Zaanstad Judicial Complex
SAIT bv supplies and installs communication network and walkie-talkies for the new Zaanstad Judicial Complex (JCZ).
SAIT bv achieved full coverage at all locations within the complex, both for GSM and mission-critical communications. For this purpose, SAIT bv designed a Distributed Antenna System. The challenge in this project lay mainly in the special function of the complex as well as the fact that the government outsourced the construction and management of this complex to Pi2, a consortium of Ballast Nedam and Imtech.
FIVE SIGNALS
SAIT bv designed the DAS system to have five signals running over it: coupling in GSM, a PZI/MMI (Persons Search Installation) system, private GSM, the Tetra network for the walkie-talkies, and C2000. Apart from the radio network, SAIT bv also supplied about 200 Motorola walkie-talkies and a number of mobile phones for fixed stations. The PZIs – a kind of emergency button pager with positioning system, which everyone working here is equipped with – were not supplied by SAIT itself, but were thus connected to the radio network.
SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS
The JCZ has very specific building and equipment requirements. On the one hand, there is the building structure with a lot of steel, concrete and thick walls that require extra effort to achieve coverage. On the other hand, there are specific requirements for concealing cable ducts, aerials and other components. With a complex like this, you have to work towards a design at a very early stage. For instance, from the very first concept, the placement of antennas must be taken into account. These should not be positioned visibly or within reach of unauthorised people. SAIT bv has hidden all antennas in strategic places: behind partitions, in walls or behind locked doors. This means that you can’t easily access anything once a building section has been completed. A penitentiary does not have ceiling tiles that you can just pull off when you want to move a cable. So you have to immediately pull them into the definitively right place.
NEN2575
Yet another point SAIT bv had to take into account in the system design is that it had to meet the criteria of the NEN2575 standard. One requirement of the client, for example, was that a silent alarm had to be included for certain types of alarms. Elfrink: “With a silent alarm, however, you have to be sure that the alarm really takes place. To guarantee the latter, the installation must comply with NEN2575. For instance, all cable paths must not only be redundant, but also separated, to prevent alarms from going wrong if one of them is affected by the fire. This requirement, combined with aspects mentioned earlier, provided an additional challenge. Cables should not hang in plain sight, the suitable installation space was limited and overcrowded, and so now a copy of each cable also had to be drawn at a different location. As a result, we actually had to redesign in terms of cabling, while there was quite a bit of time pressure on the project.”
SAIT bv managed to deliver a NEN2575-certified network, which is also monitored in a specific way. Elfrink: “In the market, we couldn’t find any suitable products for monitoring. So we developed a monitoring tool ourselves. That was a bull’s-eye: our self-developed tool turned out to be cost-effective for the client and we ourselves also benefit from that development, because we can now use it for networks in other sectors. For example, that NEN 2575 standard plays an important role in projects in the healthcare sector, in which we as SAIT bv are also active.”
SATISFIED LOOK BACK
The entire complex has now been completed and commissioned. SAIT bv looks back on the project with satisfaction, and the client is also very satisfied. Elfrink: “If you look at the completion report and the GSM and walkie-talkie ranges, the network is actually oversized; we are well on the safe side. It took us quite some time and energy, and with such a complex project as this, you always run into surprises and unforeseen hick-ups. However, we never shied away from those, and the end result is something to be proud of. We also learnt a lot from it and enriched our own knowledge and capabilities; for example, partly thanks to this project, we now have even more knowledge of NEN2575-specific issues.”