Fire alert system for deaf staff at WMP

West Midlands Police (WMP) has a number of  deaf and hard of hearing employees working at its headquarters at Lloyd House in central Birmingham.
Some years earlier, WMP had instituted a self-select paging based solution to provide fire alarm warning for its staff. However, It quickly found that the system had severe limitations, including a lack of power output, limited safety systems and limited message details.
When WMP upgraded its alarms to include a comprehensive fire and emergency announcement system, it also decided to upgrade the complete warning system for its deaf staff.
After reviewing the market, WMP chose the DeafWatch solution.
“Due to the DeafWatch maximum power output of 5W and ‘fit for purpose’ frequency, we were able to provide complete coverage of the building with only one watt of power output,” explained Chris Willetts, facilities manager, WMP. “To make things even simpler, we achieved this from the ground floor adjacent to the fire alarm panel.”
The legacy system needed to be installed on the 6th floor to even coverage. As a special requirement, Wireless Alert Solutions also provided a series of  emergency alert messages ensuring both safety and equality for deaf and hard of hearing staff.
“We’ve been really very pleased with the DeafWatch system,” added Mr Willetts. “Our many deaf and hard of hearing staff have said how pleased they are with the system and the upgrade that we did. We take security and safety at WMP very seriously and I am  delighted with both the solution and the high quality of service we have received from Wireless Alert Solutions.”
DeafWatch is a comprehensive fire alarm system for alerting deaf and hard of hearing people. It integrates permanently with the building fire alarm system and uses secure radio communications to guarantee coverage and security for users and building operators. nFor more information, visit www.wasol.co.uk. Please direct enquiries to Chris Durham on 07877 056486 or cdurham@wasol.co.uk