Sporting new systems
Cotswold Leisure Cirencester has provided an invaluable public sports facility in Cirencester for many years. But when faced with increased private competition and deteriorating conditions, Cotswold District Council took the decision to demolish its existing leisure centre and replace it with a new centre to meet the needs of its population for the next few decades.
In order to provide these modern facilities there has to be support systems in place to ensure the smooth operation of the Centre and make it a safe and secure place for visitors and staff alike. PEL Services Ltd. has been installing such systems for over 35 years and was awarded the contract to supply, install and commission the fire, security, safety and audio visual systems.
With such a large area to cover, the fire detection system required was extensive. PEL needed to provide a
system that was both reliable over such a large area and cost-effective.
PEL designed and installed an analogue addressable fire detection system featuring Advanced Electronics
MX-4000 control panels with Hochiki devices, including call points, detectors and sounders. This combination of equipment is easy to commission and to maintain, the latter being a very important factor for a local authority owned facility.
However, the size of the fire detection system was not the real challenge here - it’s the steam from changing rooms, pools, saunas, steam rooms etc. Most smoke detectors find it very difficult to differentiate between
smoke and steam, so false alarms are a real problem. PEL overcame the issue by using Hochiki multi sensors programmed for heat detection during opening hours and using the optical detection technology for smoke detection at other times.
In the pool area, the challenge of the wet, steamy conditions was added to with a further element to contend with: chlorine. To avoid corrosion from chlorine PEL made clever use of beam detectors.
Securing a public facility is a difficult balancing act. While you want the building and those using it to be safe and secure, you don’t want visitors to be intimidated or impeded. You also want it to be reliable and easy to use.
The most visible security tends to be CCTV, but PEL wanted the cameras to blend into the environment and act as reassurance rather than a warning. To achieve this effect, it installed Samsung vandal resistant Domes which are small and aesthetically pleasing. In the pool area Sony high definition cameras were
used in special IP rated housing to keep them safe from water and chlorine.
Externally in the car park and the approach to the leisure centre, four IP65 rated vandal resistant day / night domes were installed on poles. Extra infrared lighting was also installed to enable the cameras to work to their optimum during darkness.
Images from the cameras are viewed on two 17” monitors. All images are recorded using a Bewator Eventys
digital video recorder chosen by PEL for its exceptional ease of use, partly because of its intuitive design and on screen menu. Images can then be archived to CD. To save on recording time, images from the external cameras are only recorded at night time when movement is detected; this is achieved through the use Redwall PIR movement detectors linked to the CCTV digital recorder.
Internally, intruder alarms are also located throughout the leisure centre. A Menvier intruder alarm systems was chosen by PEL, designed to be set / unset by proximity tags, rather than a keypad, for convenience. CSL’s Dualcom was used to send signals from the intruder detection system via land line and a mobile phone network. Such a system provides the leisure centre with protection on monitoring, should there be a problem with the land line.
With a raft of new legislation in place to help protect the public and ensure all are treated equally, most notable of which is the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA), special consideration has to be given to safety in a leisure centre.
PEL Services installed a number of key assistance systems in Cotswold Leisure Cirencester including Personal Assistance buttons to allow visitors to call for help, a Pool Alarm system and a PEL Refuge Call System. The latter is a specialised intercom to enable the safe evacuation of those in need of special
assistance. Lifting a handset or activating the ‘hands free’ unit will cause the relevant button on the control panel to light up and the master telephone to ring. When the master telephone is answered, normal two way conversation takes place, enabling the disabled person to alert the central station to their predicament and allow for appropriate action to be taken.
The other major safety system installed by PEL Services was a PA System, which can be used for voice
evacuation and security alerts. But the key to the sound System in this installation was flexibility, as the system also needs to be used for entertainment purposes and must be capable of playing different music in different areas, from a variety of sources.
To achieve flexibility and audio quality, PEL installed a sound system based around a Cloud amplifier and
audio system controller. Using this system and the clever PEL design, announcements are made from
reception to as many areas as selected and music is selectable locally in all areas of the leisure centre, from CD or radio. General music is fed throughout the circulation areas, with other areas sub divided into the pool, sports hall and dance studios. These other areas also have radio mic facilities for events, training, instruction, etc, with the dance studios having the added advantage of specialised Denon CD players with
remote control for use by instructors.
As usual, the pool area was the biggest challenge due to the atmosphere and the acoustic problems caused by such a large, wet area that is wall-to-wall hard surfaces, bouncing and distorting sound. Toa CS (constant directivity) horn speakers were used here by PEL to control the dispersion of sound. Unlike
standard metal horn speakers, the Toa CS horns are cone loaded for a superior sound quality and are fully weather resistant, making them ideal for use in swimming pool environments. PEL also understood that the radio mic was likely to have problems in this area for similar reasons and because the person using it
will, more than likely, need to walk up and down the length of the pool. A combination of feedback control and
graphic equalisers was introduced by PEL which successfully stopped the horrible feedback you would normally encounter in such a case.
The Techno Gym in the leisure centre also benefited from PEL’s expertise, with a range of audio visual
equipment supplied and installed by the company, interfaced with gym equipment, giving the user a choice of Sky and music channels.
Lastly, a large plasma screen was installed by PEL in the café, which feeds off the SMATV systems.
The new Cotswold Leisure Cirencester is considerably larger than its predecessor and is considered one of the best Leisure Centre’s in the area. The success behind the Centre comes from extensive planning and the expertise of all the parties involved in creating this local facility.