the occupant is required to receive a guest at the front desk or if there is a visitor at the door to the flat.
The Adroit scada is configured to accept all alarm conditions and part of this is that the alarming functionality is used to monitor the doors of the facility. All doors are equipped with door sensors, for security reasons, and the system is set to perform the monitoring operation for a predefined time from evening until morning. Security breaches and fire warnings appear in an onscreen alarm for the attention of an on-duty supervisor who will use this information to notify authorities and ensure the safety of the residents.
Using the Adroit system, the staff has access to a complete record of all doors on the property including which ones were opened and at what times to provide additional security to residents. The alarming information is stored to an Access database and is retrieved by the management and staff if and when it is necessary.
An added benefit to residents and their guests is that the activity of each flat's door button or bell is logged to the system so that the staff is aware of any visitors on the premises. In this way, the staff is able to ensure that guests, as well as residents, are evacuated in an emergency - and also to ensure the safety of residents who might receive an unwanted or even dangerous visitor.
Each block of flats has a slave PLC that communicates with the door buttons, fire alarms, door sensors, communication lights and other instrumentation via a Unitelware network, which in turn passes the information to the main PLC. The scada is running on a Windows 2000 operating system, and resides on one central workstation located at the front desk connecting to the PLC using a Modbus communication system.
Prior to the upgrade in November of 2003, the De le Bat communication and warning systems had been running on a Turbolink scada. On the previous system, communication problems existed between the scada and the PLC (programmable logic controller), which was also showing signs of ageing.
Deon Laubscher, owner of Devcotech chose to use the Adroit system because of its ease-of-use in installation and configuration, and also because of its relationship to its Turbolink predecessor.
Laubscher used the Adroit mimics incorporated in the scada package to create an onscreen depiction of the facilities, the blocks of flats and the rooms themselves, this allows the operator to communicate with and monitor the security of the resident at all times.
For more information contact Megan Davidson, marketing, Adroit Technologies, 011 658 8100, [email protected], www.adroit.co.za
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