The UTC Edwards high level fire alarm and emergency announcement system provided by EEC Integrated Building Control Systems has been selected for QNB Finansbank Head Office located in Levent, Istanbul. The building having a usage area of 90,000m2 is used as the new management base of QNB Finansbank. The construction of the tower at the height of 170 meters and consisting of 40 floors was started in 2011. QNB Finansbank, the owner of the building, was acquired by the National Bank of Greece (NBG), the largest bank in Greece, in 2006 and is now one of the major actors in the finance sector of Turkey with its over 13.000 employees and over 650 branches.
The UTC Edwards control panels installed at QNB Finansbank Head Office are an integrated platform that can simultaneously use the emergency announcement system amplifier units, sound and firefighters telephone control center and fire alarm system line control cards. With this position, it has a unique architecture that can combine the fire alarm and emergency announcement system centers in a single panel integrity.
The UTC Edwards emergency announcement system speakers, on the other hand, are the products by which high sound levels can be easily achieved at very low powers as compared with their peers and which can easily meet all the variable requirements that must be complied with in terms of the standards and regulations in different sections of the building with their optional structures integrated with the alert units.
There are 3 separate sections in the building structure, namely eastern tower, western tower and podium. The building consists of 40 floors in the eastern tower, 12 floors in the western tower and 8 common basement floors covering the section that includes the podium. The system includes 13 UTC Edwards Fire Alarm and Emergency Announcement System panels, 4 UTC Edwards Repeater Panels and UTC FireWorks graphical monitoring and control software and computer at the system control center. Furthermore, there is a UTC Edwards smoke control panel which is at the length of 4 meters and on which there are over 170 package type switches placed on the image of the control structure of the building ventilation system at the system control center.
All areas in the building are equipped with point detectors and emergency announcement speakers. The UTC Edwards control panels containing over 2700 point detectors and 40 separate fire line control cards to which approximately 2400 control and monitoring modules are connected constitute the infrastructure of the fire alarm system center. In addition, approximately 150 air handling units and exhaust and pressurization fan units and 565 motorized ventilation damper units are controlled by the UTC Edwards Fire Alarm System within the scope of the smoke control scenario. With the duct type detectors located in the ventilation ducts in the building, it has been ensured that the quality of fresh air taken from the atmosphere to the ventilation system is detected and the smoke control fans are controlled in accordance with the emergency scenario in terms of building safety.
The Emergency Announcement System, on the other hand, consists of 80 amplifier units placed modularly in the UTC Edwards control panels and over 2000 speakers placed on 80 separate speaker lines fed by these amplifiers. The lspeakers have been selected in different types and at different powers depending on the area where they are located in.
Moreover, certain special stylistic changes have been made on some of the speakers in line with the architectural requirements of the building. In the
lobby section of the building, the requirement for public address is also met by the music broadcast of the UTC Edwards emergency announcement system.
The integration of the emergency announcement system and the fire alarm system on the same panel has met the requirement for the systems in the building to function in coordination in the case of emergency at the highest level. The integration of the Fire Alarm System and the Building Automation System, on the other hand, has been assured by the Modbus protocol interface of the UTC Edwards control panel.
