University of Notre Dame new Audio-over-IP Security System

Location: City of Westminster, London
Integrator: Midland Communications

The Client

The University of Notre Dame London Global Gateway is an international satellite hub of this leading American higher education institution.

Based in the heart of the City of Westminster, the Notre Dame London Global Gateway provides an academic hub for American scholars and students to extend their intellectual and cultural experience in the UK’s capital. The London Global Gateway academic centre (based in the Grade 2 listed Fischer Hall building in Trafalgar Square) provides a myriad of activities for visiting students and intellectuals including undergraduate classes, faculty seminars, conferences and debates.

System Requirements

When the University considered the need for an evacuation and security warning public address system, they called upon the services of integration experts Midland Communications to suggest a site-wide audio solution which could quickly and easily be implemented throughout the Central-London based building without affecting the integrity of the Grade 2 listed building.

The University’s Senior Facilities Manager, Stephen Witnall explains; “Being a Grade 2 listed building does present quite a few challenges, particularly when you want to put wiring through the building. We were looking for a system that didn’t need hard-wiring, could provide pre-recorded messages and could lend itself to the building and its furnishings.”

The Solution

Working in conjunction with audio system experts CIE-Group, installers Midland Communications undertook a detailed site survey of the University. Martyn Phillips, sales director for Midland Communications concluded from the survey that available Ethernet cable infrastructure could offer the best solution; “We could see that the building had available Cat3 infrastructure; Kevin [Sherwood of CIE-Group] and myself knew straight away that 2N NetSpeaker would be the ideal product to put in.”

Kevin Sherwood, CIE Sales Director, explains further “The 2N product is a conventional loudspeaker…in the back of which is an embedded board which receives the audio signal from the network, re-amplifies it and broadcasts the signal through each IP-addressable loudspeaker.”

The final specified system employed over 40 NetSpeaker Audio-over-IP vandal-proof speakers which were quickly and easily installed throughout the building by connecting each audio end-point to an available Ethernet port in each room – transmitting both audio signal and power-over-cable via the building’s existing Cat3 cabling.

The system is controlled from a central point in the University’s reception area using the 2N NetMic – an IP-addressable desk paging microphone which allows for zone control of both live and pre-recorded messages and broadcasts to the AoIP NetSpeakers.

Notre Dame’s Stephen Witnall added “We’ve been able to zone the speakers so that we can either broadcast to every single speaker in the building or to a defined number of devices or zones.”