New fire safety system from Hochiki installed at the historic and beautiful Corte Regia Relais and Spa

Located in the picturesque village of Borghetto di Valeggio sul Mincio, Italy, the Corte Regia Relais and Spa overlooks the river Mincio, with views across to the imposing Scaliger Castle and the Visconteo Bridge and a short journey to Lake Garda. For its guests this hotel is an escape from the outside world and is famed for providing a relaxing experience.

In 2020 the hotel underwent a massive transformation with the renovation of historical barns originally built in circa 800. The aim of the renovation project was to conserve the building and to improve the functional use of the building while maintaining the original integrity and structure. As part of the renovation project a fully compliant fire detection and life-safety system was to be designed and installed throughout the hotel’s luxury rooms and spa. The installer, Cressoni Impianti Tecnolgici chose Hochiki Italia as the manufacturer who designed the successful solution for the hotel.

The biggest challenge with the project was the fact that the hotel was a listed historical building. The original stone walls date from the 800s and the ceilings with wooden beams had to be kept. This made the wiring for the project quite complex, hence the need for a wireless solution. To keep with the aesthetics of the building and to minimise additional building changes the Hochiki Italia team worked closely to collaborate with the installer and the architect to satisfy the client’s request to be sympathetic and respect the historical building.

The ideal solution was to install both Hochiki’s ESP range and Ekho wireless systems. Products from the ESP range included multi-heat sensors, intelligent photoelectric smoke sensors with short-circuit isolators and high-performing chamber technology. This allowed for sensor threshold levels to be increased, thereby improving the signal-to-noise ratio, which reduced the susceptibility to costly false alarms happening within the hotel.

The hybrid system utilises the latest MESH net technology to provide the client with an economic wireless fire system installation with the minimum of disturbance to the surroundings – particularly important in keeping to the aesthetics of the Corte Regia Relais and Spa where installation of fire cabling would have been difficult, overly expensive or even prohibited in some parts. The wireless solution installed could be easily expanded around the entire site and worked particularly well with the original solid walls of the building.

Ezio Danese, Project manager at Hochiki Italia commented: ‘The project had to comply with both architectural and standards requirements. The standards state that inside each room, in addition to a smoke detector, an alarm must be installed with a sound level of 75dB (A) in addition to an optical system capable of reaching even hearing-impaired people. For this reason, the EKWL8-OV detectors were chosen as they are equipped with an EN54-23 certified VAD and an EN54-3 certified voice sounder. The translators, connected to Hochiki’s ESP loop, were installed in the false ceilings in the corridors; their considerable range (1,200m in free area) made it possible to reach all the different wireless devices installed in the rooms. The Ekho system proved to be a perfect solution for the Corte Regia Relais and Spa project.’

The Corte Regia Hotel Manager told us: ‘We are really happy to have found such a technologically advanced solution which is able to guarantee the best fire protection for our guests and hotel staff whilst also fully respecting the particular architectural and aesthetic requirements of our hotel.’

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