Fire systems at the 2,359-seat venue had been maintained by Siemens for several years and the German giant was again trusted for the upgrade.
Supported by English Heritage the English National Opera, which owns the Grade II listed building, undertook an extensive four-year restoration programme in 2004.
Just over a decade later Siemens was again appointed to upgrade the fire systems with its Sinteso technology.
With help from the English National Opera’s maintenance supervisor Trevor Barnard, who worked closely with Siemens on the project, here are five of the key facts about the installation process:
1. An exquisite Grade II building with high ceilings requires special care
“The theatre is a prestigious and irreplaceable historical building,” says Barnard. “Its shape, size and height means that many areas can be extremely difficult to access, particularly around the stage, and thorough risk assessments had to be undertaken to ensure safe working practices during installation.
“We have to take particular care with all furnishings and fittings as well as the delicate fabrics near the staging area. The theatre has extremely high level ceilings which means testing of fire detectors has to be carried out using special long poles.”
Photo: Kleon3 on Wikimedia under CC BY-SA 4.0
2. The show must go on: work had to be undertaken within a small time frame
It’s reasonable to surmise that the additional precautions and care taken in such a delicate, historically invaluable environment would slow the work down. And yet to complicate matters even more, Siemens was time-constrained too.
“A major challenge for us is that all work has to be undertaken within a two week period in August, when the theatre has a yearly maintenance window and there are no staged performances,” said Barnard. “This is the time period when all operational works are undertaken. Careful programme planning is required to work around multiple trades and suppliers operating on site at the same time.”
Give the logistical challenges Siemens proposed a phased migration plan. This helped the company meet the agreed annual budget figure and instil confidence that operational milestones would be met.
Says Barnard: “Siemens worked with us in a unique way and it was very much a team effort. They completely understood the importance of the two-week completion date, the parameters that they had to operate within and the implications of non-performance on delivery.
“Siemens invested considerable time in pre-planning the logistics of the migration, for example, carrying out detailed surveys of the Coliseum prior to project delivery. I was impressed by Siemens’ meticulousness planning, resulting in minimum disruption and seamless implementation.”
3. The new system has half as many loops as the old system
“The old system had twice as many loops as the new,” says Barnard. “Eight years ago I visited every single head and call point. I know the location of each and every one.
“As part of introducing a new numbering system, Siemens had to undertake this labour intensive job, visiting each new detector head and labelling accordingly. Each new detector has a unique address number, with over sixty devices on just one loop.
“This means that once the upgrade is completed Siemens will ensure all new detectors are re-labelled with their new address, all fire safety plans will be updated and the Computer Aided Design drawings of the building re-issued to reflect the migration process.”
4. The new system distinguishes between real and theatrical smoke
The new, Sinteso system mitigates against theatrical smoke by switching to ‘heat only’ measurement during any performance that uses theatrical smoke.
Boasting advanced intelligence each detector is configured with a set of parameters tailored to each location to better differentiate between false fire phenomena like steam or cooking fumes and a real indicator of fire. This is done on a minute by minute basis with alerts triggered based on complex criteria.
5. “Zero unwanted alarms” – or that’s the expectation
Such advanced, customisable intelligence means that even in an environment with cooking facilities, theatrical smoke and pyrotechnics, could mean the end of false alarms, the scourge of the London Fire Brigade, Barnard suggests.
“In summary, migration for ENO to the latest Siemens fire detection technology is being achieved with the minimum of disruption and expense. It enables us to improve the performance of our fire safety equipment, with the major benefit of retaining elements of our existing infrastructure, as all Siemens technology has backward compatibility.
“The reliability of the hardware and unique intelligent signal processing means zero unwanted alarms, now and in the future.”
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