OVERVIEW

The Building Technology division of a major engineering firm won the contract to supply and install communications and security equipment to a shopping mall project in Plano, Texas. GAI-Tronics was awarded the supply of the Call For Assistance (CFA) Telephones and the Touch Screen Controller.

An engineering firm in Chicago, IL contacted GAI-Tronics to gather information on our emergency communication systems. At that time, they were designing a new, upscale shopping centre for a major mall marketer whose edict was to make every aspect of the mall of the highest quality.

The engineering firm also wanted to integrate the CCTV, Access Control, Background Music, and Emergency (“Call for Assistance” or “CFA”) Telephones via a touchscreen controller (TSC) to allow a single operator to access and control all of the systems. GAI-Tronics eventually wrote the
specification for the CFA and TSC systems.

FUNCTIONALITY

GAI-Tronics provided a S.M.A.R.T. Emergency Telephone System with TMS linked to a software system. In addition to the emergency telephones, the package integrates the Access Control and CCTV systems, and controls the background music system.

Via a single touchscreen monitor, the system operator is notified when either an emergency telephone or an access control point is activated: a CCTV camera automatically pans to a pre-set position and begins monitoring the area surrounding the phone or control point so the system operator can determine what action, if any, should be taken.

The background music, broadcast over a commercial sound system, offers public address capabilities to the system operator for operational pages, informational announcements, or emergency instructions. A page from the system operator will override the background music to ensure that everyone can hear the information. When the page is complete, the background music
will resume.

The S.M.A.R.T. Emergency Telephone System includes Telephone Maintenance System (TMS) software to provide automatic updates of the functionality and condition of each telephone. All telephone status information is reported through the software package.