CN1201556C - Communication system for building - Google Patents

Abstract

The communication system of the building has a wired hazard defense system with a control center (5, 7) and peripheral devices (3, 6) connected to the control center via lines (4, 8). Addressable means for receiving information and transmitting this information to a control center are provided on said line. The defense system may consist of a fire alarm system equipped with peripheral fire alarms (3) whose transceiver station (10) for radio signals is connected to a line (4) connecting the fire alarms to the control center (5). The defense system can also be composed of an electroacoustic emergency alarm system with loudspeakers (6) distributed on the periphery, and the loudspeakers are additionally designed as microphones or equipped with microphones (12).

Description

communication systems for buildings

technical field

The invention relates to a communication system for buildings, which has a wired hazard defense system with a control center and peripheral devices wired to the control center.

Background technique

Such a hazard prevention system may be, for example, a fire alarm system with fire alarms distributed throughout the building connected to the control center via a bus, or a fire alarm system with speakers for announcing evacuation distributed throughout the building. Electroacoustic emergency alarm system. Of course, it can also be a combination of a fire alarm system and an electroacoustic emergency alarm system.

In addition to the electroacoustic emergency alarm system, a "fire phone" independent of the system can also be provided, and firefighters can use it to communicate with the action commander in the control center on the spot. This fire telephone is fixed wired connection and has a fixed installed telephone. It is cheaper to replace the fire telephone with a radio system or conventional wireless communication system, but the range of use of radio equipment is limited, especially in large reinforced concrete buildings. It is known to install a coaxial cable in a building as an antenna so that the radio need only be jumpered to the coaxial cable. However, coax is also an additional and expensive investment.

Radio systems have the fundamental disadvantage that all users use one channel, so that the operational commander cannot automatically know where the corresponding signal comes from. Fire phones, on the other hand, do not have the aforementioned disadvantages of radio systems, since, in this case, each call will light up a small light marking the line concerned.

Contents of the invention

The present invention will provide a communication system of the type mentioned at the outset, which has all the advantages of a radio system, that is, has low additional installation costs and the ability to communicate with the control center at any point in the building, but also can Automatically identify caller's location.

According to the invention, this task is achieved in that addressable devices are provided on the line of the hazard prevention system for receiving information and for sending this information to a control center.

Therefore, in the communication system of the present invention, the existing lines of the hazard prevention system are used for communication with the control center by connecting receiving stations to these lines at some key points. The receiving stations have their own addresses so that even if the signal is input by one of the receiving stations, it is known at the control center which station sent the signal.

Depending on the type of hazard defense system, various implementations for the communication system are presented below:

A first preferred embodiment of the communication system according to the invention is characterized in that the hazard defense system consists of a fire alarm system equipped with peripheral fire alarms, and transceivers for radio signals and lines connecting the fire alarms and the control center connected. These connection points of the transceiver station are preferably chosen such that those standard radio devices are located within a reliable communication distance to the transceiver station at any point in the building.

If each radio device also has its own address, and this address is sent together with the signal, then not only the transceiver station but also the radio device can be identified in the control center. Communication from the control center to the caller is also possible via the signal line to the transceiver station, for example in digitally coded form, and radio communication is used from the transceiver station to the corresponding radio equipment. The radio communication may be in analog or digitally coded form, with the signal output as a text display or via speakers/headsets.

A second preferred embodiment of the inventive communication system is characterized in that existing signals are transmitted intermittently by the radio, so that the respective positions of the users of the radio and their movements within the building can be detected at the control center.

The accuracy of position determination is given by the communication system according to the distance between transceiver stations. If many stations receive signals from the same radio at the same time, the position of the radio can be determined from the strength of the received signal. If the current location of the radio user is known, an exact call can be made by dialing the nearest station or one of the nearest stations.

A third preferred embodiment is characterized in that the hazard protection system consists of an electroacoustic emergency warning system with loudspeakers distributed around the periphery, and the loudspeakers are additionally designed as microphones or are equipped with microphones.

The extension of this electro-acoustic emergency alarm system to a communication system opens up the possibility of two-way communication between the control center and the emergency services and additionally with the residents of the building, where the latter uses a loudspeaker with microphone function as a permanently installed telephone use. Furthermore, this embodiment provides the control center with the possibility to "listen", ie to be able to audibly track events in the building within the control center.

A further preferred embodiment of the communication system according to the invention is characterized in that cameras are assigned to the radio signal transponders and/or loudspeakers or at least some of them, and these cameras are also connected to the control center via the mentioned lines.

Equipped with cameras, this "listening" system was expanded into a "surveillance" system, and it was possible for the operational director in the control center to access the cameras as needed and obtain an accurate overview of the situation in the building. In particular by means of this, evacuation routes such as corridors and stairwells can be viewed before information about the use of the evacuation routes is given by the electroacoustic emergency warning system or the communication system. Of course, in this embodiment the emergency services can also communicate with the control center by means of radio equipment and the transceiver of the fire alarm system, or via the microphone of the loudspeaker of the electroacoustic emergency alarm system.

Description of drawings

The invention will be described in more detail below with reference to an exemplary embodiment illustrated in the single drawing. Figure 1 shows a brief detail of a building equipped with a fire alarm system and an electroacoustic emergency alarm system, where these two hazard protection systems are extended as a communication system. In practice, people tend to limit themselves to only one communication system.

Detailed ways

The building is represented by a corridor 1 and some rooms 2, and only the rooms 2 along one side of the corridor 1 are shown. Fire alarms 3 are installed in corridor 1 and room 2, these fire alarms are connected on bus 4, power is supplied to fire alarms 3 via this bus, and fire alarms 3 communicate with fire alarm control center 5 via this bus. The latter is located in the command room of the Dalou Alarm and Rescue Control Center which is the seat of the operational directors or conductors of the different emergency services during an emergency. In addition to the fire alarm system, the building is equipped with an electroacoustic emergency alarm system having loudspeakers 6 installed at selected locations in the building and connected to lines 8 connected to the evacuation control center 7 . The evacuation control center 7 is also located in the aforementioned command room, and it can be connected to the fire alarm control center 5 through a higher-level risk management system 9 .

The electroacoustic emergency alarm system is used to issue evacuation and rescue information from the evacuation control center 7 to people in the building. At the same time, the system can send out many different signals, where these signals are either stored tones or tone sequences, or live or stored announcements. While most electroacoustic emergency alarm systems in use today use a separate cable for each distinct audible message, in this system digital communication technology is used. This means that line 8 is a multi-channel line with which several signals can be transmitted simultaneously.

In the building shown there is also provided a communication system for communication between the control center and the emergency services, which utilizes the existing installations of the fire alarm system and/or the electroacoustic emergency alarm system. In the figure, both the fire alarm system and the electroacoustic emergency alarm system are expanded into a communication system, and the two communication systems overlap to a large extent. But only for cost reasons, in practice it was decided to use only a single communication system, so the two systems would not be used in parallel. It will also be understood with reference to the drawings that one communication system can provide two possibilities for selection. The communication system using the fire alarm system will be described first, followed by the communication system using the electroacoustic emergency alarm system.

As shown in the drawings, the transceiver station 10 for radio signals is connected to the bus 4 connecting the fire alarm 3 to the fire alarm control center 5, and the connection position is located at a key selection point such as in a corridor 1, a stairwell or a public room superior. In this case, the distribution of the stations 10 in the building is selected such that standard radio devices 11 are located within their reliable communication distance to these stations at any point in the building. Each transceiver station has an individual address by means of which it can be identified and dialed.

If the firefighter wants to send a signal to the command room, he can usually use his radio equipment 11 to send a radio signal, which is received by the nearest transceiver station and sent over the bus 4 in digital code together with the station's address To the fire alarm control center 5. In this case, the signal format is selected in such a way that the fire alarm system and the communication system can simultaneously use the bus 4 as a transmission line without interfering with each other. If each radio device 11 also has a separate address and this address is sent with each radio signal, the control center can identify not only the transceiver station which sent the signal, but also the radio device 11 which originally sent the signal. Preferably, a control panel for the communication system is provided in the command room, which control panel has a light display for incoming signals and a call key or call button for each transceiver station distributed in the building.

If each radio 11 transmits a current signal at intervals of a few seconds, and the signal is received by the nearest transceiver station 10 and then transmitted to the command room via that station, then the users of the radios 11 concerned are within the building Movement and his current location can be monitored in the command room. If several transceiver stations 10 receive the same radio signal, the position of the associated radio device 11 can be determined in such a way that each transceiver station 10 records the strength of the received radio signal and transmits it to the control Center 7, so that, by means of this signal strength, the current position of the relevant radio device 11 can be determined in the command room.

Communication in the opposite direction - from the command room to the radio equipment 11 - can also take place via the bus 4 by dialing the relevant transceiver station 10 and possibly adjacent receiving stations and transmitting a corresponding signal to the called station. These stations then send their received signals in the form of radio telegrams and this information is received by the radio 11 .

Having explained the communication system using the fire alarm system, it is now time to explain the communication system using the electroacoustic emergency alarm system:

As shown by reference numeral 12 in the figure, the speaker 6 of the electroacoustic emergency alarm system is equipped with a microphone function, which is used to receive sound information and transmit it to the evacuation control center 7 via the line 8 . Microphone function means that the loudspeaker 6 is either designed as a microphone in addition or carries a microphone 12 itself. Here, the microphones 12 can be designed in such a way that they can be manually accessed on the spot and can be used as a telephone, or can be accessed remotely by a control center, or at a certain noise level or a certain noise type to switch automatically.

In this way, on the one hand, the emergency services can communicate with the action commander through the microphone 12 and the loudspeaker 6. It is also possible to purposely listen to specific critical areas of the building, such as stairwells or evacuation routes, and to track the reactions of people in these areas.

For this purpose, using digital signal processing and signal transmission technology, video images can also be transmitted in addition to audio information, wherein a transmission via the bus 4 is also possible by designing the bus 4 accordingly. For this reason, the scenarios described below regarding the use of cameras and regarding the transmission of video images relate to both fire alarm systems and electroacoustic emergency alarm systems.

According to the figure, the digital camera 13 is installed at key points in the corridor 1 or other important areas in the building. The camera is either connected to the bus 4 or connected to the line 8. Low bandwidth and speed transmission to the command room. The camera is preferably automatically switched on by the fire alarm system when fire alarms 3 in the relevant area respond. As a result, the operational commander can observe the development of the fire and the behavior of people in the evacuation routes. When connected to the bus 4, the camera 13 can be installed in a bracket connected to the fire alarm 3, or on a bracket fixed near the alarm (see WO application PCT/CH99/00413). The video camera is preferably in CMOS technology, the image of which can be compressed by the processor in such a way that it can be transmitted via bus 4 or line 8 with sufficient frequency.

The communication system described is only relevant for communication within the building system. However, the operational commander may wish to contact further emergency services as soon as possible. For this purpose, there is a suitable communication link between the command room and the fire brigade, for example via a mobile phone. In this way, the operational directors in the command room can constantly report the situation at the evacuation point to the emergency services at any time, so that when they arrive at the scene of the fire, they have all the necessary information and can act in the best possible way.

If the fire truck is equipped with a PC with a monitor and a printer, information about the current situation can be continuously transmitted from the command room via the mobile phone to the fire truck on the road and can be displayed on the monitor or printed out by the printer. The fire brigade can also communicate with certain existing electroacoustic emergency alarm systems or with the building's internal communication system from the mobile fire engine through the command room, and can use this method to transmit instructions to people in the building on how to act.

Claims (11)

1. Communication system for buildings, which has a wired hazard defense system with a control center (5, 7) and peripherals (3, 6) connected to said control center via lines (4, 8) , is characterized in that on the line (4, 8) of the danger defense system, addressable means for receiving information and transmitting the information to the control center (5, 7) are provided. 2. Communication system according to claim 1, characterized in that: said danger defense system consists of a fire alarm system equipped with peripheral fire alarms (3); The line (4) connecting the fire alarm (3) and the control center (5) is connected. 3. Communication system according to claim 2, characterized in that: the connection point for the transceiver station (10) is selected such that standard radio equipment (11) is located at any point in the building to the transceiver station (10) ) within a reliable communication distance. 4. Communication system according to claim 3, characterized in that the current signal is transmitted intermittently by said radio equipment (11) so that the corresponding positions of the users of the radio equipment (11) and their movement in the building All can be detected in the control center (5). 5. The communication system according to claim 1, characterized in that: said danger defense system is composed of an electro-acoustic emergency alarm system with loudspeaker (6) distributed on the periphery, and the loudspeaker is additionally designed as a microphone or is equipped with a microphone (12 ). 6. The communication system according to claim 5, characterized in that: the microphone (12) can be connected in situ together with the loudspeaker (6), and can be used for communication with the control center (7) in the form of a telephone communication. 7. The communication system according to claim 5, characterized in that the microphone (12) can be accessed remotely by the control center (7). 8. The communication system according to claim 5 or 6, characterized in that: said microphone (12) is provided with a noise sensor, and when a certain noise level is exceeded or a certain noise type is present, the associated microphone ( 12) just connect automatically, and establish connection with control center (7). 9. Communication system according to claim 2 or 5, characterized in that the camera (13) is assigned to a radio signal transceiver station (10) and/or a loudspeaker (6) or at least some of them, and these Video camera (13) also links to each other with control center (5 or 7) through described line (4 or 8). 10. Communication system according to claim 9, characterized in that the camera (13) can be accessed remotely by the control center (5, 7). 11. The communication system according to claim 9, characterized in that: the camera (13) can be connected by an alarm signal of a fire alarm (3).

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