Passengers at London's newest Docklands Light Railway (DLR) station, Woolwich Arsenal, can hear station announcements clearly, thanks to the digital public address and voice alarm (PA/VA) technology from Bosch Security Systems. The system was installed at the station by PEL Services.
Part of the extended DLR in east London, Woolwich Arsenal provides an alternative way to cross the River Thames. ...
Passengers at London's newest Docklands Light Railway (DLR) station, Woolwich Arsenal, can hear station announcements clearly, thanks to the digital public address and voice alarm (PA/VA) technology from Bosch Security Systems. The system was installed at the station by PEL Services.
Part of the extended DLR in east London, Woolwich Arsenal provides an alternative way to cross the River Thames. Opened in January 2009, Woolwich Arsenal is DLR's 40th station and was designed to a very high quality to incorporate modern passenger facilities.
The system is clearly a very important aspect of these facilities. “In designing the PA/VA system, we were looking to offer the very best in audibility for announcements, to deliver a reliable and effective system to passengers using the station,” explained Vic Swain of PEL Services. “Having worked on a number of projects for the DLR previously, Bosch's solution was the obvious choice, fulfilling all our requirements in terms of quality, flexibility and reliability.”
The unique optical network of Bosch's PA/VA system offers total freedom in system design, interference-free audio and a high level of redundancy that traditional systems cannot offer. It is fully programmable, and interfaces with other security systems.
PEL Services was awarded the contract by Transmitton (Siemens) to supply and commission the PA/VA system at Woolwich Arsenal station, as a result of its extensive experience in working in Section-12 stations.
“We interfaced the PA/VA system with the fire alarm system and incorporated ambient noise sensing throughout to adjust the customer information systems/announcements to cope with changing noise levels, while ensuring that fire alarms remain at a preset level for complete safety,” Vic said. “Thanks to its optical network and a high level of redundancy, the system offers design flexibility. The fact that all equipment can be contained in one rack was an important consideration with space at a premium.”
The new system at the station is part of the long-line public address system for the DLR, which allows messages to be obtained from a preprogrammed standard suite and be quickly assembled. There is also a scratch pad for the operators to assemble messages for later transmission or direct production from a microphone. Announcements can be sent simultaneously to all stations, groups of stations or individual stations. A dedicated workstation in the network control room facilitates these.