Security Systems News

June 2011

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24 FIRE SYSTEMS INSTALLATION www.securitysystemsnews.com JUNE 2011 SECURITY SYSTEMS NEWS FIRE SYSTEMS INSTALLATION Potter launches new line New addressable fire panels aimed at the middle market By Tess Nacelewicz St. LOUIS—In what executives say is a major launch four years in the making, Potter Electric Signal released a new line of addressable fire panels at ISC West that it will showcase at the NFPA in June. The company is excited about new capabilities included in the line such as system-wide synchro- nization, Ethernet connection and email communication capabilities, Dave Kosciuk, executive VP and general manager of Potter’s Fire/ Security Division, told Security Systems News. Potter has “taken the lead in providing the over-the-counter fire market with the most advanced systems in the industry,” Jeff Hendrickson, VP product man- agement for Potter’s Fire/Security Division, said in a statement. Kosciuk said the new IP-based panels are plug and play for ease of installation and are designed people’s products and privately labeled them and brought them to market.” for the medium to low-end mar- ketplace, buildings such as small hotels, K-12, and box stores such as pharmacy chains. Part of Potter’s PFC Series, Kosciuk said the line represents a shift for the privately-held Potter, which has “always been a third- party-to-market type of manu- facturer” that has taken “other In this case, Kosciuk said, “this is Potter’s first line of [addressable] fire alarm control panels that we actually wrote the specifications for and did the design work and the engineering.” He said, “This is very exciting for Potter because we are an inde- pendent and it gives an alternative to the marketplace from someone other than the big guys.” Among the features of the panels is email communication capability. “You could gather a lot of information [such as status reports and programming POTTER see page 25 Vector fights false alarms By Tess Nacelewicz PITTSBURGH—False alarms are no match for Kristina Walker, Vector Security’s false alarm reduction-permit compliance coordinator. Since 2005, her job with Vector, a full-service alarm com- pany based here, has involved helping the company’s national retail customers maintain the lowest possible false alarm rates for their fire and burglar alarm systems. She’s also married to a police officer. “So I hear his side of it and I also see the customers’ side,” Walker told Security Systems News. She tries to show “how false alarms affect everyone.” Her work has paid off, said David Merrick, Vector VP of market- ing. “She has managed to reduce false alarms by 52 percent for our [large nationwide retail- ers] National Accounts Division customers.” Walker recently was one of two recipients of the 2011 W. Rex Bell Associate Member of the Year award from the False Alarm Reduction Association. The other winner was Stuart Forchheimer, president of Homesafe Security Systems, a division of Baltimore-based HS Technology Group. Vector has made Kristina Walker reducing false alarms a mission, Merrick said. “We led the battle when it came to false alarms,” he said. The effort was initiated by former president John Murphy in 2003 and current president Pam Petrow continues it. SSN Firefighters learn on panel Silent Knight, Safe Harbor join in donation of fire panel to school By Tess Nacelewicz VERMILION, Ohio—Safe Harbor Security & Fire and Silent Knight by Honeywell Fire Systems Group have teamed up to help firefighters in training learn to famil- iarize themselves with a fire alarm panel, so they’ll know what to do in a real-life scenario. Silent Knight has donated one of its fire alarm panels and various peripheral devices to the EHOVE Career Center, a public career tech Jason Deptula center in Milan, Ohio that offers firefighter training. Safe Harbor, a fire and security ser- vices provider based here, plans to install and program the system for free in June. Safe Harbor, where owner John Gonos and lead technician Jason Deptula are both vol- unteer firefighters who trained at EHOVE, coordinated the donation. “Technology scares a lot of people. You go into a building and if you’re not familiar with an alarm system, you might be afraid to touch it,” Deptula told Security Systems News. He said interacting with the donated panel can help firefight- ers prepare for real-life situations, providing information “in as many different scenarios as possible.” Kathie Rose, Silent Knight’s North Central regional sales man- ager, said the company was eager to help out the community. She added, “Anything that has to do with firefighting, we definitely support.” SSN Brothers earns UL listing By Tess Nacelewicz ELK RIVER, Minn.—Brothers Fire Protection announced in April that its fire alarm and life safety team has been granted an Underwriters Laboratory (UL) listing for the company’s fire alarm and monitoring services. “We’re very excited,” Stephen Cieslukowski, president of the 75-employee company based here, told Security Systems News. “It’s a huge milestone for us.” The accreditation is the highest level a fire alarm company can achieve, he said. He praised the team led by general manager Rick Halloran for effort to earn the list- ing, which took about two years and required months of review and on site testing by UL. Cieslukowski said being UL listed will allow Brothers Fire to expand its footprint in a number of Minnesota cities that are sub- urbs of the Twin Cities. “You have to have this UL list- ing to provide fire alarm services in those cities,” he said. For a more robust version of stories in this section, see: WWW.SECURITYSYSTEMSNEWS.COM n The listing carries two big benefits, he said. “It opens up the number of accounts we can solicit and it opens up the market probably by 20- to 30 percent for us. And it also raises our stature. As a UL-compliant company ... you can advertise and tell people: ‘We’ve completed these steps and had an independent group review our installation and procedure.’” Brothers Fire, in business 17 years and a Siemens distributor, serves Minnesota clients in the Minneapolis and St. Paul area, and also in four other states, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa and Wisconsin, the company said. In addition to its Elk River headquar- ters, the company has offices in Duluth and St. Cloud, Minn. Brothers Fire’s business is about 50 percent fire—including fire sprinklers and alarm and sup- pression systems design, build- ing, installation, inspection and service—and half security. SSN BRIEFS Silent Knight sponsors fire alarm trainings NORTHFORD, Conn.—Silent Knight by Honeywell is sponsoring a nationwide series of basic and advanced fire alarm trainings throughout 2011. The Knight School will offer fire alarm installers and facility managers hands-on tech- nical training on the latest IntelliKnight systems from Silent Knight. Successful course completion qualifies attendees for CEUs. All Knight School courses train on the IntelliKnight line of non-proprietary fire alarm systems sold over-the-counter through wholesale distributors nation- wide. For groups with specific needs, custom on-site training is also available. Visit www.silentknight.com for more information. UTC Fire & Security acquires Simtronics FARMINGTON, Conn.—UTC Fire & Security, a unit of United Technologies Corp., announced in April that it has acquired Simtronics, “a Norway-based provider of sophisticated gas and flame detection systems, extinguishing solu- tions and fire prevention systems for marine and off-shore industries.” “This is an important strategic acqui- sition for UTC Fire & Security. We will be expanding our offering of high qual- ity gas and flame detection products, as well as increasing our ability to provide gaseous suppression solutions for our customers,” stated Scott Buckhout, president, UTC Fire & Security, in a statement. NFPA, Underwriters Laboratories offer electrical seminars QUINCY, Mass.—The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), based here, and Underwriters Laboratories (UL) have joined together to provide new workshops for electrical inspectors, installers, and engineers. The seminars will cover topics related to NFPA 70, National Electrical Code (NEC); NFPA 79, Electrical Standard for Industrial Machinery; and UL’s 508A, Standard for Industrial Control Panels and Short Circuit Current Ratings. Continuing education units (CEUs) are offered for all the seminars. One of the seminars, the National Electrical Code for Photovoltaics, will advise attendees on design practices, and the installation and inspection of photovoltaic systems. The seminar will be in the following locations: Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on June 21; Las Vegas, on Nov. 15; and Dallas on Nov. 29 For more information go to www. nfpa.org/catalog.

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