An interesting real-world application for products from one of Automated Home’s preferred smart home companies – Barix.
“Barix Exstreamers Play a critical role in Revolutionary Earthquake early alerting – Barix technology AG, a leading maker of standalone voice, music and data over IP services for commercial and residential applications, is pleased to announce that their Exstreamer devices play a critical role in QuakeGuard earthquake early alerting systems created and manufactured by Seismic alerting Systems, Inc., of Scotts Valley, California. In the event of an earthquake, the Seismic alerting QuakeGuard systems are able to supply as much as 6 to 60 seconds development notice before the major tremors strike, thereby allowing people to seek shelter. The QuakeGuard seismic alerting system depends on the early detection of non-destructive, fast moving waves emanating from the origin of an earthquake. The QuakeGuard system has been installed in over 30 installations throughout California as of February 2006 and it is starting to be assessed in pilot programs in other parts of the world…
Once installed in a commercial or residential building, QuakeGuard systems can generate their own alerting signals and interface with existing automation, audio and safety systems. The Barix Exstreamer, relied upon due to its reliability, robust construction, hacker-resistant design, and ‘always on’ status, is a critical component as it is the direct line of communicating QuakeGuard-generated alerting messages through closed or large area IP networks to distributed sound systems.
The Barix Exstreamer family of products are intelligent network-based MP3 decoders/players that effortlessly extract digital audio from an IP network (10/100 Mbit/s Ethernet), converting it into music or voice for playback over distributed sound systems in both residential or commercial applications. In commercial applications, such as arenas, office buildings, convention centers, QuakeGuard and Barix devices are fully compatible with digital and/or analog paging and communications systems from leading producers such as BiAmp and MediaMatrix.
An earthquake produces four types of waves that emanate from its epicenter; P or primary waves, S or shear waves, L or love waves, and R or Rayleigh waves. A P-wave, non-destructive and imperceptible to humans, is a vertical motion wave that travels faster and can be sensed much earlier, depending upon distance from epicenter, than destructive S- and R-waves. The QuakeGuard technology detects the non-destructive P-waves while filtering other sources of vibrations that can result in false alarms. The elimination of false warnings is a result of QuakeGuard’s patented DSP algorithms that filter detected vibrations to isolate the signature waveforms of a seismic event that has just occurred. depending on the geological composition of the terrain and the distance from the epicenter of the seismic event, a alerting of 6 to 60 seconds is possible.
Individual QuakeGuard systems installed in fire and police stations, hospitals, and even broadcast news organizations, can be networked over large areas by means of IP. These systems communicate when P-waves are detected to supply development notice of the impending stronger shock waves. For instance, P-waves detected in San Jose, California, would be transmitted to other fire stations and emergency services facilities throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, often up to 100 or a lot more miles away, so these facilities can supply development alerting to citizenry, as well as activate lots of pre-programmed automated emergency facility functions, such as opening the fire station’s truck bay doors, powering-up emergency generators in hospitals, or broadcasting automated large area radio notices to a police force.
According to Michael price of Seismic alerting Systems, Inc., “Barix Exstreamers installed in one campus-wide QuakeGuard application have proven to be worry-free and highly reputable considering that the system was first installed in August 2004. When QuakeGuard systems are installed in similar applications, we recommend Barix Exstreamers to systems integrators, as we feel they have been the most reputable IP option we’ve come across.”
www.barix.com : www.seismicwarning.com
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