As the United State's tenth largest non-profit regional blood center, the Oklahoma Blood Institute's (OBI) operations are comprised of 15 campus-style locations of laboratories, donor centers and a main headquarters, spread throughout Oklahoma.

"It's not a campus in the true sense. There are a number of different locations and each could be considered a campus unto itself," said Rodney Stamps, CEO of STAMPSCO, a local distributor of Gamewell-FCI fire alarm products

The OBI facilities required an innovative fire alarm solution with remote monitoring and easy expansion capabilities. "We wanted a system that satisfied our needs for voice evacuation and mass notification. Ease of use was another requirement and we wanted all locations to be networked," says Jerry Martinez, Safety Officer for OBI.

Taking into account OBI's future growth and technology needs, STAMPSCO went with Gamewell-FCI's E3 Series^® line of emergency evacuation products. Its distributed communication control with Style 7 wiring, makes the E3 Series a more "survivable system".

The system's broadband technology also has the bandwidth to enable split-second performance with no delays while delivering clear, intelligible communications.

Only two-pair of copper wires or fiber-optic cables are required for networking of a complete E3 Series system of panels and nodes. This exclusive feature reduced costs and minimized the impact of wiring on OBI's retrofit areas

For remote monitoring, a FocalPoint^® graphic workstation, manufactured by Gamewell-FCI, was installed. Configured with site-specific graphics, this desktop PC provides information on the whole fire alarm network. Its intuitive interface allows users to easily monitor remote site activity and a history log of events, plus link to multimedia files (text, audio, video, and bitmaps).

Future plans call for a "FocalPoint Mobile" wireless tablet PC that works in tandem with FocalPoint desktop stations. FocalPoint Mobile allows facility managers, security personnel and emergency responders to quickly evaluate emergency incidents while on the go

"With the success of the installations, we feel confident that we're providing OBI with the highest level of quality and protection available," said Stamps

Gamewell-FCI
12 Clintonville Rd.
Northford, CT 06472-1653
203.484.7161
www.gamewell-fci.com