Birmingham City Universities Art Department has become the latest to install Refuge Alerter® the radio-based emergency voice communication system from the market leaders Deaf Alerter plc. Birmingham Institute of Art and Design (BIAD) is one of the largest faculties of art, design and media education in the United Kingdom. BIAD provides education for nearly 4,000 students on five major campuses located in the centre and to the north and south of the centre of Birmingham.
Located on Margaret Street the listed Venetian Gothic building, which houses the Department of Art, is situated in the city centre close to the Council House and Birmingham Central Library. It has won numerous awards for the restoration of its beautiful architecture, and is filled with light, airy studios ideal for the students based here.
Refuge Alerter® is a unique wireless communication system: as the building is listed this feature meant that the University could install the system with ease, without disrupting the infrastructure where cabling would have been prohibited.
Building managers have a duty of care to provide everyone with a means of escape this includes disabled people or people with mobility difficulties. Refuge Alerter® enables two way communications from a safe waiting area to the rescue team. Operating on an OFCOM licensed frequency there are 5 refuge outstations throughout the building which communicates with the central base station located in reception. This instantly allows the rescue team to know when and where someone needs assistance and also gives reassurance to the person within the refuge that help is on the way. This also eliminates unnecessary risk to the rescue team as they can formulate a safe and effective plan without the need to sweep all refuge areas.
Steve Haseldine, Managing Director of Deaf Alerter plc commented “Interest from heritage buildings is souring due to the benefits wireless solutions offer to help with DDA compliance. We have a have a long standing relationship with Birmingham City University, the Deaf Alerter fire alarm system has been installed for many years throughout most of the buildings. We are delighted that we could offer a solution to the University that would enable additional fire safety for disabled people in this listed historical building”
Refuge Alerter® outstations have been designed to cater for people with various disabilities. They are user friendly and are fully equipped with an induction loop, Braille, visual call recognition, two way voice communication and a photo luminescent panel as standard.
