Meeting Unique Requirements

 

Photos courtesy of Draper Inc.

The local fire marshal was concerned about safe evacuations from the gymnasium during a fire alarm. The fire-protection solution was enabling an electronic pulse from the first alarm to communicate with the gymnasium equipment control system, causing all curtains to raise when the alarm is activated.

Alvernia University is a private Franciscan university located in Reading, Pennsylvania. The university hosts approximately 3,000 students and participates in NCAA Division III athletics.

The Tom and Helen Flynn PLEX at Alvernia University is a nearly 100,000-square-foot athletics, recreation, wellness, and health science complex that opened in September 2019 and features four basketball courts circled by an 8-lane track. The facility also features fold-up and radius-fold divider curtains to separate the basketball courts from each other and from the running track so simultaneous activities can take place without worrying about balls going into adjacent areas. The facility also features multi-sport practice cages, volleyball courts, and tennis courts.

“The PLEX facility was designed with maximum flexibility for multipurpose usage by students, faculty, and the community in mind,” says Franklin D. Watts, vice president of Reading, Pennsylvania-based Burkey Corporation, the contractor on the project. “We needed to have a system that could interact with all of the sports equipment as well as the divider wall system to properly handle quick turnover for the various sports teams and events, the physical therapy department and their patients, campus-wide events, etc.”

Further, the controls system had to handle all of the moving parts in various capacities but be simple enough to be operated via touchpad or remote tablet by multiple individuals.

The solution was a custom programmed control system that included a 48 relay box capable of operating 24 directional devices, a 7-inch wall-mounted ethernet graphic touchscreen with graphical interface program, a tablet with the same interface program, and a Wi-Fi kit to allow the tablet to talk with the processor. The Wi-Fi network is a closed system utilized only by the control system, so the tablet user must stay in the gym so that individual can watch equipment under operation. No one outside of the area has access. Because the electrical engineer elected to use a dedicated circuit for each device, the control system included group buttons to simultaneously operate up to eight devices for easy and rapid setup changes.

“The University wanted a universal system that was easy to operate. The system [we specified] does not require individual, manual, or wall-mounted controls—just a wall-mounted central computer and an iPad, which saves time in setup. Likewise, there is no need to keep different manual keys or controls for each piece of equipment,” relates Joseph G. Kane III, construction administrator with Lititz, Pennsylvania-based Derck & Edson Associates, the firm that designed the PLEX facility.

As the only school in its conference with a fully NCAA-compliant indoor track and field, Alvernia hosts conference championships and the PLEX Shootout Invitational meet. The facility is also used for club sports, classes, convocations, and many other campus events. Large and varied events mean big numbers of students, athletes, and/or spectators, and the need to protect those people.

“In early discussions with the university, architectural and engineering team, and manufacturer, it became obvious that we would need a system that could handle the complexities that come with a multipurpose facility,” Watts relates. “There were also some code-driven requirements that could not have been satisfied with some of the other control systems on the market or by way of key switches.”

Meeting Fire Code

With large events and multiple activities happening simultaneously, the way equipment could be deployed, especially divider curtains and practice cages, could have created safety concerns should the need ever arise to evacuate the facility. With curtains as long as 100 feet wide, the only option for egress is typically to run to one end of the curtain to exit. But with multiple curtains running different directions or even wrapping around the inside of the track, in an emergency, the building may seem more like a labyrinth than an athletic facility. Based on these concerns, the local fire marshal required that the divider curtains be interconnected with the building fire alarm so that when the alarm is activated, the curtains start to raise.

When first approached, the manufacturer’s initial reaction was to suggest that the project electrician and electrical engineer create an interface to meet this requirement, as it did not see a way to make the control system communicate with another party’s fire alarm system. However, after a little research and trial-and-error experimentation, a solution was developed that made it very easy to meet this unusual requirement and provide the level of safety required.

Ultimately, the law required that the divider wall system and batting cages be designed in such a way that they would be raised immediately should the fire alarm system be activated. “By working closely with the engineers, the manufacturer’s IT folks, our installer, the electricians, and the fire alarm vendor, we were able to modify the various system components that were required to communicate with each other regardless of the scene or program setting in place at the time of activation,” explains Watts.

Utilizing one of four optional digital inputs available on the programmable controller, the manufacturer was able to assign a “fire alarm” command that is actuated by a dry contact pulse emitted by the alarm system when the fire alarm is activated. The signal had to be a pulse because at the falling end of the pulse, when signal is removed, the fire alarm command is sent out across the entire network and continues to be sent for 5 minutes. Since each divider and practice cage is on a dedicated circuit, the fire alarm signal was placed into commands that control each individual curtain and practice cage, so those items are turned on in the up direction for a period of 5 minutes. Raising curtains and practice cages if the fire alarm is activated allows for everyone inside the facility to rapidly exit in the event of an emergency.

“Along the way, we were sure to keep the fire marshal and code officials in the conversation updated on progress to assure their comfort level with the design. They were very pleased with the end result and satisfied with the response time of the wall system, allowing for a safe and unhindered mass exit from the building during an emergency,” Watts states.

Programmable control systems allow huge amounts of flexibility to control all kinds of operable gym equipment, lighting, scoreboard, window shades, and bleachers.

Integrated Effort

As this was a unique project with unique requirements, early collaboration between multiple parties was essential.

“The manufacturer assisted in the contractor’s and the electrical engineer’s request for information on netting and equipment contacts, power requirements for motors, wire sizes, and voltage requirements for coordinating with the fire safety system computer,” Kane relates. “They also assisted in expediting information before the equipment order was placed to assure that it met the university’s request and proper installation could be done by the contractor before it arrived on-site.”

Watts points out a few other benefits that materialized from early collaboration: “The collaborative effort between all parties, including early input from the controls manufacturer, helped to not only deliver a system that could handle the needs of the university but also avoid potentially significant costs and delays that could have materialized otherwise,” he states. “Without the ability to meet the local code requirements regarding emergency egress, the completion date of the project could have been greatly impacted, and there is a very good chance that certain elements of the design, including the divider wall system, may have been eliminated from the project altogether.”