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Product category: Plantwide control
News Release from: Honeywell Control Systems | Subject: Enterprise Buildings Integrator
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial Team on 09 May 2001

Seamless access to building control
systems

The UK's first integrated building management system has been installed at Belfast's Odyssey centre, using Honeywell's Enterprise Buildings Integrator

The UK's first integrated building management system has been installed at Belfast's Odyssey centre, using Honeywell's Enterprise Buildings Integrator (EBI) to provide seamless "single window" access to fire, security, access control and building energy management systems Odyssey is Northern Ireland's largest-ever civil engineering project, comprising four venues

The first to open has been the Arena, a 10,000-seat indoor sports and entertainment stadium.

The other venues are "W5" (whowhatwhenwherewhy), an interactive science, engineering and technology centre; a Sheriden IMAX cinema; and the Pavilion including a 12-screen multiplex cinema and a two-storeys of restaurants, bars and retail outlets.

These will open during 2001.

The complex has three control rooms from which Honeywell EBI's open architecture and robust user interface provides seamless access to real-time and historical data from all subsystems, from fire and security to energy management.

Critical decisions can be made quickly, with positive effects on safety, security and energy efficiency.

The control rooms are distributed across the complex: one serves the Arena, the second the W5 centre, the third both the Pavilion and IMAX cinema.

As the EBI terminals across the site are networked, each control room can supervise its own part of the complex during its own public opening times, then hand over supervision to operators elsewhere at other times.

Ballymena-based J B Electrical was contracted to supply all electrical services for the entire 23-acre site.

It contracted two Belfast-based systems integrators in two specialist areas: The Diamond Systems Group for CCTV, security and access control, and ATC Systems for the complete building energy management systems.

Both are accredited systems integrators to Honeywell's Home and Building Control business, the global leader in building system technology, which provided the management systems themselves.

In practical terms, Honeywell supplied the fire and security system equipment to Diamond Systems, and the building management system to ATC; then supervised the installation of the EBI software to enable all the subsystems to link seamlessly.

Underpinning the whole installation is a structured cabling infrastructure provided by specialists from Honeywell Network Solutions.

This provides over 650 outlets for site management terminals and control desks as well as the field-mounted devices.

These are for temperature, humidity and ventilation monitoring and control, building intruder detection and surveillance system, security access card readers, CCTV cameras and telemetry control.

All connections are made using standard RJ 45 outlets.

The structured cabling infrastructure not only simplified installation but will also result in long-terms cost savings by enabling changes and upgrades to be achieved quickly and easily, without the need for rewiring.

As Northern Ireland's Landmark project marking the new millennium - one of 12 projects awarded funds by the Millennium Commission - the Odyssey's Project's management were looking for innovation and use of "best practices" to provide a building that represented the new millennium and contained the very best of the latest technologies, so providing a living example of technology in buildings today.

Diamond Systems and Honeywell proposed an intelligent building infrastructure that would not only support the building services specified at the outset but would also provide superior flexibility to add and change these systems in the future.

Within Ireland, no single company was able to provide the expertise necessary to bring a fully integrated infrastructure together, so Honeywell agreed to work as a catalyst and mentor to the local firms that would deliver the subsystems in a way that enables them to integrate seamlessly.

With this integration, information can be transferred between systems so that the client can manage all aspects of the complex from any terminal.

Noting that the building systems and infrastructure were installed on time and on budget, Odyssey's facilities manager, Brenda Mcilvar, commented, "The systems installation has gone very well.

There were several companies involved - JB Electrical, Diamond Systems, ATC, Honeywell and other sub-contractors - and I was very impressed that everyone worked so well together as a team to ensure the Arena systems were ready on time and that we got through the first few events satisfactorily." Three applications can be accessed under EBI from any PC.

First, Honeywell LifeSafety Manager provides primary monitoring and full control of the building's smoke and fire detection systems - which employ over one thousand intelligent smoke detectors - as well as the safe evacuation of occupants.

Its seamless combination of event information, response prompting and tracking capabilities makes it an exceptional incident management and regulatory compliance tool, as required by local codes of practice.

The second application, Honeywell Security Manager, allows operators to control and monitor access and security throughout Odyssey and its grounds.

It provides centralised alarming, cardholder management and the ability to acquire and use data from human resource databases.

There are sixty access control points with card readers, numerous movement detectors and over one hundred door alarm contacts.

Almost one hundred CCTV cameras are installed throughout the complex, mainly full function PTZ domes.

All the devices communicate via the structured cabling system.

The security application has comprehensive reporting capabilities, with preconfigured standard reports and the ability to create reports customised to the facility's needs.

Third, Honeywell Building Manager integrates and controls the building's HVAC systems, lighting and energy usage.

It maintains an extensive historical record of building data, which can be collected at intervals from one second to 24 hours.

Therefore, in addition to alerting operators immediately when an abnormal building condition occurs, Honeywell Building manager makes it easy to analyse long term operational patterns and so ensure optimal performance.

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