Designed and installed by Larry Bounds and Barry Henry of the EBS group, from Odenville, Alabama, in conjunction with Amerex's in house system technicians, the iDR-4 system also includes the optional PL-8, a four input/output logic contact closure unit.
"We chose the iDR because the programming of the box is very simple and the processor is very solid. We were able to install the system very quickly without any of the employees knowing," says Bounds. "We have also used the iDR in many other installations and we have found it to be a flexible and reliable solution."
The Amerex Corporation is the leading manufacturer of fire extinguishers in the world. Founded in 1970, their 500 employee facility includes various alarm systems for fire, tornado, and shift-break. The iDR-4 handles the matrixing of the various alarms with the company's telephone paging system, and the PL-8 is used to patch the signal from the alarms through to the iDR system. When one of the alarms is tripped, a spike signal is routed through the PL-8 to the iDR-4 which un-mutes and prioritizes the appropriate channel and distributes on-board tone generator signals, matched to the alarm's sonic signature, throughout the company.
Amerex also required that the install was quick and easy and that it take place seamlessly, without causing alarm to Amerex's employees. The in-house technicians were very impressed by how easily the system installed and configured.
After the initial programming of the input and output matrix, the ESB group used the iDR's internal server capabilities to connect to the company's existing network. This enables Amerex's in-house technician, Stan Vining, to not only make changes to the system as needed, but he can also now use the reporting features to send out emails to the entire company when an alarm has been tripped or when there is a scheduled tornado or fire drill. Vining also has the ability to sync the iDR with his network time server, which will keep the iDR event scheduler in time with the rest of the facility.
(Chris Henry)
