iDR SOLVES EMERGENCY AND SAFETY AUDIO DISTRIBUTION NEEDS AT LEADING FIRE EXTINGUISHER MANUFACTURING FACILITY

Alabama-based Amerex Corporation has installed an Allen & Heath iDR DSP system to manage the audio distribution of important operational and safety functions, including fire and tornado alarms, telephone paging, and the shift-break alarm. Designed and installed by EBS group in conjunction with Amerex's in-house system technicians, the iDR system comprises an iDR-4 16x16 matrix mixer and PL-8 four input/output logic switch closure control panel. "We chose the iDR because the programming of the box is very simple and the processor is very solid. We were able to install and configure the system very quickly without any of the employees being disturbed," states EBS’s Larry Bounds. "We have also used the iDR in many other installations and we have found it to be a flexible and reliable solution."

The Amerex Corporation is the world’s leading manufacturer of fire extinguishers, and its 500-employee facility includes various alarm systems for fire, tornado, and shift-break. The iDR-4 manages the matrix for the various alarms connected via the company's telephone paging system, whereby the PL-8 is used to patch the signal from the alarms through to the iDR system. When one of the alarms is tripped, a pulse signal is routed through the PL-8 to the iDR-4, which un-mutes and prioritizes the appropriate channel, distributing on-board tone generator signals matched to the alarm's sonic signature throughout the company. After the initial programming of the input and output matrix, ESB group used the iDR's Ethernet interface to connect to the company's network. This enables Amerex's in-house technician, Stan Vining, to not only make changes to the system as needed but use the reporting features to send out emails to the entire company when an alarm has been tripped, or when there is a scheduled tornado or fire drill. Stan also has the ability to sync the iDR with the network system clock, which will keep the iDR event scheduler in time with the rest of the facility.