Ringmaster Security was appointed by One Zero Consulting Engineers to install, among other things, the intercom solution for the Ipanema Residential Estate, based in Houghton, Johannesburg.
They were appointed at the beginning stages of construction and were therefore involved with the project from the ground up. The client wanted a high-quality (both physical and audio) product that needed to be aesthetically pleasing as well as simple to install.
A few intercom solutions were considered, but in the end, Ringmaster Security contacted Powell Tronics, the official South African supplier for the Golmar range of intercoms (manufacturing communication systems since 1958 and ISO certified), and Powell Tronics went about designing a bill of quantities for the unique requirement.
Ipanema was to have 68 apartments and each apartment needed its own dedicated handset for bidirectional communication between two different concierge units. One concierge would be based at the guard house, and the other at the main reception area. These concierge units could be contacted from one of three gate stations located at the three different entrances. A visitor could contact either the guard house or the reception, and whoever received the call could then contact any of the 68 apartments to make the tenant aware of the visitor's arrival.
The 68 apartments were divided into four floors with 16 apartments per floor. The Golmar system can be installed in a daisy chain format, and this enabled Ringmaster Security to run a CAT5 cable up a single riser to junction boxes where the cable split off on each floor.
Power for the system could be added as and when required along the CAT5 BUS as opposed to the normal centralised power set-up required by most other intercoms. These simplifications not only meant less time on site to install the equipment, but would also mean future retrofitting and expansion to the system would be simpler if required.
The developers wanted a quality product, and the solution working today has proved to be more than what they had hoped for. The programming and configuration for this particular site proved to be a learning curve for both Powell Tronics and Ringmaster Security, as neither company had designed or installed a system of this nature before. Golmar came to our assistance, and once the procedures for programming and wiring the units was explained, the install followed smoothly and simply, and to date there have been no issues on site. This is both a testimony to an accomplished professional team, contractor and a technologically robust product.
The development team:
* Kent Gush Properties: www.kentgush.co.za
* Vunani: www.vunanilimited.co.za
* Barrow Construction: www.barrow.co.za
* Alastair McPhail: www.p-tron.co.za
Contact: Vincent Botha, email: vincent@ringmastersecurity.com.
Please click here to view the graph.
Share