Sector D Gallery Sounders
Location: The British Museum, Bloomsbury, London WC1
Duration: 12 weeks
Scope of project
The project comprises the installation of new Voice Alarm (VA) and alarm sounders via wired speakers within Sector D Galleries, which was installed spread across 14 No. speaker zones.
Alpine Works contracted a voice alarm specialist Tyco Fire & integrated Solutions to supply and commission the speakers, to integrate with the existing installation. Works included testing and commissioning of the voice alarm system prior to handover. As part of the initial testing and commissioning, we provided speaker line impedance and continuity testing, then Tyco made the final connections within the equipment rack of the new infrastructure.
Alpine Works also engaged the services of the Framework Contractor Coniston Limited for the additional provision of protection to walls and floors in non-working areas where we expected to install services infrastructure. All holes and services penetrations were fire stopped in accordance with the British Museum’s Fire Stopping Supplement. Temporary fire stopping was also provided by Alpine Works at the end of each working day to all holes and services penetrations made in the building fabric.
Commissioning included testing of sound pressure levels and equalisation of the output to achieve best results. Tyco Fire & Integrated Solutions tested the Speech Transmission Index (STI) within each of the galleries and produce a report showing the levels of speech intelligibility for each gallery to meet with the Museum’s requirements.
Testing and commissioning were completed outside normal working hours and supervised by the Alpine Works project team.
All system cabling, and galleries identified as ‘full’ VA, conforms to the requirements of BS 5839 Pt 8: 2008 and is fully compliant with the requirements of the Museum’s FAEL Harmonisation Document. Prior to completion, full functionality of all VA and associated systems was demonstrated in the form of a Site Acceptance Test.
Challenges
The project was challenging in many respects due to the high level working within galleries from MEWP’s and the night roof works installing long runs of MICC cabling on new and existing containment routes.
The works was carried out in two phases: the installation of circuit cabling between the amplifiers and building entry points at roof level was carried out during the day and the gallery works were undertaken at night.
