A WISE choice for your holiday park
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A WISE choice for your holiday park
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Back in 1990 when Ramtech was formed, the holiday park sector was our primary market and it is still massively key for us today, over 30 years on. We have installed our Ramtech alarms on countless holiday park sites across the UK from small, individual parks to those owned by big players such as Bourne Leisure and Park Dean Resorts, but what does our latest system – WISE – offer parks, and how does it work?
WISE is essentially a site monitoring system and when combined with other systems, including Ramtech’s WES emergency and REACT notification solutions, it can create a real ‘connected park’ that can keep a holiday park safer than ever before, whilst giving crucial insight that can really help streamline a park operation and also generate revenue. The majority of the WISE system is powered by long life batteries and connected using Ramtech’s radio technology which means it can be installed in even remote areas on a holiday park, such as secluded cabins.
Installation of the system is simple to – our engineers will ensure your system is efficiently and correctly installed as well as demonstrating all its features to you. Once installation is complete, WiSE is paid for using a simple annual subscription. This includes your connection, security monitoring, system health tracking and any maintenance that you may require so there are no surprise bills. The annual subscription ensures your system has the connection it needs to operate effectively.
In the event of a problem with your system one of our WiSE engineers can speak to you over the phone and, if it cannot be resolved remotely, we can arrange for an engineer to visit your business at no extra cost to you. The system’s activity is monitored by the team at our main office to ensure that if it goes offline for any reason, we’re the first to know.
We always personalise a solution to suit your park – so to find out more, call 0115 957 8282 and speak to our dedicated Leisure team.
The Park of the future: What will Holiday Parks look like in 2024?
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The Park of the future: What will Holiday Parks look like in 2024?
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Holiday parks throughout the UK are benefiting from the continued popularity of staycations. They offer peace, tranquillity, and memorable experiences to millions of visitors each year. From mini breaks to extended celebrations, parks are establishing themselves at the heart of the British holiday. With international uncertainty and Brexit, UK holidaymakers are seeking a break they can rely on with all the comforts of home, without the travel. Far from the out-dated “hi-de-hi” perception of the past, our holiday parks are creating a 21st Century offer ready for the most discerning holidaymakers who are seeking to get the best value from their holiday budget.
We are living in the age of smart things. It’s predicted that by 2025 41.6 billion Internet of Things devices will be generating 79.4 zettabytes of data. That’s wearable technology, tablets, smartphones, PCs and TVs. Our modern homes are brimming with technology from keyless entry systems to Wi-Fi controlled doorbells, ovens, thermostats and even plugs making life more comfortable than ever. Creating a home from home holiday experience for guests used to such control and comfort provides an additional challenge to park owners. While many holidaymakers are looking for a break away from it all, others view their technology as an essential part of the holiday experience, whether it’s Instagramming the accommodation or sharing snaps about their spa trip. At Ramtech Electronics, we work with leading holiday parks across the UK and have been fortunate to see some of the most advanced accommodation available on the market. So, what could your holiday park of 2024 look like?
Currently, internet connectivity is expected but for the park guest of 2024 it will be a requirement as their wearable devices will have replaced mobile devices as the norm. The constant consumption of data will have increased exponentially by then and for parks powering these data consumers and managing the demand will become a constraining factor. Once their booking is made, for most guests the holiday begins at check-in. With hotels already offering state-of-the-art check-in features and room access from a mobile phone, the parks of the future need to ensure that check-in is as seamless as possible for customers to get their holiday off to a flying start. The varying size of the accommodation, length of stays and diversity in the landscape means that changeover days are far more hectic for parks than hotels. Guests can fail to recognise this and ensuring weary travellers receive the keys to their accommodation as quickly as possible is a high-energy undertaking.
Technology is already able to help manage this through advanced check-in systems that provide customers with a code to speed up the process on arrivals day. This gives the park everything they need and provides the customer with the details of their exact accommodation on site and enables the reception team to focus on welcoming them to the resort without a manual check-in. In the future guests will expect to be able to check-in digitally and head straight to their accommodation. This improves the experience for the customer as there’s no lengthy paperwork on arrival and allows them to focus on enjoying their holiday. Using smart technology in the park, such as Ramtech’s WiSE monitoring, allows park managers to map the cleaned accommodation in real-time to swiftly release it to the next customers promptly, smoothing the handover process and enabling managers to deploy staff where they are needed most.
When guests arrive at their accommodation it will be smart powered by an array of connected wireless, battery operated devices monitoring all elements of the property. From tracking energy, identifying maintenance issues, understanding occupation and self-reporting security they will be primed to ensure as smooth a stay as possible for guests and seamless management for the park.
By using these devices, parks will be able to harness data to pre-empt their guest’s needs and even offer automated customisation for individuals, tailoring their holiday experience even further. Smartphones are already a powerful tool to help parks predict customer demand on any given day by utilising customised apps to let them to book spa treatments, make restaurant reservations and sign up to activities in real-time, enabling staff to focus on delivering great service. Apps can be downloaded in advance so that the customer can book and plan their entire holiday before check-in has even started. By tracking the data provided by these bookings, parks can follow up with the customer offering tailored deals and opportunities. This is the first step in the data revolution.
By using the technology available, guests will undoubtedly benefit from an improved holiday experience but what can a future-ready, smart connected park offer owners and managers?
Automated billing: Efficient tracking of periodic site fees, insurance or utility bills. Smart Metering: Easy access and analysis of electricity, gas and water meters as well as billing from a central location. Cashless payment: Secure, innovative ways to pay without cash using wristband and fob technology to simplify park cashflow. Mobile communication and automation: Checking in, ordering food, arranging events, managing details all via a remote digital device. Occupancy data: manage arrival days, reduce cleaning costs, track maintenance visits, monitor security patrols and manage third part contractor management. Low Power Radio Networks: Remove the reliance and security threads of open / cellular networks with a reliable, managed network. It’s clear that data tracking can offer a real difference to park managers and staff to manage their business more effectively through insight driven operations. By automating and simplifying tasks, parks can enhance their engagement with guests, staff and visitors which is the experience that customers remember long after they go home. So, to start on your journey to becoming a park of the future simply look at how incorporating relevant technology to your park can bring about a positive change to how you work and create revenue streams.
By using the technology available, guests will undoubtedly benefit from an improved holiday experience but what can a future-ready, smart connected park offer owners and managers?
It’s clear that data tracking can offer a real difference to park managers and staff to manage their business more effectively through insight driven operations. By automating and simplifying tasks, parks can enhance their engagement with guests, staff and visitors which is the experience that customers remember long after they go home. So, to start on your journey to becoming a park of the future simply look at how incorporating relevant technology to your park can bring about a positive change to how you work and create revenue streams.
Sounding the Alarm
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Sounding the Alarm
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The difference between simple compliance and adopting a benchmark approach to safety can make all the difference when it comes to fire on construction sites, an ever present danger. The very fact that they have flammable materials and the presence of hot-working methods makes them vulnerable to these kinds of events. Another factor to consider is that, according to Zurich, construction sites are often targets of vandalism and other criminal activities, including arson which accounts for 40% of all fires on constructions sites at a cost of £400 million per year. The Home Office has measured this and estimates that construction firms in England and Wales are affected by 104,000 fires each year.
These worrying statistics have resulted in the introduction of more strict legislation, with
the CPR (Construction Products Regulation), introduced on 1st July 2013, giving clear guidance on the performance of all construction products. Fire detection and alarm systems must be specifically engineered – and independently tested and approved – to comply with EN54-25 and therefore with the new CPR.
The need for robust, EN54-25 -compliant, automated fire alarm systems has become more pressing recently as a result of two factors. Firstly, the trend towards low carbon, off-site timber frame structures, and secondly, the desire for taller buildings, which has created a number of safety concerns with evacuating personnel quickly.
Our WES3 wireless emergency systems comprise fire points and heat detection units or dust resistant smoke detectors, linked to a monitoring base station or CONNECT unit. In the event of a fire, the system triggers a loud siren and a strobe light, alerting personnel to evacuate. At the same time, the base station allows the fire officer to instantly identify which fire point or detection unit has been activated, allowing emergency services to be deployed more effectively to the exact source. The base station can also provide SMS text alerts in the event of an alarm being activated allowing personnel to keep tight control on fire safety when they are off site, providing 24 hour protection.
Once the project is complete, the system can be moved to the next project and reconfigured via an app. EN54-25 and CPR compliant wireless fire alarm systems, such as our WES3 systems, set the benchmark when it comes to protecting personnel and assets on construction sites. At the same time they are easy to fit and operate, have no cables and therefore zero installation costs and, with some systems, a battery life of over three years.
Ouch! Can medical emergencies be less painful to deal with on-site?
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Ouch! Can medical emergencies be less painful to deal with on-site?
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In a report published by the Health and Safety Executive in the UK in late 2020, there were 61,000 non-fatal injuries to workers on construction sites. The main causes of these were slips, trips or falls (on the same level) and falls from a height. Of course, there are many other causes – from flying objects to carrying heavy items.
This proves that despite all the modern safety practices, injuries and medical emergencies such as heart attacks are inevitably still a significant issue on construction projects. With 2.8% of construction workers on average in the UK alone getting injured whilst on site, dealing with medical emergencies is of the upmost importance – and it can be difficult to alert to an emergency of this type quickly.
There is a cost impact too. 27% of the 61,000 injuries reported resulted in 7+ days of absence. Injuries cost the construction industry an estimated £659m in 2018/19 according to the HSE. So surely alerting to these situations early, if they cannot be prevented altogether, is of critical importance. That is where advanced wireless systems come in – including Ramtech’s WES3 alert system and REACT cloud-based notification solution.
WES3 Call Points include a medical alert button. When the medical alert button is pressed for 2 seconds, an alert goes straight to the control centre of the system to notify, in real-time, that a medical emergency has taken place. In addition, the system details the exact location of the call point from which it was raised, in accordance with the site’s fire plan, so the location can be found easily. The medical alert does not disrupt the whole site either as it doesn’t set off a site wide alarm – a useful feature, especially on larger sites.
Ramtech’s REACT solution also offers an app-based Medical Alert, which uses GPS to pinpoint the location from where the alert has been raised – this is particularly useful for very large sites where working outdoors is required. REACT can also link into the WES3 system to enable medical notifications off site that have been raised via the medical alert button on a WES3 Call Point. Whilst injuries will sadly never be completely preventable on construction sites, it is good to know that technology is there to help deal with these unfortunate situations as rapidly as possible.
Announcing our new product logos
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Announcing our new product logos
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Big news! Today we're announcing the new Ramtech product family with the launch of new logos and branding for our range of industry-leading wireless solutions.
You’ll see our logos anywhere that you come across our products in public like our website, social sites and brochures, and very soon you’ll also see it on all of our products as well. Over our years in the business, we’ve gone from strength to strength and have expanded exponentially since our inception to serve in over 30 countries while introducing solutions such as WES, WISE and REACT – solutions that exist solely to empower our customers to save lives, protect their assets and gain valuable insight into their businesses.
In 2019, we launched the new Ramtech branding and visual identity as part of the ongoing evolution of our brand. Since then, we have transformed Ramtech into a driving force in delivering industry leading wireless communication solutions, and our products have become increasingly closer together and joined up. Over the past few months, we had to look at how we wanted our products, old and new, to be represented. Our products had different logos, icons and colours, and with some of them dating back over 10 years, we felt it was the right time for a change.
Our design goals were to unify and simplify our product logos, while identifying each product as part of Ramtech. Our in-house marketing team got to work to find a new look that achieved those goals and projected a modern and professional image. Today we’re unveiling new looks for the Ramtech product family with common wordmark and icon (Ramcon), and a new synergy within our corporate brand. We certainly feel that we’ve hit the design goals, and hope you think so too!
“We’re really excited to present our solutions as a unified product family to our customers today. Our product logos share commonality with each other and also with the Ramtech brand which makes them easier to identify and shows that they are part of the Ramtech family.”
Brand Guidelines
A new Brand Standards & Usage Guide is being developed to provide the foundation for consistent application of the Ramtech brands across all media including web, collateral, and promotions. Consistently expressing the Ramtech visual identity builds a strong brand awareness, allowing Ramtech to maintain our position as the market leader. If you have used the Ramtech sub-brand logo’s in any of your marketing materials, please assist us in updating them. Over the next few months, you’ll see all the other visuals around new logos aligning around this new direction: on the website, in advertising, and in some places on the product. We hope you like the new look!
Brand Guidelines
A new Brand Standards & Usage Guide is being developed to provide the foundation for consistent application of the Ramtech brands across all media including web, collateral, and promotions. Consistently expressing the Ramtech visual identity builds a strong brand awareness, allowing Ramtech to maintain our position as the market leader. If you have used the Ramtech sub-brand logo’s in any of your marketing materials, please assist us in updating them. Over the next few months, you’ll see all the other visuals around new logos aligning around this new direction: on the website, in advertising, and in some places on the product. We hope you like the new look!
Improve fire safety on your construction site
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Improve fire safety on your construction site
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Construction sites have many and varied hazards, with fire safety presenting the greatest threat to life and loss of physical assets. In this article we look at how developments in wireless fire alarm technology are helping tackle this issue. Traditionally, fire detection systems used on construction sites have been of the wired variety, which meant they had to be installed by electricians or specialist contractors. This can be a time consuming and costly process and, understandably, because of that some companies have been reluctant to install them.
Often these organisations prefer to rely on a manual emergency evacuation procedure, which could simply mean a nominated person sounding an alarm after a fire or smoke has been detected. There is a major weakness with this kind of approach as it relies on someone visually seeing the fire or smoke and then sounding the alarm. Of course, if it is in a part of the site where no one is working, the fire can be completely out of control well before the emergency services arrive. Worse still, if it occurs out of hours, a fire can rage undetected for hours with the end result being a building that is completely destroyed and the loss of assets running into many hundreds of thousands of pounds, or more.
As a result of these incidents, Nottingham-based Ramtech has enhanced fire safety on construction sites by developing an innovative, latest-generation update to its wireless fire alarm system. The company has been at the forefront of wireless technology for over the last 30 years and has incorporated a number of new and unique features into its latest development. As the only wireless fire alarm system with a three-year battery life specifically designed for construction sites, the WES range is unique in being specifically engineered – and independently tested and approved – to comply with EN54-25 and therefore with the new Construction Products Regulation (CPR).
These kinds of systems are relatively inexpensive, significantly easier to install (avoiding the need for specialist trades during set up) and, because they are wireless, allow for easy repositioning of the fire points and heat detection units as the site progresses. Also, because they can provide 24 hours pro-active fire detection, they can provide automatic cover even when your site isn’t populated by sending SMS text alerts.
A typical wireless fire alarm system comprises fire points and heat detection units or dustproof smoke detectors linked to a monitoring base station. In the event of a fire, the system triggers a loud siren and a strobe light, alerting personnel to evacuate the site. At the same time, the base station allows the fire officer to instantly identify which unit has been activated, allowing fire and rescue teams to be deployed more effectively to the exact source of the incident. That means fire officers no longer have to rely on someone seeing the fire before the alarm is raised!
To make reconfiguration easier, WES3 is available with an app that can be used on any Android tablet, making the system fully mobile. The app facilitates advanced system reporting and configuration as well as showing everything from weekly silent test results to system report information. The data can easily be exported and shared with other personnel. Developments in technology have led to wireless emergency systems setting out best practice when it comes to protecting personnel and assets from fires on construction sites. WES3 can be rented or bought outright as a complete system and, once a site is completed, simply re-used on the next development. So, to ensure your site has the best possible protection for workers and assets, whilst complying with the new EN54-25 standard, take a look at WES.
Ramtech launches innovative new technology that improves safety on Holiday Parks
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Ramtech launches innovative new technology that improves safety on Holiday Parks
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Ramtech – a market leader in the provision of wireless emergency systems including temporary wireless fire alarms for construction sites – has added a pioneering new product to their renowned product range. This excellent new addition is built on the company’s communications and hardware expertise to empower our customers to save lives, protect assets and gain insights.
REACT has been developed in direct response to the complex emergency system needs of dispersed sites and it is built using state-of-the-art IoT technology to enable real-time oversight of emergencies and improve Lone Worker safety on site.
The system combines innovative wireless technology, cloud-based data and an easy-to-use mobile phone app to create a fully integrated emergency response system. REACT system transforms smartphones into the ultimate safety tool with welfare check-ins & escalations, GPS location tracking / geolocating/geofencing technology, advanced Lone Worker feature and an instant connection to key personnel who need to act on specific alerts.
The leisure industry faces complex challenges when looking after their dispersed holiday park locations. REACT can improve response times in crisis situations such as a missing child or site-wide emergencies. By using the dedicated app, all staff can be immediately made aware of any issue and follow instructions to create a safe outcome. All alerts are securely tracked by REACT to enable robust monitoring of on-park health and safety. For staff who are required to work alone in isolated parts of the park, the Lone Worker function is a lifeline to ensure that their safety is tracked throughout the working day.
When WiSE is partnered with the REACT system, users can monitor site alerts and data from anywhere in the world 24/7 using the mobile app to receive real time alerts and notifications direct from site. John Newbury, Product Innovation Director, Ramtech said: “Technology is part of our everyday lives. At Ramtech, we are working hard to innovate and develop products that encourage our customers to more effectively manage their risks. Our new REACT system offers unrivalled protection that enables users to have full oversight of their whole leisure site 24 hours a day.”
In the event of an emergency, our technology can increase the speed at which a casualty is reached by emergency services or, indeed, a fire is extinguished thanks to accurate location information.
Safety Trends: Going Mobile
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Safety Trends: Going Mobile
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Impossible as it is to believe, our world is more connected now than ever before … and it’s going to keep getting more connected. According to Silicon Valley giant and internet pioneer Cisco, more than 70 percent of the population is expected to have mobile connectivity by 2023. Nearly 300 million mobile applications will have been downloaded as well. And the Internet of Things (IoT) will more than double its machine-to-machine (M2M) connections by 2023, says Cisco’s 2020 Annual Internet Report. It’s noteworthy that the COVID-19 pandemic is increasing these numbers to levels that were never anticipated. This is true across all industries, including construction.
We’re seeing this steady increase specifically in connectivity for a multitude of reasons, but the main one is quite simple: the customer is happy. As technology emerges that’s faster and able to store more data, it becomes intuitively efficient and practical for the end user. Customers are more likely to adopt the use of technology that’s easy to learn and offers a solution to an existing problem. With so many relying on technology now for work, school, staying connected to friends and family, and entertainment, it make sense to look toward incorporating it into daily security needs as well. Although a dirty construction site full of primitive tools and raw materials may seem like an unlikely place to find the latest Cloud-based app, that’s exactly where Ramtech’s REACT system is designed to be used. At this time, construction sites may be fully staffed, running with a skeleton crew, or closed due to current COVID-19 mandates. This uncomplicated system, when coupled with WES3 wireless emergency alert units, provides a sophisticated and adaptable safety solution for all job sites regardless of operational status. It gives property owners, project supervisors, and safety personnel the ability to receive alerts for a variety of events in real-time. The REACT app is then able to connect the site administrators to emergency services when seconds matter.
REACT combines innovative wireless technology, cloud-based data, and an easy-to-use mobile phone app to create a fully integrated emergency response system. The REACT system transforms smartphones into the ultimate safety tool with welfare check-ins and escalations, GPS location tracking/geolocating/geofencing technology, advanced Lone Worker feature, and an instant connection to key personnel who need to act on specific alerts. These options can be especially useful during times when fewer workers are on site or are spaced farther apart for distancing measures. Construction sites are vulnerable to a number of threats. The combination of waste and combustible material, wooden framing, and a lack of fire protection assets can turn one small ember into a full-scale blaze. Many sites lack basic security measures other than temporary fencing and a few warning signs, and sections of fence are often moved for convenient access to workers and deliveries. An unsecured site is at risk of not just arson but also vandalism, theft, and trespassing accidents. Consider, also, contractors working in isolated areas of the site who might require access to emergency services at any given time.
Wireless WES3 units can be strategically placed around the site according to the fire prevention plan and wherever temporary vulnerabilities and hazards exist. In the event of a burglary, injury, fire, or other emergency, an alert can be manually raised or detected by sensor via the REACT app. Then, notifications are sent through the cloud to specific personnel. Those personnel decide what, if any, action to take to mitigate risk. This allows key stakeholders to stay involved every step of the way throughout all phases of the construction effort. The information goes only to those who are involved; no one else has access. It offers total transparency for teams to demonstrate compliance when necessary and keeps a record of every communication, event, and action taken in order to appease insurance companies and assist in investigations.
To make this even easier, WES3 and REACT are fully customizable. Ramtech creates bespoke solutions using their technology and the site’s needs, offering accurate, specific, personalized notifications, customized receivers, and alerts and branding that match that of the end user. In addition, Ramtech provides dedicated experts to make sure the system is fully optimized along with guidebooks, how-to videos, and technical support. Any security system works best when its individual components work together cohesively. M2M technology through IoT now gives those components the ability to instantly and reliably stay connected and “speak” to one another and to key personnel, greatly increasing the safety of employees and decreasing the risk of theft and property damage. In the event of an emergency, WES3 and REACT can increase the speed at which the scene is reached by emergency services or a fire is extinguished thanks to accurate location information. It is possible to achieve the goal of comprehensive protection from both internal and external threats on construction sites of all sizes, no matter how unique the needs and no matter the operational status of the project.
Adoption of cloud-based technologies continues to expand as we become more comfortable with the capabilities and security of the cloud, and as unforeseen changes to our way of life become the new normal. Ramtech is dedicated to the innovation of safety technology and is passionate about going above and beyond basic legal requirements to decrease the risk for thousands of workers and buildings every day.
REACT in real-time, 24/7, 365 days of the year with Ramtech
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REACT in real-time, 24/7, 365 days of the year with Ramtech
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New from the pioneering team at Ramtech, REACT brings state-of-the-art communication, planning and emergency response capabilities to 21st century construction sites. Built using the company’s communication and hardware expertise that spans over thirty years, REACT is designed to save lives, protect assets and provide valuable insights to construction site safety performance using real-time data 24/7 and 365 days of the year.
Designed in direct response to the complex needs of the construction industry, REACT combines innovative wireless technology, cloud-based data, an online dashboard and an easy-to-use app to create a fully integrated system that can be updated on and off-site. The user-friendly app transforms a mobile phone into a full site safety management and monitoring tool. John Newbury, Product Innovation Director, Ramtech said:
REACT uses advanced IoT technology to provide the construction industry with a complete system that can be completely tailored to meet the challenges of each individual site. It not only provides the site management team with real-time data to inform decisions, but it also ensures that there is full traceability of events on-site for health and safety compliance, reports and investigation.
REACT’s geolocating technology ensures that site managers are not only alerted instantly to events on site but the exact location on site as well. This enables immediate decisions to be made based on accurate data. The entire project team can be notified about an on-site issue with a single touch of a button. REACT works as a stand-alone system although it also connects to the WES wireless emergency technology product range.
The system can be tailored to the specific needs of the construction site it is being deployed on, ensuring it is as unique as the challenges of the site it is protecting. When REACT is partnered with the WES3 CONNECT 4G linked system, users can monitor site alerts and data from anywhere in the world 24/7 using the mobile app to receive real time alerts and notifications direct from site. It can also wirelessly connect to other third-party devices to create a fully integrated system.
In addition to its invaluable use in an emergency, REACT also provides full traceability of events and responses to ensure that health and safety records are accurate for reports, compliance and, if needed, investigations stored in an easy to access online dashboard. REACT can be found on some of the world’s most prestigious construction projects including Manchester Airport, McLaren site at Wembley and Thames Tideway Tunnel.
Ramtech playing part in effort to support the NHS
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Ramtech playing part in effort to support the NHS
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In these challenging times, Andy Hicks, Managing Director at Ramtech, looks at why now is not the time to neglect fire safety on construction sites and temporary coronavirus facilities. Coronavirus is one of the biggest challenges to face humanity for over 100 years. It is non-political, non-discriminatory and its impact on global health and on the state of our economy is unfathomable at this stage. Many people in the UK hoped it would stay in ‘other countries’ becoming the infection that we managed to escape….but, if we were being honest, we knew, with the impact of international travel, this would never be the case. It first hit our industry with the cancellation of major trade exhibitions such as Homebuilding and Renovating. Large organisations then started to cancel meetings of more than a handful of people and everything was transferred to video conferencing.
Despite this, the UK construction industry has demonstrated its importance as an industry in recent weeks. Whether its building temporary hospital wards, changing the use of existing buildings to food storage warehouses or installing life-saving oxygen equipment, the construction sector is certainly delivered for our nation during this difficult time. Our own efforts have involved supplying wireless fire alarm systems to the new NHS Nightingale Hospital at London ExCeL. The temporary field hospital, which was constructed in under a week, will treat up to 4,000 struck down by Covid-19. WES3 wireless alarm system is now providing fire, security and emergency response across this vast facility. It uses best quality Category 1, Euro-harmonised radio, meaning it won’t interfere with other technologies used at ExCeL.
Few could have predicted that we would have arrived at this situation. The implications, not only for the economy, are far reaching. For instance, construction sites in built-up areas will now find they are surrounded by a greater density of people living and working in adjacent buildings as they self-isolate at home. The ability of fire to spread quickly from an unattended site means these people may be at greater risk unless adequate mitigation steps are taken.
It’s one of the reasons why fire risk on construction sites needs to be a key focus during the lockdown period and several industry leaders have already identified this. Chief executive of the Construction Industry Council, Graham Watts, published a list of construction work that he believes is essential for public safety. His blog lists several key focus areas including [6] Fire safety inspections, [7] Requirement for maintenance of fire protection systems and equipment to meet Fire Safety legislation – even if buildings are not occupied. [8] Ongoing need for Fire risk assessments, both to meet legislation and new circumstances in buildings, [9] Remedial work required to remove unsafe ACM cladding etc. [16] Emergency Leaking/ flooding. Even though construction sites may place workers on temporary leave (furlough), electrical faults can still develop and cause fires to rage undetected and potentially spread to adjoining occupied buildings. All this at a time when fire crews are being deployed to help the coronavirus response, such as supporting ambulance teams. Criminal activity, too, on furloughed sites can result in fires, either by a discarded cigarette, arson or, again, tampering with electrical circuits, which isn’t helped by the presence of flammable materials found on all sites.
Critical construction work
Set against this background is the need for some construction work to continue and a good example of this is the replacement of unsafe Aluminium Composite Material (ACM) cladding panels on high-rise buildings, which remain “critical to public safety”. These projects can continue during the coronavirus outbreak, according to government guidance, highlighting the need, with fire and rescue services deployed elsewhere, for scrupulous regard to fire safety on these projects.
Protecting sites with wireless technology
In these unprecedented times, fire safety is essential. Not only are the systems required to comply with statutory safety legislation, but their implementation is critical in protecting workers and those living nearby. Protecting your clients’ assets is vital too, and after this crisis has passed, they and their insurers will expect that adequate measures were taken. When it comes to fire alarm systems there are two choices: wired or wireless, although the latter is gaining favour because it doesn’t require specialist trades to set up, with call points deployed in minutes. Any number of call points can be added to the system and linked wirelessly to cover large and small sites. Wireless fire alarm systems, which are available to rent or buy, should be compliant with EN54-25. Incorporating dust resistant smoke and heat detectors to reduce false alarms, they can be linked to offsite monitors, so are highly suited to locked down sites and operating 24/7.
Advances in technology also means that wireless fire alarm systems are capable of being much more than a fire alarm. Incorporating wireless technology with cloud-based data capture goes a step further by enabling construction sites to implement a fully integrated fire, flood, security and medical response system – essential if, for instance, a locked-down site has basic security team coverage. This is supported by cloud storage and apps that can interpret and respond to the data received, converting it into valuable management information that can be instantaneously sent to anyone with a smart phone. These end-to-end solutions enable site management teams to capture data in real-time regarding emergencies and send customised alerts out to relevant personnel.
Practical benefits of these wireless technologies include an ability to alert emergency response teams when a fire is detected, or interfacing to security systems so that when intruder is detected opening a security door an alarm is raised – especially important when construction sites are vacated during the shutdown. These systems can also detect flooding caused by a burst pipe (which can impact on electrical circuits). Security patrols or lone workers complying with self-isolation requirements can raise a medical alert via call points from remote areas of the building or construction site, or alternatively, a ‘welfare check in’ functionality can be set that requires personnel to send a signal every 10 minutes verifying that they are ok. Being able to deploy a wireless fire alarm system in minutes means that they provide a practical and easy to implement solution for change of use buildings looking for a way of protecting critical workers in the food, pharmaceutical and logistics sector.
The way forward
Construction sites have suddenly become more dangerous as they undergo temporary closure. Buildings that are re-purposed to help support the coronavirus effort are also looking for effective fire alarm systems. Fire, flood and criminal activity is an ever-present danger in all these situations. The risks from fire and its ability to spread rapidly are exacerbated by self-isolation, meaning a greater density of people living adjacent to construction sites. As a result, more developers are taking steps to deploy wireless technology that protects their assets
Setting a benchmark on construction sites and demonstrating that you take the safety of those living and working nearby, or critical workers within the facility, as well as your clients’ assets, is easier that you think due to advances in wireless fire alarm systems.
The way forward
Construction sites have suddenly become more dangerous as they undergo temporary closure. Buildings that are re-purposed to help support the coronavirus effort are also looking for effective fire alarm systems. Fire, flood and criminal activity is an ever-present danger in all these situations. The risks from fire and its ability to spread rapidly are exacerbated by self-isolation, meaning a greater density of people living adjacent to construction sites. As a result, more developers are taking steps to deploy wireless technology that protects their assets
Setting a benchmark on construction sites and demonstrating that you take the safety of those living and working nearby, or critical workers within the facility, as well as your clients’ assets, is easier that you think due to advances in wireless fire alarm systems.