The Benefits of Microchips in Fire, Security and Safety Defences
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb057244 |
| Published date | 01 March 1982 |
| Pages | 29-30 |
| Date | 01 March 1982 |
| Author | Kenneth Barnes |
| Subject Matter | Economics,Information & knowledge management,Management science & operations |
The Benefits of Microchips in Fire,
Security and Safety Defences
by Kenneth Barnes
IFSSEC Exhibition Director
Microchip technology is advancing so rapidly that it is
dif-
ficult to realise how widely and deeply it has become
woven into the pattern of everyday life. There can be few
homes in the country without one or more machines or in-
struments dependent for their efficiency on microchip or
solid state technology, and office equipment based on
microchips has become commonplace. Equally, exhibits at
IFSSEC
'82 —
The
International
Fire,
Security
and Safety
Exhibition and Conference, Olympia, London, 19-23
April, illustrate how important this new technology is in
the security, fire prevention and safety industries.
Fire Alarms
The only form of fire alarm system likely to achieve
anything approaching 100 per cent effectiveness would
have to be based on an adequate number of "alert human
beings in full possession of all their faculities". But inven-
tors and scientists have yet to devise a detector equally sen-
sitive to light, heat, visible smoke and smell. Furthermore
existing fire detectors have not been endowed with a
capacity for movement to compare with that of a human
guard. Unfortunately, however, it is in most circumstances
economically impossible to keep a large enough body of
human guardians on duty to watch all possible sources of
danger. Therefore the fire engineer has to rely on an in-
creasingly wide range of detectors sensitive to rises in
temperature, or the presence of smoke, to give early warn-
ing of fire. But however carefully detectors are sited, the
failing which has been the bugbear of fire alarm systems
since they were first conceived is still with us, namely false
alarms.
False alarms, whether through a malfunctioning of a
detector, or as a result of a fault in the communication
system, will probably never be totally eliminated, but
thanks to microchip technology the chances are that the in-
cidence of such mishaps may be reduced to more
manageable proportions. The microchip has made it feasi-
ble to build into a system the capacity for it automatically to
question itself in an effort to determine if a signal is ge-
nuine or not. Combined with improved reliability of the
detectors themselves, this development should result in a
reduction of the false alarm plague.
Security
Security has possibly benefitted even more than fire pro-
tection from the introduction of the microchip. The in-
dustry's products, like those of so many other manufac-
turers,
have shrunk dramatically in size and often in cost as
well. Particularly in the instance of close circuit television
cameras for surveillance purposes, the advantages are ob-
vious.
If cameras are bulky enough to be difficult to con-
ceal, any intruder who has had the foresight to reconnoitre
the ground has a much better change of taking avoiding ac-
tion to remain in "dead" areas.
Microchip technology also makes it possible to raise to
the number of surveillance points which can be controlled
from one centre, and to give the operator at the central
point the ability to manipulate the cameras under his care
by remote control. Such a capacity has, of course, been
theoretically possible for years before the arrival of the
microchip, but as with computers, there was a great gulf
between the theoretical and the practical. Just as today's
desk top computer performs the functions that in the early
days would have called for a special, air-conditioned room
stuffed with power guzzling apparatus, the modern CCTV
control console handled by one operator would have re-
quired a large complex with a team to handle the equip-
ment. Admittedly the microchip is not the sole factor in
improving CCTV. Account must also be taken of
developments in lenses, films and lighting, but the
technology has been successfully applied to intruder alarm
communications in much the same manner as with fire
alarms. So, in addition to making surveillance vastly less
conspicuous, miniaturisation has provided a far greater
degree of flexibility.
Examples of flexibility will be demonstrated in papers to
be given at an IFSSEC '82 seminar on Tuesday, 20 April.
In an overall view of CCTV Surveillance Systems, G.
Hope, of Philips Business Systems, will emphasis the need
to consider a CCTV installation as a system rather than as
a series of stand-alone units and the need to incorporate
the system in an organisation's overall security policy. He
will, for instance, discuss the ways in which CCTV can be
linked to other facilities such as intruder alarm systems and
video tape recorders. The paper will cover the re-
quirements liable to affect the choice of equipment, such
as cabling, distances, monitor links, and external/internal
applications. It will review the latest types of lenses and
tubes,
the light levels needed in different conditions and
the methods of achieving them, including the specialised
equipment for low light level installations.
T. S. Henderson of STC-Electronic Security Systems
will concentrate on the factors to be considered in the plan-
ning of a system, the training of operators and
maintenance in order to get the best value for money.
On another aspect of security influenced by microchip
technology, Brigadier A. Needham, Director-General of
the National Supervisory Council for Intruder Alarms, will
address a seminar on Thursday,
22
April devoted to securi-
ty signalling systems. He will discuss popular types of
signalling in common use, including digital dialling, direc-
tor line connections, including multi-plexed connections
and radio signalling. The paper will explain the various
systems, make certain comparisons, examine what each
system can do, and assess their future applications.
Until recently it was fairly generally accepted that the
new technology was less relevant to the problems of safety
than to those of the two other disciplines. Virtually all fire
MARCH/APRIL 1982 29
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