Reliable cellular modules ensure fire system integrity

20th August 2015

u-blox

Barney Scott

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Romteck Australia has announced a collaboration with u-blox in order to upgrade its product portfolio, including the company's flagship product, Romteck ASE. Designed to overcome the shortcomings of more traditional fire alarm systems, it constantly monitors tens of thousands of building alarms and centralises these at a fire alarm monitoring center that then relays confirmed fire alarm information to the relevant fire and rescue services.

The system allows instant knowledge and alerting of fire alarms and provides specific information as to the location, type and extent of the alarm. State-of-the-art cellular technology is therefore essential to the ASE (Alarm Signaling Equipment) so that it can convey life-or-death critical information in a timely way.

"When the mobile carrier Telstra announced that it would shut down its GSM network in 2016, we had to rapidly consider how to migrate our product portfolio from 2G to the latest 3G and LTE cellular technologies in order to protect our customers’ investment in their installed equipment", explains Phil Harman, General Manager, Romteck Australia. "We also needed reliable and high quality products critical to fire alarm monitoring applications. u blox’s latest technology, in particular the cellular modules LISA-U200 3G and TOBY-L280 LTE supporting Band 28, were the right choice for us", he adds.

One of the main customers to benefit from the collaboration between Romteck and u-blox is Airservices Australia, an Australian Commonwealth corporation providing air navigation, rescue, and fire-fighting services to the aviation industry. Reinforcing their ongoing commitment to an impressive safety record, in 2011 Airservices upgraded their fire monitoring services across every major Australian airport to a centrally monitored facility using Romteck equipment, embedding u-blox’s LISA-U200.

"We are excited about this collaboration with Romteck Australia, the recognised leader in remote monitoring systems. In addition to a comprehensive and reliable cellular portfolio, we offer a ‘nested design’ philosophy to maintain form factor and software continuity. This allows customers to easily upgrade their products with each new generation of u-blox global positioning or wireless modules without having to change the PCB designs. It allows for easy migration contributing to maximised investment, simplified logistics and drastically reduced time-to-market, which is particularly crucial in the case of Romteck", explains Pietro Sbisa, Business Development Manager, u-blox Australia & New Zealand.