We can imagine that there are still things you wish to know more about. On this page we have collected the most frequently asked questions and their answers that hopefully answer yours as well. If not, please contact us. We will discuss everything that remains unanswered for you after reading this FAQ.
For most of our safety equipment we have developed sensors that monitor fire and escape safety objects 24/7. As soon as they are not 100% in order, they report this to the customer. This enables you to proactively decide to adjust the situation yourself or together with us.
Your fire safety objects (emergency lighting, extinguishers, hose reels, first-aid kits and extinguishing blankets) are fitted with sensors. The sensors keep a constant eye on the safety equipment and give the status of the object at set times, unless an acute change takes place, then they report this immediately. This information is made transparent for you on a dashboard, which is very suitable for monitoring multiple locations.
For each type of sensor, values have been defined within which the measurements are allowed to move. If they fall outside of this and deviate from normal, the system immediately gives signals. So for example: the lamp of the emergency lighting is broken, the fire hose reel is unrolled, the fire extinguisher is relieved of pressure, the AED is removed from the holder. There are two types of notifications that the system issues, these are "notifications" and "alerts". A notification indicates that an unsafe situation could arise, an alert is more serious and requires active intervention. For the time being you will receive the notifications and alerts in your email. And they are immediately visible in the “Tasks” tab in your dashboard. In time, you can also choose to receive the notifications on your mobile phone.
As soon as you receive a notification from the sensors, you actually have 3 choices:
You can arrange all this from the dashboard that we make available to you.
In short, with Safety Connect we give you the tools to actively take decisions about the level of your fire safety.
Definitely. We have developed sensors for emergency lighting fixtures, hose reels, extinguishers, extinguishing blankets, AEDs and first-aid kits. For each type of safety equipment, different matters are monitored. Our goal is to add even more sensors to this, but for the time being you can use the above mentioned sensors.
That can really be anything: the battery of the emergency lighting is empty, the extinguisher appears to have been used, the first-aid kit is no longer in the right place. These are all things that simply happen in the course of a year due to improper use, vandalism, wantonness or perhaps fighting a small starting fire in the coffee corner. So when it really comes down to it, 1 in 6 pieces of safety equipment is not functioning properly. As a manager you often do not notice this, because many of these types of small incidents are not reported.
We offer Safety Connect as an additional service on top of the regular product range. If you want to be 100% safe 24/7, we ask for a small extra monthly amount for every safety device that we monitor. We take care of the rest: installing the sensors, the data network, the database, the dashboards and the notifications and alerts. This is all included in the monthly rate.
Emergency lighting
Fire Extinguishers
Fire hose reel – First aid kit – Extinguishing blanket – AED
When we talk about the "tools" we mean:
You will receive access to your own dashboard, which is suitable for monitoring multiple locations and can be managed by different contacts. In the dashboard you have an up-to-date overview of all statuses of the fire
safety objects, in particular shown in graphs. Any deviations from the standard are immediately detected and appear in the task list. Then you decide what action to take. You will receive the Notifications and Alerts by e-mail and eventually on your mobile phone. The notifications draw your attention to situations that potentially pose a danger, an Alert requires immediate intervention. You can immediately decide to solve things yourself or let us do it. The result: you proactively decide on the level of your fire safety!
After a year, 1 in 6 fire and escape safety objects appears to be no longer in proper condition. We see this in our own maintenance figures and can be found in the figures of the annual survey of the Federatie Veilig Nederland to which all fire safety companies are affiliated. In short, something is wrong with 1 in 6 pieces of safety equipment. So the readiness of the safety equipment has decreased to 85% after 1 year.
So there is a big “safety gain” to be made. With Safety Connect we enable you to stay as close to 100% as possible. We call the difference between the 85% and the 100% “safety gain”.
The sensors are connected via Bluetooth (BLE: Bluetooth Low Energy) to nodes, that are small transmitters / receivers that are incorporated in the emergency lighting fixtures. These nodes in the emergency lighting fixtures are continuously connected to each other and thus form a network. With us that is a mesh network. The nodes transfer the data from the sensors to the next node, towards the gateway. The gateway has a 4G connection with our database in the cloud. In the unlikely event that a node does not work, the network itself will look for a different route towards the gateway (= self healing).
A "mesh" network means that the data coming from the sensors is transferred to the gateway via a random connection. The sensors connect to the nearest node (sometimes also multiple nodes). Via the nodes, the data is transported via a random path to the gateway and from there to the database.
The sensor data is sent via Bluetooth to the nearest node. As soon as the data is picked up by a node, the data is transported via the node network in the emergency lighting fixtures with a random path to the gateway and from there to the database. In the unlikely event that a node is not active, the data will find its way to the gateway via an alternative route. The fact that the system itself searches for an alternative route, we call “self healing”.
The sensors are set in such a way that they report their status on a regular basis. We call that the "heartbeat". This tells us that the sensors are still active and will function when something is really going on. In the unlikely event that something is wrong (for example: movement has been detected or the lamp of the emergency lighting becomes defective), the sensors immediately send their data and a notification is created immediately. Depending on the severity of the report, this is a notification or an alert.
An emergency lighting network is a very dense network within a building (or factory), which greatly benefits the connectivity with the sensors. Emergency lighting fixtures are projected according to a spacing table. The escape route must be illuminated at least with 1 lux, in 99 out of 100 cases this means that luminaires are installed within 30 meters of each other. The luminaires thus form a very dense data network. An additional advantage: the emergency lighting fixtures are all equipped with a battery that continues to work for at least 1 hour in the event of a calamity, so that our network remains the only one active in the event of a power failure.
The gateway is a kind of router that connects to the internet. The gateway has a 4G connection to the internet. We have opted for a 4G connection because it is the most stable. In addition, we do not use company-specific IT systems, which makes our network completely autonomous. Incidentally, it is an option to use the customer's WiFi or Ethernet network, but that is not our preference.
The entire system that we have built: the sensors that monitor the safety equipment, and the network through which the data is transported, is completely separate from all your IT networks. That makes our network completely autonomous. We do not use your WiFi or Ethernet network, unless you request it.
We use BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) to connect to the nodes. We use a mesh network that is connected to each other via 2.4 Ghz. The gateway connects to the internet via 4G.
For the time being, we are using nodes that have been incorporated into a decentralized emergency lighting fixture. Ultimately, it is about providing a comprehensive network so that connectivity with the sensors is guaranteed. If it turns out that we also have to use central emergency lighting fixtures, then we will certainly do so. But we have not yet developed the option “nodes in central emergency lighting”.
The sensors provide insight into the status of your fire extinguisher. This also includes the content (or weight) so that you can be sure that the extinguisher is 100% usable at the time of a fire or calamity. The connection with the network is important, so that the data from the sensors reaches our database. But this connection says nothing about the content of the data (read: the data that says something about the status of the extinguishing agent).
Safety Connect is always sold in combination with the new emergency lighting fixtures from Saval: the Advance series. Because the emergency lighting fixtures transport all sensor data, first to the gateway and then to the central database. This means that the emergency lighting fixtures are the basis of the complete Safety Connect program. Without emergency lighting fixtures, there is no Safety Connect.
Well, unfortunately it is not possible to start using Safety Connect yet. Retrofitting of existing emergency lighting is not possible.
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