Wireless at the Salford Civic Centre

Salford Civic Centre is a magnificent building. Built in 1937, it was originally the town hall for Swinton and Pendlebury. The new City of Salford was created in 1974 and on 1^st April of that year the neo-classical building became Salford’s Civic Centre. As approved providers on the public sector procurement framework Pro5 since 2012 we were delighted to be awarded the contract to supply, install, commission and maintain a fire alarm system for the Civic Centre. We knew that working on the landmark building would present some challenges. It’s a listed building so we needed to ensure there was no damage to any of the building fabric. The solid building construction meant there were no roof voids or false ceilings that would have made the installation easier. In fact, the high ceilings themselves also added to the complexity of the building. The solution was a fully wireless fire alarm system. We have always embraced new technology and solutions so were pleased to have the opportunity to work alongside EMS, an industry leader in wireless fire alarm technology. The wireless system consisted of three control panels, nearly fifty call points and over four hundred field devices. There was an extra issue we needed to accommodate. As a public authority building, there was a constant flow of people and we wanted to minimise disruption to the public as well as to staff working at the Civic Centre. To achieve this, the majority of the installation took place at night. Thanks to this – and to the use of wireless technology – the whole installation was completed in just 8 weeks. Final commissioning took a week. Urban Vision is the facilities management company for Salford City Council and they were closely involved throughout the whole installation. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Chris Wylde, their facilities manager, commented