Plaisir is a vibrant town, located 20 miles from Paris in the Ile-de-France region of France. Plaisir has the seventh largest population in the Yvelines area, with over 50 percent of its inhabitants in work and 30 percent under the age of 19. The town has 1,254 companies making it an attractive and innovative hub for businesses.
Plaisir is a vibrant town, located 20 miles from Paris in the Ile-de-France region of France. Plaisir has the seventh largest population in the Yvelines area, with over 50 percent of its inhabitants in work and 30 percent under the age of 19. The town has 1,254 companies making it an attractive and innovative hub for businesses. Its high-quality sporting and cultural facilities offer Plaisir's residents a wide variety of daily activities (e.g. Palais des Sports Pierre de Coubertin: a multisport facility with around 8,000 members; Espace Coluche Theatre: a cultural centre with a large 868-seat auditorium). The educational infrastructure of the town has the capacity to educate over 5,500 pupils across 33 schools and colleges. Plaisir has also successfully preserved its heritage such as its castle (listed as a historical monument) and benefits from a high standard of living.
The town of Plaisir wanted to create a major cultural centre with a regional influence worthy of a city with 32,000 inhabitants. In 2003 it started the complete refurbishment of the old “Espace Coluche”, originally designed as a mixed-use facility (culture and sport) which no longer complied with security standards.
The new “Espace Coluche” Theatre is a building with a floor space of 5430 square meters spread over three floors and is home to three different cultural centers. The largest is the 868-seat theatre and its associated facilities (administration, reception, entertainers accommodation, dressing rooms and restrooms) covering a surface area of approximately 3650 square meters; the Cle des Champs, occupies 540 square meters and houses a large hall with standing space for 300 people, 2 recording studios and an "acoustic and convivial" bar area and facilities (administrative offices, technical control rooms, ticketing counter, dressing rooms); the third entity is a dance school covering 837 square meters. The remaining floor space is made up of "technical" rooms and staff accommodation occupied by the facility caretaker.
A key element of the building's security was to replace the old, faulty security system and integrate it with the building's fire system to meet insurance requirements. The council also wanted to reduce its security costs, in particular monitoring costs associated with the protection of its multiple centre facility. This required a security system capable of functioning in a multi-group setting.
Due to the building's diverse range of users, each requiring access to different areas of the building depending on their specific needs, the security solution needed an effective access control system.
Other important criteria were to find a security installation company that could be both responsive and flexible in meeting the needs of the project, and was also capable of completing the installation on time, in compliance with certain time constraints i.e. completing the work during the school holidays only and taking into account theatre rehearsal and performance times. It was therefore essential that the security system be proven and reliable, as well as being easy to install with the flexibility to adapt to the building's complex configuration.
Following an invitation to tender, the town of Plaisir awarded the contract for the installation of the "Espace Coluche" Theatre's new security system to security installation company - Alarme Chez Vous (ACV). ACV won the contract based on its experience and results, having already successfully installed 32 Galaxy control panels in the town, meeting the diverse security needs of different types of building. ACV's responsiveness and its ability to understand the exact needs of such a project were also key in its selection. With over 10 years' experience in the field, ACV worked in close collaboration with the Department Manager for Building Heritage and Fire Safety/Intrusion in Plaisir, from the initial design of the project, including submission of detailed plans, to completion of the installation while providing customized technical support.
The Galaxy Dimension integrated intrusion and access control solution by Honeywell as selected by the town council for several reasons. Firstly, it addressed the key issue of managing building access of multiple users. Through the use of badges, the system effectively manages building access for a large number of users with various access profiles (e.g. dance school teachers, performers, the caretaker, technical and administrative personnel, maintenance services etc.) through programming authorized time schedules. Galaxy Dimension's automatic setting feature also helps reduce alarm monitoring costs as the alarm receiving centre (ARC) no longer needs to intervene if people forget to activate the system. The system also incorporates audio verification operations on a group by group basis, offering up to 32 microphones; this is a useful new function for ARCs. In addition, the security system is managed by a single Galaxy Dimension control panel that can manage up to 32 groups. The control panel can also be used to manage over 200 smoke sensors, thus meeting insurance requirements for fire prevention.
The “Espace Coluche” theatre security system consists of one Galaxy Dimension GD-520 control panel (capable of covering up to 520 zones), one Galaxy TouchCenter touch-screen keypad, eight Max3 badge readers, ten Smart RIO EN and twenty-eight I/O expander modules allowing the management of 315 zones, 72 doors and 480 users for intrusion and fire detection as well as technical management. The system is ideally suited for the “Espace Coluche” building as the venue has several floors used for different purposes.