Security Essen 18 will see the debut of voice alarm (VA) and public address (PA) developer 4EVAC’s latest product range, IMPACT. After a preview at the ISE show in February, this new approach to VACIE (voice alarm control and indicating equipment) will be seen in its full production form at Europe’s leading technology exhibition for the security market.
IMPACT is the result of 4EVAC founder and business development director Albert Van Der Hout’s long experience in the VA/PA industry, working with firms such as Dynacord, Millbank and Ateis before founding his own company in 2013. Van Der Hout has now developed modular control and monitoring products that deliver secure communications to wide areas. A key feature is their redundancy, which enables evacuation instructions and general announcements to be broadcast even if the carrier network is damaged or faulty.
The IMPACT concept takes existing 4EVAC products, including the DCA-2.500 amplifier and 4EVAC Manager programming application, and integrates them with a new CONTROLLER to create a powerful yet compact system that is able to distribute messages over multiple loudspeaker lines to more zones using fewer amplifiers.
The CONTROLLER is housed in a 1U, 19-inch rack-mountable frame. It manages incoming audio streams, organising them according to their specific priority table. These signals are then sent over the digital AMP-link module, which is able to distribute audio and data streams to a maximum of 32 DCA-2.500 amplifiers using a dynamic assignment technique.
Utilising a ‘dynamic load distribution’ principle on loudspeaker lines from 1W to 800W, the CONTROLLER is able to handle up to 32 DCA-2 500 amps to produce a maximum power output of 32,000W. The audio streams are managed simultaneously by the unit and work over a remote control expandable switching matrix (SW6). Through this the minimum of six loudspeaker lines can be enlarged to more than 1500. These are arranged into a maximum of 255 virtual paging zones.
The 4E-SW6 remote controlled zone expander / switching module is able to produce simultaneous, uninterrupted paging and background music feeds to six loudspeaker lines from one DCA -2 500 two-channel amp. Fault detection on the cables is covered by a surveillance tone generator, which uses the third internal channel on the amplifier.
This integrity checking process works with the 4E-SW6 unit, which produces an AC carrier for each line, which is received by a simple end-of-line (EOL) module, complete with checks made for short and open-line faults.
The 4E-SW6 remote controlled zone expander / switching units are housed remotely in the system rack or external house, which makes for more efficient wiring and installation. The remote switchers work directly with the CONTROLLER and route audio to the set number of loudspeaker lines and zones from the A and B channels of the amplifiers.
The DCA-2.500 amplifier itself sits in a 2U, 19-inch rack. Van Der Hout describes it as “an old school” type of amp, with a transformer isolated for 100V and 50V outputs. It can also be bridged into a total output of 1000W. The DCA-2.500 is a D-Class unit and conforms to the EN54-16 and EN54-4 standard.
Other features include an internal, scalable battery charger for the 24VDC backup, which supports the dual voltage mains supply. An innovative feature of the IMPACT system is that the DCA-2.500 not only powers the system, it is able to charge and monitor the battery pack for up to three 1000W amps. This approach ensures reliability while cutting the amount of hardware that needs to be installed, at the same time lowering installation and operating costs.
“IMPACT is the coming together of technology and implementation concepts 4EVAC has been working on for several years,” comments Albert Van Der Hout. “We are very excited to be debuting the system at Security Essen and I believe the industry will appreciate the simplicity and power of our approach.”
4EVAC will be exhibiting in Hall 6, 6D19 at Security Essen, 25 – 28 September 2018.
For more information, go to www.4EVAC.com
