This post is mostly to compile what I’ve learned about BluePoint. I’ll edit with new information and interesting facts that I find over time. Not sure if this belongs in Fire Alarm discussion necessarily, but BluePoint does have some interesting similarities/connections to fire alarm equipment and things. If this should be recategorized, that’s fine by me!
BluePoint Alert Solutions is based in Elgin, Illinois. It seems to be housed in the same building as Shales McNutt Construction (SMC), which would be appropriate given its origins.
The initial idea that turned into the BluePoint we all know today came from a “regular client meeting” between key figures from SMC, an architect from Rockford, and the superintendent of school district District 301 of Burlington. For some context, SMC and the architect (from Larson and Darby in Rockford) had been working with District 301 since around the mid-2000s on their school buildings. This meeting happened to take place around 2012-2013, and came in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook tragedy. District 301’s superintendent, Todd Stirn, had mentioned that all their buildings had fire alarm systems, and thought that it would be good to have a similar system for emergencies necessitating a police response. The SMC representative, John McNutt, brought that back to his business partner, John Shales, and they brought the idea to Fox Valley Fire and Safety, a local Notifier Premier dealer that works on a LOT of systems and other things in the area (I’ve seen fire extinguishers tagged by them in more buildings than I can count, and have seen their trucks all around). The result of all of this was BluePoint Alert Solutions.
It would appear that BluePoint systems were piloted in District 301 schools, which would make sense because it was Stirn who was involved in those initial discussions. I’ve been to District 301 buildings many times over the years, and I seem to recall some kind of police systems installed in the middle schools and high school around that time period. I think they actually used T-bar style pull stations initially, but I can’t recall for sure — I wasn’t into this stuff until after new BluePoint systems were installed district-wide and any old systems would have been upgraded. Regardless, around the mid-2010s is when the BG-12-style BluePoint pull stations (likely all wireless, thus the BP-PS-201P model) popped up in the schools, with the System Sensor strobes selectively placed in high-noise areas like cafeterias, music rooms, gyms, etc. The new expansion to the high school in the late 2010s had hardwired, flush-mount strobes but interestingly opted to use pull stations with backboxes, presumably more wireless pull stations. Seems like an odd choice, but that’s just my opinion. The HS is undergoing another expansion, currently planned to open for the winter semester so I’m curious to see what they install there.
A few more interesting BluePoint notes:
BluePoint systems are monitored by EMERgency24 of Des Plaines, IL.
According to the FAQs on their website, BluePoint systems usually tie into building PA systems, but they are now offering speaker strobes as well. Presumably that’s some sort of relabeled System Sensor device.
I created a new post because I wanted to include more topics like its history, and I’m also not sure what the feeling is towards necroposting on those old topics since I’m still fairly new here. Thanks for linking to the old one, though, since it has some interesting viewpoints!
Very interesting indeed. I find BluePoint to be very interesting (sorry for “redundant” words but I couldn’t think of any other way to describe such) in that it’s the polar opposite of a fire alarm system: it’s a police alarm system instead!
Surprised no one thought to make such a thing until then.
That would explain Honeywell’s “partnership” with BluePoint device-wise.
They wouldn’t happen to have been rebranded RMS-series t-bars by RSG, Inc. would they? (AKA the most-rebranded pull station in the industry)
Wireless? Huh, never knew that’s how they worked. Can’t imagine how much of a headache that might be having to change the batteries in every single station though (including/especially if the system doesn’t actually tell you which ones need changing).
Good idea: definitely seems like something was missing, given the systems only appeared to have manual stations & strobes, but no audible devices (obviously though horn/strobes would be out of the question).
Makes sense since they’re not fire alarm signals specifically (even though they’re likely made & designed the same way as their fire alarm counterparts).
Interesting…
Something else I might add: fittingly it seems newer BluePoint systems use L-series devices (with only the trim rings blue: apparently System Sensor couldn’t be bothered with making all-blue shells for them unlike with the Advance signals) since System Sensor mostly no longer sells the SpectrAlert Advance-series (though I suppose they could have kept it in limited production for applications like that).
I’ve seen those: quite a unique piece of a BluePoint system compared to a normal fire alarm system: they’re literally just buttons attached to lanyards.
Sorry for taking so long to get back to you! Saw the email and never got back to it.
Also probably helps that System Sensor’s headquarters are in St. Charles (drive time is around a half hour from BP’s office).
Again, I don’t remember it very clearly but if it was a T-bar then yes, most likely it was an RSG. My memory is extremely fuzzy but it looked far more RSG-style than something like a Sigcom pull.
For the areas of the school that predate the BP system, it makes sense that all devices are wireless, but the pulls in one of the additions in question probably could’ve been hardwired. Very odd choice indeed, am curious what they did with the new addition. I believe all the structural work and most interior work is complete but it hasn’t been opened yet.
Turns out, not quite - I managed to dig up a Facebook post from the district that had one in the background! I decided not to include the full image because a student was in it, but this pull station was in the gym at one of the middle schools. It’s not the highest quality picture, but this matches up pretty well with what I remember. Unfortunately, because of the quality, I can’t quite tell what brand it is - maybe someone else can recognize it?
The HS addition ended up with the ceiling-mount xenon strobes with the BluePoint trim plates. Pulls are the usual BG-12L style, and they seem to be enclosed in some sort of stopper - can’t tell if they’re hardwired or wireless, but if memory serves me correctly, I managed to get into that wing one time before they were installed, and I didn’t see any signs of where they might install hardwired devices. It would be an odd choice to go wireless, but I think they did. The stoppers themselves are new to me as well.
Two other things worth mentioning:
BluePoint systems are capable of immediately sending staff members messages about where the alarm was activated. Seems pretty obvious, but I did leave that out of the OP.
They may be prone to random false alarms. I don’t think it ever made it to the media, but Central High School had a false alarm earlier this year that allegedly turned out to be a pull station spontaneously alarming for no apparent reason. This happened when students were just entering the building, so initially, people were disregarding it (probably thinking it was a test that was running late) until staff started herding people into rooms, and half of the buses were rerouted. I heard that the faculty was eventually able to check the building’s security cameras and found that the pull station was untouched, but not before the sheriff’s office had started searching the building with guns drawn, believing it was an active shooter. Needless to say, the students in the building were pretty shaken up. Not much more information ever came out, so that’s about all I know regarding this incident. I think this is a coincidence, but the building is no stranger to false emergency alarms - being acquainted with some of the CHS staff, it sounds like the fire alarm system (Siemens XLS) has also spontaneously alarmed in years past. Weird stuff.
Oh okay. Pretty sure that’s a blue SigCom SPECTRUM series t-bar (moreso considering one of the label options is “POLICE” going by S.E.R. Safety’s videos of his).
