Regardless of the type of work environment your business operates within, it should have an up-to-date emergency plan which includes an evacuation and nurse call system. Depending on the type of system, you might need a specialist to hard wire it into your premises. If you're using a Vanguard Wireless system, you'll just need to identify where you want to install your evacuation or nurse call triggers, and evacuation sirens, then power up your devices and test.
Flexible Installations
If you're seeking to install a permanent system - with little to no requirement for relocation of devices once they're positioned - then a hard wired system could be right for you. The physical wiring ensures a stable connection, reducing the chance of connection failures and false alarms. The building codes in your council or state might specify a hard wired system for your specific type of building or business. Hard wired evacuation or nurse call systems are often connected to the building’s electrical system, ensuring a consistent power source.
However the installation of hard-wired systems can be more expensive, as it involves laying cables throughout the building. Adding or modifying devices in the system after construction can be more difficult due to the need to run new wires. Vermin can also cause issues with hard wired systems, often with little to no insight into where the wires have been damage, making for costly investigation and repairs.
Vanguard Wireless systems don't need to be hard wired. They use an internal radio frequency or cellular chip to establish a connection to the rest of the system. Most of the evacuation and nurse call devices use rechargeable batteries, so they can be located in areas where they can establish the strongest connection. Systems are shipped as a plug-and-play solution, meaning the devices are already connected to one another.
Wireless Networks
Evacuation sirens and evacuation triggers can use a radio frequency signal to establish a connection the network. As long as they are within range of at least one device, they can form a local network. This can be a hardware only system, or a hardware and software system. Vanguard Wireless nurse call systems can also utilise radio frequency networks.
When you're installing a radio frequency system, you need to start with the primary device and build out like a string or spiderweb. You might have an evacuation system with the primary device in the middle, and secondary devices circling around it. Alternatively you could have a nurse call system with multiple devices on every floor, across multiple storeys or buildings.
Business environments differ greatly so it's best to select locations for devices and, if you're using the software, view the strength of the connection and adjust if needed.
You can also check our telemetry graphs which will show you how the network is set up, and which devices are integral to the system's operability (for example if five devices are using the same device to connect). This is an example of the graph:
Another alternative to radio frequency networking is cellular. In this instance each device establishes a connection to our cloud server, which connects all the devices on the network. Cellular networking devices don't have any range issues. They just need to be able to access a strong cellular connection.
Vanguard Wireless smoke detectors and wearable nurse call triggers use a Bluetooth signal. When they are triggered, they push the alert to the closest enabled Vanguard Wireless smartphone app or Vanguard Wireless trigger or siren.
Ease Of Monitoring and Managing
With a wireless system it's important to monitor each device's power status to ensure that the connection is not interrupted by a loss of power, something that's generally not a risk with a hard wired system. If your system is using radio frequency, Bluetooth, or cellular signals to connect to other devices and the system, you need to understand what power source they're using, what the range is between devices to facilitate a communications network, and regularly monitor or test to ensure optimal operational efficiency.