Another Successful PA System Upgrading Project

Just completed the upgrading of the PA system of a super high-rise mixed residential/retail complex in the financial district. The complex comprised of 2 high rise residential towers with a low rise podium with retail space. The old system was obsolete, bulky and inefficient. It was also not operating as intended. The original system was an AEX system had failed years ago and a mid-life upgrade of sorts was attempted by a different vendor to control the AEX system with a TOA controller. There was some limited success using it in this fashion however a lot of functionality was sacrificed in the process. The ability to address selected zones was lost and the configuration was incorrect as well as it didn’t take into account the possibility of multiple fire alarm triggers.

The new system comprised of Paviro Controller (PVA-4CR12), 3 units of Paviro Router (PVA-4R24), 6 units of Paviro Amplifier (PVA-2P500), emergency microphone, Paviro Call Station and Call Station Extension (PVA-15CST & PVA-20CSE). It was configured to have 84 zones with 70 in use, 5000W audio power output with 1000W as hot spare, 9 pre-recorded message and an emergency microphone. It has 3 separate triggers for the fire alarm in tower 1, tower 2 and podium that can be triggered individually or in any combination.

Our client accepted our proposal to upgrade the system with a Bosch Paviro PA System. This system was superior to the existing one in many ways, namely:

• More compact (we managed to reduce the 4 equipment racks of the old system to just 1)
• More energy efficient (longer backup time, lower heat output and lower running cost)
• Better sound quality
• More user friendly (instead of the myriad of buttons and dials there is just one user interface on the call station)
• More flexible (the programmable controller is able to accept multiple fire alarm triggers allowing it to control the voice alarm to all 3 buildings using just one controller)

Due to the small footprint of the new system we were also able to carry out the installation with the old system still in place allowing us to have both systems running simultaneously for a truly zero downtime change over. The performance enhancement and space savings makes the before and after photos below a night and day improvement.