Product category:
Fire, smoke and gas leak detection
News Release from: DTec Video Smoke Detection Systems | Subject: FireVu
Edited by the Processingtalk Editorial
Team on 01 April 2005
VSD technology to be unveiled at Fire
Expo
D-Tec is using the International Fire Expo at the NEC to unveil its latest ground-breaking technology, the new FireVu IP-based system for remote continuous fire monitoring
D-Tec is using International Fire Expo at the NEC to unveil its latest ground-breaking technology The new FireVu IP-based system, which will allow remote monitoring of a potential fire to ensure 24-hour-a-day, fast response as well as remote testing and diagnostics, will be on show for the first time anywhere in the world
This article was originally published on Processingtalk on 18 Jul 2008 at 8.00am (UK)
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Managing Director, Ian Moore, explains.
"The D-Tec camera-based fire detection, sometimes referred to as VSD or Video Smoke Detection, is now well established around the world protecting a host of applications that typically are external areas, high roof and large volume structures, and unmanned locations.
Recent contracts have included the latest architectural masterpiecein London, the new Swiss Re "Gherkin" building; turbine halls in seven of the Irish Republic Electricity Supply Board power stations; the huge on-shore oil terminal in Azerbaijan and the new 2.5km Alassio tunnel in Italy.
Further reading
VIdeo smoke detection training in Hong Kong
CCTV camera-based Video Smoke Detection (VSD) pioneer, D-Tec has undertaken an intensive three-day training session in Hong Kong for its partners in the Far East
Smoke detection in the Sydney Harbour tunnel
Chubb Fire Safety has been awarded a contract to install the D-Tec camera-based fire detection system within the Sydney Harbour Tunnel, the largest privately-funded public works project in Australia
Smoke detection for the world's largest hangar
The world's largest aircraft hangar at the Dubai International Airport, home to the private aircraft of the Dubai ruling family, is protected by D-Tec FM approved video smoke detection systems
Now, with the introduction of FireVu, the new D-Tec TCP/IP [Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol] based system, VSD will be easier to use and maintain; it will allow remote monitoring of a potential incident to ensure 24-hour-a-day fast response and remote testing and diagnostics.
Another major step forward is that being IP-based, FireVu will allow smoke detection to be more comprehensively integrated with security and facilities management systems.
How VSD works.
D-Tec VSD uses a unique fire detection system for which the product was awarded The Queen's Award for Innovation in 2003 - it detects fire using standard CCTV cameras.
It was originally developed in the late 1990s as a reliable early warning fire detection solution for nuclear-powered turbine halls.
However, its significant advantages over other detection systems was soon realised and, today, the D-Tec FM [Factory Mutual] approved system is recognised as a mainstream fire safety solution.
Briefly, VSD works by computer analysis of video images provided by standard CCTV cameras: often existing CCTV security installations.
Using advanced image processing technology and extensive detection and known false-alarm phenomena algorithms, VSD automatically identifies the particular motion pattern of smoke and alerts the system operator to its presence in the shortest possible time.
Because VSD does not rely on the proximity of smoke to the detector, its effectiveness is not affected by distance.
The system rapidly detects smoke by seeking small areas of change within an image.
These are then passed through a series of filters that seek the particular characteristics that are known to be associated with smoke behaviour.
Among the many major benefits of VSD is its fast reaction time compared with other smoke detection systems on the market that may not detect a fire until it is well advanced.
This is because VSD is constantly looking at the source, unlike other systems currently available that rely on the smoke finding the detector.
Although it is claimed that other camera-based systems are able to detect smoke, these are motion detectors or obscuration-change detectors that are unable to differentiate between smoke and other sources of movement and so are prone to false alarms.
The uniqueness of the D-Tec VSD is its intelligence; the ability to accurately detect smoke patterns and differentiate between them and other movement patterns.
FireVu is all about faster and more efficient communication.
It takes VSD from being a system that is limited to being monitored on local site-based computers, to one where the alarm, including the video images, can be distributed to an unlimited number of remote control centres.
It utilises the latest secure communications technology and applies it to the proven VSD platform to take sophisticated, accurate and high-speed smoke, flame, or combined smoke and flame detection to a greater level of versatility, integration, cost effectiveness and responsiveness.
This means that one control centre can monitor any number of VSD installations, anywhere in the world.
There is virtually no limitation on the distribution of alarm information; FireVu can use any number of operating systems and can be monitored on any PC.
System faults are also reported via IP, and alarm information can also be sent by SMS [Short Message Service] and MMS [Multi Media Service] to mobile telephones, hand-helds and via e-mail.
As it uses TCP/IP as the communications backbone, FireVu also allows easier and faster monitoring and diagnosis of installations, and hence the quicker resolution of any maintenance issues.
Reconfiguring a FireVu system - when, for example, changes have been made to the facility being protected - can be carried out remotely, removing the cost and delay associated with travelling to the site.
The same applies should a system fault arise.
All of the alarm events are recorded on the system DVR [Digital Video Recorder], so pre and post-event analysis can be carried out to assist the facility management to identify any changes that need to be made to the site fire safety plan.
This pre and post-event analysis enables the operator to view what, or who, caused the incident.
FireVu also allows seamless integration with a site or sites other safety and security systems, enabling greater use of existing security equipment by including smoke and flame detection.
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