At the new Vauxhall end at the Oval, the home of Surrey cricket club, a new voice evacuation system offers options for everyday use.
‘Instruct’ takes in the evacuation of a stadium or issuing of other safety announcements. ‘Inform’ covers commentary and functional announcements. ‘Entertainment’ lets music be routed to particular areas, including a range of local inputs particular to separate hospitality zones. The Millbank range of equipment was specified by stadia and retail contractor Hilton. Manufacturer Vision Systems reports that its acquisition of the Millbank brand has extended its early warning solutions by offering voice alarm capabilities to VESDA smoke detection and ADPRO video security customers. Neil Voce of Vision Systems says: "It became apparent early on that the system would also need to control sound in the older Pavilion End and also be able to accept inputs from this end for commentary. It also became apparent that the 80’s system fitted at that time was not covering the client’s basic requirements. It was only really operating as one single zone and was devoid of any of the main safety features such as battery back up. We then entered into a negotiation with SCCC to replace the old system, which was eventually agreed towards the end of last year. The installation of the new system using fireproof cable and offering eight separately addressable zones began in January and it is now almost complete. The installation has been a complex project due to the age of the pavilion, which comprises three different buildings, which have now become unified under one system."
