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Security on campus

The University of Tilburg, a top-ranked Dutch learning institution, is situated in the sixth largest city in The Netherlands. Hosting a student population of some 10 000, the university specialises in human and social sciences and is well known for its high standards in education and scientific research, as well as its good

support facilities.

Its 10 000 square-metre campus is guarded 24 hours a day, Monday through Saturday, when the university is open for classes. At all other times, there is a security officer on standby on campus. The security control room is housed in the main university building and is well protected against fire and burglary.

A logical first-step

Prior to 1998, the university used fixed-line and 'porto' phones to communicate with security and emergency personnel. "This was just not workable: it took way too much time to contact emergency personnel and errors could easily be made," says Ad van Eijk, the university's health, safety and security officer.

According to Van Eijk, what the university wanted was a system that delivered just the right information, fast and reliably. This was critical in improving (emergency) response times, and consequently the productivity and efficiency of security and emergency personnel on the ground and in the security control room. On the technical side, other requirements included a maximum range of 2000 m, simple system maintenance and possibility to make group and individual calls.

Satisfying all these requirements, the Bosch DP6000 was installed in 1998. The configuration included 40 pagers, four transmitters and a standard control desk (see below for details).

New security and paging requirements

Over the years, however, the university was obliged to review its security and paging requirements as the organisation changed and the student population grew. This in turn had led to an increase in the number of locations needing security (and paging coverage), and more security and safety personnel. In addition, the university wished to further improve the functionality and user-friendliness of its paging system, and also ensure total paging coverage in a large number of reinforced-concrete structures that posed a problem for normal wireless reception.

In July 2003, the university brought in Mextal (a Bosch value-added reseller in the Netherlands that specialises in communication, surveillance and security-control solutions) to investigate the campus paging system and the university's requirements, and to advise on the equipment needed for an upgrade.

"We started by measuring the field strength and coverage of the system deployed at the time," says Marcel Gielen, Mextal's business development manager and member of its management team. "To improve paging coverage, we recommended re-directing the antennas and relocating some transmitters, as well as expanding the transmitting base with two additional transmitters. And to solve the problem - the only one we encountered - with coverage in the reinforced-concrete interconnecting tunnels, basements and elevator shafts, we proposed installing internal radiax antennas where needed."

The university's upgraded Bosch DP6000 Digital Paging System (see below for details) went live in May 2004. The system included a computer-based Alpha-Desk control centre with speech capability (which makes communication and operational logging easier for the control room operator); and 90 user-friendly comfort pagers with alphanumeric display, vibration and speech features.

Time-critical solution

"Time is a critical issue when we have to prevent damage or limit it. For this reason, we needed - and got - a fast and reliable communication system that provides full coverage and prevents simple errors. We are indeed pleased with the effectiveness and efficiency this system delivers, and its user-friendliness," says Van Eijk.

Some technical details

Components of original Bosch DP6000 system:

* Four x LBB5888 transmitters.

* 40 x LBB6181 pagers.

* Eight x LBB6150 storage racks.

* One x LBB5800 Standard control station.

New components of upgraded Bosch DP6000 system:

* 90 x LBB6199 pagers (including 40 replacement pagers for LBB6181) with alphanumeric display, vibration and speech.

* Seven x LBB6150 additional storage racks.

* Two x LBB5888 additional transmitters.

* One x LBB5334 splitter.

* Four x LBB5050 and LBB5990 antennas with radiax cable.

* One x Alpha desk computer.

An Alpha-desk computer is a central control computer for all paging functions. It consists of a PC with an alphanumeric interface (LBB6000); a speech card (LBB6001); an audio unit (LBB6004); and logging software (LBB6505). The Alpha-desk can handle up to 10 000 receivers.

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