Nittan are delighted that after careful consideration Solutions for Systems in Northern Ireland chose to use Nittan equipment to protect the Bloomfield Shopping Centre in Bangor. In fact, William McBride of Solutions for Systems stated “Nittan were specified because the client required that the system selected be compliant, cost effective, user friendly and have functionality to permit integration with existing or future building management systems”.
In detail, the system installed needed to be compliant with BS5839 Part 1 2017 Fire Detection and Fire alarm systems for buildings and in today’s competitive environment the system selected also needed to meet the client’s budgetary expectations, including the design of the system, equipment, installation, and maintenance. The system also had to meet the client’s very specific user requirements i.e., the design and installation would ensure that shopping centre personnel could quickly and effectively access and assess any alerts on the fire alarm system, and this needed to be from various locations in the shopping mall and across the retail park. Finally, the solution provided to the client needed to ensure the system had the functionality to readily interface with the existing centre BMS and also the systems in individual shop/retail units.
Nittan Europe appointed Solutions for Systems as an Elite Partner in Northern Ireland in July 2020 because they had undertaken product training and already successfully completed many Nittan Evolution-based Fire Alarm installations.
Accordingly Solutions for Systems had no hesitation in designing a system using the Nittan Evolution 1 fire alarm control panel, as these touch screen panels are user-friendly, reliable and cost effective. 
A total of 8 were installed in a network at strategic locations throughout the site reducing the need to have site personnel located at a single panel in a control room.
Nittan Europe’s EV-DPH-A2R Dual Optical Heat Detectors were selected as part of the system as they provide an excellent solution to reduce potential unwanted alarms which a Shopping Centre and Retail environment may be prone to. In addition Nittan EV-AV2-Sounder Beacon Bases were selected and used throughout the centre as they provide both sound and visual indication of alarm.
The Nittan system is compliant to current regulations and industry standards, is cost effective and has the functionality required to meet the client’s current and future requirements. The cause-and-effect requirements of the centre and retail park, whilst complex and detailed, were easily configured and as this can be performed off site this reduces installation and commissioning time meaning reduced disruption to client and competitive installation costs. In addition, the system is open protocol and comes with an extended warranty which means the client has reassurance from an ongoing maintenance perspective there should be minimal future costs after install.
(The image shows Philip Kydd of Solutions for Systems commissioning an Evolution1 panel)
