Apollo Orbis conventional smoke and heat detectors have been
installed at The Panthea Village, a resort with over 190 guest
suites based in one of Cyprus' busiest tourist hubs, Ayia Napa. The
fire detection system has been supplied, installed and commissioned
by Dragon Advanced Technology Systems, who will also maintain the
system.
The resort is designed around a main building that houses the
reception and amenities, including restaurants, bars, cafeterias,
and sports and conference facilities. Guest accommodation is
arranged in 30 two-storey blocks, each of which contains four
suites.
Andreas Charalambous, Managing Director of Dragon Advanced
Technology, comments: "Our client approached us to replace the
existing fire alarm system with a new one using the same
configuration. They specified that Apollo fire detectors should be
used since the resort's parent company had used them on other sites
and had found them to be very reliable.
"We are very proud of our professional reputation, quality of
work and customer service at Dragon and we know that Apollo works
on the same principles. Having been pleased with the high standard
of Apollo products in the past, we were in full agreement with the
client's specification."
Dragon Advanced Technology recommended Orbis, Apollo's new
generation of conventional fire detectors, for use at The Panthea
Village. The Orbis range incorporates some features more commonly
associated with intelligent detection systems and has been devised
specifically to provide high quality detection in small to medium
sized installations.
With modern styling and the latest mechanical and electronic
developments, the Orbis range is designed to speed installation,
enhance reliability and reduce the incidence of false alarms.
Features include DustDefy�, which uses advanced mechanical design
to keep out dust while ensuring entry of smoke, new optics in both
the optical and multisensor smoke detectors, algorithms for the
rejection of transient phenomena and automatic drift
compensation.
False alarm reduction is a particularly important consideration
at holiday resorts, where evacuating large numbers of people who
are unfamiliar with their surroundings can be extremely stressful
and repetitive nuisance alarms can spoil an otherwise enjoyable
stay. This, in turn, could adversely affect business: holidaymakers
won't return to a place where they have had a bad experience and
they certainly won't recommend it to others, which damages a
resort's reputation more widely.
The kitchenettes in the guest suites at The Panthea Village were
identified as the most likely source of false alarms due to steam
and smoke generated during food and drink preparation. Smoke
detectors are inappropriate for such areas as they can be affected
by transient high levels of vapour particles. Dragon Advanced
Technology therefore protected these areas with Orbis rate-of-rise
heat detectors, which change into alarm if the rate of increase in
temperature exceeds a pre-set level. The rate-of-rise detector also
responds at a fixed temperature if the rate of rise is too slow to
trigger an alarm.
In total, 660 Orbis devices were installed to protect the
buildings. The fire protection is arranged around a 32-zone master
panel situated in the main building, while each of the 30
accommodation blocks has a two-zone control panel installed. Each
control panel operates individually to sound the alarm locally at
the villa block concerned. The fire signal is also transmitted to
the master panel in the hotel's reception where it triggers an
internal buzzer so that members of staff are alerted and one of
them can investigate the incident. In the event of a real fire, the
hotel would be evacuated on a one-out all-out basis.