Access Self Storage

PEL Services Ltd., one of the UK’s foremost providers of commercial fire, security and communication systems, has completed its fourth fire alarm system contract for Access Self Storage.

One of the largest self storage companies in London, Access Self Storage is also rapidly growing throughout the UK.  To protect its new stores and their valuable contents, PEL Services has supplied and commissioned market leading fire detection systems.

Using top of the range equipment in a tried and tested combination provides Access Self Storage with sophisticated detection technology, extensive coverage and ease of use for the ultimate in safety and reliability.

PEL is dedicated to serve the self storage market and offers a wide package of systems to operators, which includes public address and background music.

For over 35 years PEL Systems has been a leading UK systems company that designs, supplies, installs and commissions sound, fire, security & communications systems.  In addition, PEL provides a range of service agreements, including routine maintenance and fully comprehensive cover, on third party equipment as well as PEL systems throughout the UK and Eire.

For sales information please contact PEL Services Ltd on 020 8839 2100 or go to www.pel.co.uk.

Download Access Self Storage PDF

WHSmith Warehouse

PEL Services Ltd., one of the UK’s foremost providers of commercial fire, security and communication systems, has installed a comprehensive fire detection and alarm system into WHSmith’s warehouse in Dunstable.

A warehouse predominantly stocking stationery for nationwide distribution to WHSmith stores and regional depots, the Dunstable warehouse has been occupied by WHSmith since 1979.  During that time, the buildings and facilities have been modified and extended to cope with modern warehousing requirements. 

The fire detection system in place was beginning to age and become unreliable and did not provide sufficient coverage for the extensions, or for new fire regulations.  WHSmith therefore decided to strip out the old system and replace it with a modern fire detection and alarm system designed, installed and commissioned by PEL Services Ltd.

PEL Services has enjoyed a long term relationship with WHSmith, maintaining the company’s fire alarms and emergency escape lighting across the UK.  This experience, combined with PEL’s recommendations which provided the company with the best fire system available, led to the contract being awarded to PEL.

WHSmith’s Dunstable warehouse is now benefitting from PEL’s 30 years experience in the fire industry, with a four loop addressable fire detection system, which uses over 400 Apollo detection and alarm devices, and an Advanced Electronics control panel.  This tried and tested combination provides WHSmith with sophisticated detection technology, extensive coverage and ease of use for the ultimate in safety and reliability.

For sales information please contact PEL Services Ltd on 020 8839 2100 or go to www.pel.co.uk.

Download WHSmith Warehouse PDF

British Forces Post Office

PEL Services Ltd has designed, supplied and installed a comprehensive Bosch PA system into the BFPO (British Forces Post Office) new home at RAF Northolt.

The installation of the PA system was one of the final elements in the creation of a new purpose built facility to house BFPO at RAF Northolt, which opened in late 2007.  The facilities include a headquarters building and a 7000 square metre sorting hall which is served by the new PA system.

With over four million kilograms of mail per year going through the sorting office at BFPO Northolt, a lot of heavy duty – and noisy – parcel and letter sorting machines are in use, making it potentially difficult to hear speech clearly.  PEL overcame this problem through the use of carefully selected and located loudspeakers and sensing microphones that monitor ambient noise levels and automatically adjust the broadcast volume accordingly, ensuring that the PA system can be heard at all times without becoming excessively loud during quiet periods.  The system is used for announcements and radio / background music. 

PEL was also called upon to install a further PA system to broadcast the sound of birds of prey to scare other birds away from the area – an important safety consideration with aircraft around.  Using the existing CCTV system, the Bird Scaring System is activated when birds are spotted landing.

In addition to the PA systems, PEL also supplied and installed a Refuge Call System in the sorting office to ensure compliance with the Disability Discrimination Act and relevant British Standards.  Refuge Call points have been installed by PEL on the first floor at four stairwells within the sorting hall, connected by a monitored, fire resistant link to a control panel.  Disabled persons are able to alert the central station to their predicament by activating the nearest call point, which identifies the activated outstation on the control panel and rings the master telephone.  When the master telephone is answered, normal two way conversation takes place.

PEL was recommended for the BFPO project, having installed a significantly larger PA system at Heathrow Worldwide Distribution Centre – the largest mail sorting office in Europe – two years previously for the Royal Mail.

PEL Services Ltd is one of the UK’s most reliable and respected providers of equipment, installation, maintenance and servicing of sound, fire, security and communication systems, having completed thousands of installations during more than 30 years.

For sales information please contact PEL on 020 8839 2100 or go to www.pel.co.uk

Download British Forces Post Office (BFPO) PDF

Heathrow Worldwide Distribution Centre

The Client

Royal Mail’s new state-of-the-art international mail centre at Langley, a stones throw from Heathrow, is the most technically advanced Office of Exchange in the world. Officially called Heathrow Worldwide Distribution Centre (HWDC) it will handle international mail, which is being transferred from existing offices from around the UK. This is a massive investment of £150 million in a cutting-edge mail centre to transform the way international mail is handled, driving up quality and reducing costs in the process. The site itself is 100,000 square metres or the equivalent of 12 football pitches in everyday terms. Inside there are 2.5km of overhead walkways and 12km of conveyor belts to move more than six million items of international mail each day.

Staff Location

On a site so large and diverse, with segregated areas for Arrivals, Sortation, Despatch/Storage and support services such as Administration, Engineering, Kitchen/Dining and Welfare, locating staff quickly and easily can be difficult. A distributed public address system was seen to be the ideal solution. However, for such a system to be effective, it had to be carefully designed and planned to be intelligible in all areas, ranging from quiet administration to cavernous constructions housing noisy automated mechanical handling machinery – much of it operating intermittently.

With a proven record for successfully ‘taming’ acoustically hostile environments, PEL successfully designed and installed a system that fulfils this requirement and meets established performance criteria.

Loudspeaker Selection

To ensure good performance, PEL specified their tried and tested Constant Directivity Horn loudspeakers, which provide clear sound dispersion uniformly throughout the broadcast areas. The 12cm cone driver is splashproof and housed in a tough ABS enclosure with stainless steel fixing hardware to ensure many years of robust and reliable service. A total of 282 Constant Directivity Horn loudspeakers were installed at high level throughout the complex in strategic positions to give the best possible sound distribution. Approximately 30,000 metres of cable were used to group the loudspeakers in different areas to create a zoned system, reflecting the operating processes.

Other areas, such as Administration and Welfare were equipped with more conventional flush mounted ceiling loudspeakers to suit the quieter environment and suspended ceilings.

Central Equipment Racks

Cables for groups of loudspeakers (zones) feed out from the central equipment racks, which house the power amplification and signal processing and control equipment. Space is incorporated to allow for easy future expansion if required. The amplification is chosen to match the relevant power requirements of individual loudspeaker circuits. When designing systems, PEL typically allow 20% spare capacity for any additional loudspeakers that may be required in the future. Power amplifiers used in the HWDC project include 400W, 240W, 150W, 100W and 50W.

Because ambient noise levels constantly change in the various process areas, a total of 26 Ambient Noise Sensing computers are incorporated into the racks. By constantly monitoring ambient noise in each zone, via a specialised microphone installed therein, the computers automatically adjust the volume output to broadcast at 10dB(A) above the ambient noise level. Announcements are therefore always clearly audible and distinct, but never too loud. Rack 1 also houses PEL’s programmable Audio Processing System (APS) that controls all broadcasts, zone selection and also stores digital messages that may be recalled at any time via digital control consoles.

Audio Processing System (APS)

For system control, PEL used their Audio Processing System (APS) in conjunction with three APS Digital Microphone Consoles. Each console allows for any combination of zone selection for broadcast of live speech and for playback of any four of the digitally stored messages within the APS system. The APS system allows for up to 32 Digital Microphone Consoles to be connected onto each radial microphone circuit and allows for easy future expansion because it is software programmable. Further details about the flexible APS system can be found in the ‘Sound’ section under ‘Public Address & Voice Alarm Systems’.

The APS literature and data sheets may be downloaded from Sound pages.

Conclusion

During the installation and commissioning phases, PEL operated as Principle Contractor under CDM regulations, producing and operating to a Construction Phase Health & Safety Plan that was consistent with Royal Mail’s stringent site requirements. Regular project meetings were held on site to ensure the project ran smoothly and ran to schedule.

At final inspection it was agreed that the public address system was a total success, delivering messages that are clearly audible and intelligible to all broadcast areas. National Design Consultancy, Royal Mail’s Building Services Engineers, report that: “from start to finish, PEL’s performance was exemplary”.

Download Heathrow Worldwide Distribution Centre (HWDC) PDF