A fairy-tale castle built for an emperor, which is now one of the most visited museums in Italy, has been equipped with the new powerful Taurus wireless fire network and range of devices from Argus. More than 150 high-performance wireless detection, control and alarm devices from the Taurus range, which went on worldwide sale in November, are now protecting Castello di Miramare, a coastal landmark in Trieste, Italy.
Castello di Miramare was built by Ferdinand Maximilian (1832–1867), younger brother of Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria. In 1850, Maximilian came to Trieste, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and fell in love with the sea, leading to his eventual appointment as Commander of the Imperial Navy, a role that required a suitable home in the city. He lived in the castle until 1864, when he left Europe to become the first, and only, Emperor of Mexico.
The new Taurus wireless range from Argus was the perfect choice for Castello di Miramare, where it was installed by Tecnotem, facilitating replacement of the 15-year-old wired fire system with a wireless alternative that required up to 90% less cabling, while offering superior protection to the historic fabric of the building. Taurus can handle up to 128 devices per wireless translator and 240 per hybrid loop, with a 10-year battery life for sensors, call points and inputs, and five years for outputs, sounders and VADs.
Iuri Carlucci, owner of Tecnotem, commented: ‘We first installed fire systems at Castello di Miramare in 1990, but wired was the only option at the time. Thanks to Taurus, my team was finally able to remove nearly all the cables, restoring the ceilings of the state rooms to their original condition. The choice of wireless was obvious, to preserve the historical fabric of the castle.’
Daniel Saturno, Tecnoteam’s designer and executive director, commented: ‘We also appreciated the ability to set up the devices in discovery mode, during installation, and then complete the configuration via a dongle, without any wired connection to the translators. Taurus demonstrated consistent communication stability, even in a complex environment such as the Castle, with its thick walls.’
The system installed at Castello di Miramare is a hybrid one, using the Taurus wireless network to complement wired devices, with the whole system controlled by an Advanced MxPro5 panel. The entire installation of the Taurus system, from survey to final testing, took just nine days, a fraction of the time that a fully wired system would have required.
Giorgio Koursaris, General Manager at Argus, commented: ‘It seems fitting that one of the first buildings to benefit from our world-class Taurus range was a world-famous landmark. Wireless was traditionally seen as a niche product for heritage buildings and, although it has now become mainstream across the industry, it’s still the ideal solution for a building like Castello di Miramare, where the historic interiors require careful handling and minimal intervention.
‘Put simply, the Taurus range offers all of the advantages traditionally associated with wireless, such as convenience, speed of installation and simplified system specification, and adds performance that will not only equal traditional wired systems but exceeds them in most areas. Systems are designed and specified using the bespoke TauREX software, which features a user-friendly graphical user interface and innovative features, such as EasyScan and ConfigWizard, to help specify the optimum system for each site in an easy and intuitive way.’
Taurus Expanders use SafePath Mesh Expander technology to deliver unprecedented system reliability and performance. If any expander in the chain fails, the transmission path finds an alternate route, ensuring communication continuity. Every Taurus translator supports up to 15 network expanders and the best possible redundant communication paths are identified and tested to provide the most reliable and robust communication pathway possible.
Taurus uses Argus’ NetworkOptimiser technology, with intelligent signal processing across 60 communications channels to avoid communication interference and channel collisions, regardless of the extent of the fire network or the scale of the building. NetworkOptimiser checks and confirms that every packet of data is sent and received as expected, ensuring absolute confidence in safety signalling. Every Taurus device also features Argus’ SafeSwitch dual redundant channel technology, so if one channel fails, the other automatically takes over, ensuring unprecedented levels of reliability and performance.
Argus is one of the world’s leading designers and manufacturers of wireless fire devices. The company has been established for 20 years and today employs over 100 experts in the design, manufacture and supply of high-performance fire-protection products for international OEMs, panel partners and fire system integrators. The Argus global centre of wireless fire device design is based in Trieste, Italy, working on a portfolio of world leading innovative detection and alarm devices.
For more information, go to www.argussecurity.it
