Real Estate Journal — Owners, Developers & Managers — January 30 - February 12, 2015 — 5B
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M id A tlantic
B uilding S ervices & S uppliers
By Brian Arenofsky, BH Security Your fire alarm systems and phone lines: The truth about their future together
A
long time ago fire alarm systems trans- mitted their signals
fire alarm systems. Supervi- sion was accomplished by con- tinually measuring the phone line voltage generated by the phone company central office. With a digital dialer you are required to have at least one dedicated phone number and a second line that could be shared with a house phone for back up. As property owners it was not likely that you had a second line that could be shared so you are more than likely still paying for two dedi- cated lines. Now the issue is that most of our phone carriers are
rapidly moving away from traditional copper lines and replacing them with fiber VOIP (voice over IP) which is not acceptable as the primary means of communications for a commercial fire alarm system. Soon you will have a fire alarm system that is not communicating or supervised with your central station as there is no measurable voltage going through the fiber. The solution is very simple. Install a radio communicator that is listed as a dual path communicator. To meet our customer’s needs, BH Security
started building our own pri- vate radio network utilizing AES IntelliNet Fire Radios. These radios utilize a star pattern which retransmits signals from one radio to at minimum two other radios in our network until they reach the radio receiver at our of- fice as well as at the central station. This is even more redundancy than is required by NFPA. The signals are normally at the central sta- tion being processed by an operator within 3 to 5 seconds after the fire alarm systemhas activated. In the three years
since we started installing ra- dios in lieu of utilizing phone lines, we have a network of just under 300 radios. Not only have we been able to give our customers a much more reliable means of com- munications, we have elimi- nated the nuisance calls about down phone lines and at the same time have saved our customers approx. $500.00 per year. Brian Arenofsky is the sales manager and direc- tor of business develop- ment at BH Security in Union, NJ. n
over direct lines to the fire depart- ment, police department or a central station. This meant you pa i d f o r a line to con-
Brian Arenofsky
Benchmark Construction hires Andy Gilburg nect directly from your fire alarm panel to the proper authority. This was a very secure path as it was continu- ally supervised and you knew as soon as the line went down. As technology advanced and the costs associated with the installation and maintenance of the direct lines increased another method was required to save money yet be as se- cure. The digital dialer was developed and with enhance- ments met code as the primary means of communications for Benchmark Construction Company of Brownstown, PA has hired Andy Gilburg as a preconstruc- tion manag- er. Gilburg is responsible for develop- ing new busi- ness opportu- nities as well as facilitat- ing the pre- construction process of current projects. Gilburg works closely with the design consultants to bring clients visions to real- ity while maintaining project objectives. He also works with municipal agencies to guide the approval processes in preparation for the start of construction. Ultimately, Gilburg will be responsible for initiating and maintaining cli- ent relationships by providing support and control through a project’s development. Gilburg attended Frank- lin & Marshall College and earned a Bachelor of Arts de- gree in business management. He was previously employed with Kinsley Construction and brings over 14 years of construction-related experi- ence. Gilburg resides in Lancaster City with his family. n Andy Gilburg
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