Flying high - major VA project completed at Manchester Airport

Solid State is flying high after successfully completing a major voice alarm project at Manchester Airport. The overhaul of the life safety systems in Terminal One represented the first and most important phase of a £35M radical revamp of the site.

With 107 check-in desks, T1 is Manchester Airport’s biggest and busiest terminal and a powerful new 64-zone voice alarm was required to replace the existing system. However, this was to be no straightforward installation.

The main challenge Solid State faced was the fact that the switch over between the old system and the new one could take place only when the terminal was closed – between the hours of 1.30am and 5am. Even though a number of flights were postponed to ensure there was enough time to carry out the installation, the company’s engineers were still required to work against the clock to complete the job.

Life safety systems in airports must remain functional at all times which proved to be another major obstacle as the old system could not be disconnected until the new one was fully operational. Therefore, the new system’s amplifiers, message stores and matrix had to be powered up and tested before the 88 speaker circuits could be connected to the main system.

The quarter of a million pound project was made all the more complicated by the incredibly tight security at Manchester Airport which meant that the whole operation needed to be carried out with military timing and precision. Numerous meetings took place prior to installation to ensure that the project was completely coordinated and ran smoothly.

Comments Graham Bell, Sales Manager, ‘Although we are used to carrying out major installations to tight timescales, Manchester Airport presented us with a real challenge. To complete such a complicated voice alarm installation in such a restricted time scale is a major accomplishment and testament to our project management skills and ability to work to tight deadlines in restricted conditions’.