Advanced Fire Protection for Royal National Theatre

14 Dec 2016

Intelligent fire panels from industry-leading manufacturer Advanced have been chosen to protect the world-famous National Theatre in London after an £89m redevelopment.

Located on London’s Southbank, the National Theatre has played host to some of the most important productions in British theatre, by some of the world’s most famous actors and directors. 

Opened in 1976 to provide the National Theatre company with its first permanent home, it is well known for its ‘Brutalist’ architecture. The site includes three auditoria, the Olivier Theatre, Lyttelton Theatre and Dorfman Theatre. The National Theatre is open to the general public and is a focus for cultural activities on the Southbank and also includes a learning centre, restaurants, a riverside bar and bookshop.

The contract for the new fire system at the National Theatre was awarded to the team at Tri-Management, who specified a network of 12 MxPro 5 panels from Advanced. MxPro 5 is the industry’s leading multiprotocol fire panel range and is renowned for its world-beating performance, quality, and ease-of-use.  
Tony O’Connell, Business Development Manager at Tri-Management, said: “With the timescale we had to install the system at the National Theatre, it was an easy decision to select Advanced panels, as they are one of the simplest systems to install and programme. We have used their panels in many of our installations and the new system will provide the Theatre, industry-leading protection that that can be easily expanded in the future.”

In total, 3,000 loop devices were installed on the MxPro 5 network, linked by 16.5 miles of cable. Detection included aspirating systems in the auditoria and stage areas, along with heat and smoke detectors elsewhere.

The Tri-Management team carried out the successful panel upgrade at the National Theatre in a single weekend with of all the programming and pre planning done offsite. Further to this fantastic effort, the district surveyor was in the following morning to witness test the fire system, sprinklers and gas suppression system installed, and expressed they were extremely happy with the improved performance at the theatre.

Amanda Hope, Head of UK Business Development for Advanced, added: “Our MxPro 5 panel range offers the performance, reliability and flexibility required by a site such as the National Theatre. The panels were part of a complete overhaul of the old system and the ability to have them installed in such as constricted time frame shows how versatile they are.”

Mark Ward, Facilities Service Manager for the National Theatre, commented: “The National Theatre is used by thousands of people every day for lots of diverse activities and we need a fire system that offers peace of mind to everyone. The Advanced system specified by Tri-Management provides the most up to date fire protection that can be easily expanded as we grow.”

MxPro offers a choice of two panel ranges, four protocols, and an open installer base supported by free training and tech support. Approved to EN54 parts 2, 4 and 13, MxPro 5 panels can be used in single loop, single panel format or easily configured into high speed, 200 panel networks covering huge areas and tens of thousands of field devices. Advanced’s legendary ease of installation and configuration and wide peripheral range mean that MxPro is customisable to almost any application.

Advanced is a world leader in the development and manufacture of intelligent fire systems. The legendary performance, quality and ease-of-use of its products sees Advanced specified in locations all over the world, from single panel installations to large multi-site networks. Advanced’s products include complete fire detection systems, multi-protocol fire panels, extinguishing control, fire paging and false alarm management systems. More details can be found on the website at www.advancedco.com