Philadelphia International Airport
Terminals B-F
(I haven’t been in Terminal A, which has the same panel but different devices)
Panel: Simplex 4100U (Comventional with addressable devices being slowly added)
Pulls: Grinnell rebranded RMS-1Ts
Detectors: Apollo Series 65s (slowly being replaced by addressable TrueAlarms)
Signals: TrueAlert speaker/strobes, remote speakers, dual fire and alert strobes, and recently added TrueAlert ES remote strobes.
This post will talk about some hotels I’ve stayed at outside the United States.
Comfort Inn Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada
Panel: Unknown
Pulls: Mircom MS-401s and Potter rebranded RMS-1Ts
Detectors: Potter CF-200W heats, System Sensor heats, and 1400s
Signals: Amseco Select-A-Horn remote horns in white.
Units
Detectors: Potter CF-200W heats and residential smoke alarms
Signals: System Sensor PA400R mini horns
Riu Guanacaste, Costa Rica
Oddly enough, this place has a European Notifier system. I’m not good with European alarms, but I’ll try my best.
Panel: Notifier Addressable Panel (No clue what it is)
Call Points: NRX-WCPs (weatherproof since they are mostly outside)
Detectors: FSP-751s and NRX-OPTs
Signals: AWSB32s and NFXI-WSF-RRs
Units
Detectors: FSP-751s or NRX-OPTs (depending on the room) with AS-RIL-06 Chinese indicator lights outside of each room
Signals: None that are visible unless the detectors are on a sounder base of some kind
Royalton and Royalton Splash Punta Cana, DR
There are multiple buildings here, but every building has the same system except maybe the main building, which probably just has a bigger panel with the same devices.
Panel: Main Building: NFS2-640
Every Other Building: NFS-320
Pulls: NBG-12LXes (not in Spanish oddly enough)
Detectors: FSP-851s and FSP-951s
Signals: P2RSPs
Units
Detectors: FSP-851s or FSP-951s (depending on the room)(Not on sounder bases oddly enough)
Signals: None
I’ve heard one of these systems go off, it will not wake you up in an emergency.
Philadelphia International Airport
Terminals B-F
(I haven’t been in Terminal A, which has the same panel but different devices)
Panel: Simplex 4100U (Comventional with addressable devices being slowly added)
The old system was probably also addressable. Simplex makes a loop card for old Autocall devices, which is used when replacing a TFX-500 or TFX-800 panel with a 4100U or 4100ES.
More details: https://firealarm.com/?attachment_id=9787
My local department store has a Firelite MS-5024 with an RZA-5F annunciator. The signals in the main areas are white ceiling mount System Sensor Spectralert classic horn/strobes and remote strobes as well as a white ceiling mount Spectralert advance remote strobe replacing a dead classic remote strobe. The bathrooms have white Spectralert classic wall mount remote strobes. There are also Firelite BG-8 pull stations. I didn’t see any smoke detectors but I’m assuming there are a few in this system somewhere. (Probably 2400’s) I did see a ton of duct detector key switches all over the store’s ceiling. I’m assuming this is the original system in the building as it fits the building’s time period (seems like very late 90’s to early 2000’s).
Get Air (Mays landing, NJ)
Panel: EST Addressable Panel (Probably a QuickStart of some kind)
Pulls: SIGA-270s
Detectors: SIGA-H2Ds (Added later on)
Signals: Genesis horn/strobes
So, I went on vacation and found these systems:
Marriott’s Ocean Pointe, Riviera Beach, FL
Check-in building:
Sailfish, Dolphin, Cobia, and Pompano Bldgs:
Pulls are Simplex T-Bars
Wheelock RSS in the elevator lobby
E50s on all resort levels (including pool bar) and E70s in the parking deck
(Pompano has ET70WP alarms by the gym/pool area)
SpectrAlert Advance speakers in the rooms
Simplex TrueAlarm detectors for elevator recall
(Dolphin has a 4903 in the Activity Center and Marketplace)
Kidde smoke detectors in all rooms
Panel is a Simplex voice-evac panel
Kingfish Bldg:
Palm Beach International Airport:
Publix Riviera Beach, FL
The Square Downtown West Palm Beach:
CVS Palm Beach Gardens:
Marriott’s Oceana Palms, Singer Island, FL (attended a meeting here):
TJ-Maxx, Palm Beach Gardens, FL:
Port Canaveral: Cruise Terminal 10
Panel: Silent Knight EVS-VCM
Pulls: SK-PULL-DAs
Detectors: SK-PHOTO-Ts, Unknown conventional heat detectors outdoors
Signals: System Sensor SPSWs, SPSWKs, SPSCWs, SPSCWHKs, and SPCWs
Another correction: It looks like the new Lowell High School is also going the Autocall route! It turns out we’ve got an Autocall distributor very local to my area: NSG Life Safety, a division of Norel Service Co. They’re located in West Bridgewater MA, and they moved into a building I drive by on my way home from my workplace! In a way, it’s like we have our own local Simplex. (And yep, they do have a few former Simplex techs on their staff.)
At the time that new Weymouth middle school was built, Bridgewater had a new elementary school built! The Mitchell Elementary School, after their previous building (built in 1996) suffered a roof collapse and had to be completely rebuilt, while they were temporarily housed at Bridgewater Middle School (and I visited there in 2018 as part of a Brockton Rox promotion). The 1996 building had a Simplex system, probably a 4020 or 4100, with 4903 horn/strobes (most likely electromechanical) and at least one TrueAlert horn/strobe.
The new Mitchell school building was completed and opened last year, and it, too, has an Autocall-branded 4100ES mass notification system.
Check out the annunciators, how there are apparently two A4603-9101s. I wonder what purpose each one serves. This school also has white TrueAlert ES speaker/strobes and “ALERT” remote amber strobes. (Mass notification systems are becoming all the rage for newly-built or heavily-renovated schools, as in addition to fire alarm use they can also be used for lockdowns and other emergencies.) In addition to the TrueAlarm detectors, this school also has A4099-9006 dual-action T-bar pull stations (the Weymouth middle school has no pull stations, most likely for security reasons).
While it is unfortunate some recent school tragedies have led to this sort of thing, it’s very interesting seeing public schools take their alarm systems to the next level. While a new elementary school in Easton went with an EST mass notification system, it’s neat to see that there will now be some variation with the new schools they build or extensively renovate in the Greater Boston area, alternating between EST and Autocall (depending on the bid). Also, in a way it’s nice to see Simplex equipment often get used in new schools again (I think of Johnson Controls having Autocall as being like how Edwards/EST had AIP and Faraday had FOS, i.e. brands to sell their fire alarm products to third-party distributors.)
NSG Life Safety is apparently Autocall’s largest distributor.
This whole thing just makes me wonder… did Simplex do something bad that led to them becoming a lot less popular - perhaps they became a lot less friendly (or maybe just more expensive) when they got bought by Tyco and then JCI? Or did the Dennis Kozlowski scandal give a very bad impression of Simplex’s parent company?
Or was there just more competition?
I wonder if the Watkins family regrets selling the company…
Also, I did come across a video of a school somewhere else in Massachusetts that has the same setup as Mitchell Elementary (and Lowell High), except it’s actually a Simplex system (confirmed after I inquired in the comments) - which is a little surprising.
I was wondering when you were gonna come back
I’m pretty darn sure that Simplex has gotten worse thanks to the greedy corrupt executives at JCI: even Tyco I’m sure was a better owner of Simplex than them (if you don’t believe me look at JCI merging with Tyco SimplexGrinnell just to avoid paying US taxes, among their many other atrocities).
merging with Tyco SimplexGrinnell just to avoid paying US taxes
Ireland is notorious for being a tax haven… here’s several more examples of this.
It’s still not right any way you look at it: that alone should permanently paint JCI as a scummy company that deserves no customers (& thus deserves not to even exist anymore), but everyone seems to overlook that regardless.
Anyway, we’re getting off-topic from this thread’s, well, topic.
Saks Off 5th, Stamford, CT (former Lord and Taylor:)
Panel: Fire-Lite panel from the 2010s, judging by the reset annunciator date
Annunciator: Fire-Lite ANN-80:
Pulls: Fire-Lite BG-12s
Alarms: SpectrAlert Advances on the wall and ceiling
Detectors: System Sensor i3 and Fire-Lite detectors
It’s probably not the products that did anything is probably the service that JCI and formerly Tyco had was bad and still is bad. I have heard some horror stories about JCI. I hear that JCI service calls are pretty expensive. The thing with Simplex is to get a Simplex system installed, you have to go through JCI and the panels are proprietary. If Simplex went the route with Notifier, Gamewell FCI and EST, I think Simplex would be more common.
Ron Jon Surf Shop, Cocoa Beach, FL
Panel: Unknown (system likely part of the security system)
Pulls: Fire-Lite BG-12s
Detectors: System Sensor 2400s, at least 2 I3s, and at least 2 Chemtronics heat detectors
Signals: Wheelock 7002Ts and at least one System Sensor P2RL
This post will cover two buildings in Port Chester, New York.
Building 1: Costco Port Chester
Panel: Notifier AFP-400
Pulls: Notifier NBG-12s
Other Pulls: Potter Dual-Action T-Bars blocked off by tape
Signals: Wheelock NS
Wheelock RSS (slowly being replaced with the L-Series)
There is also one lone Advance in the dairy department
There are also a lot of older Notifier and Potter monitor modules around the building
There are some Amseco alarms at the emergency doors
Wing Stop, Port Chester, NY
Panel: Some sort of an Edwards panel (based on the annunciator)
Pulls: Vigilant-rebranded Edwards SIGA-278
N/As: Edwards Genesis and a SpectrAlert Advance for CO2 detection
Detectors: Kidde heat detectors
I was there in 2020 and they had all 7002t’s and bg-10’s.
It looks like the system at the Costco is being replaced.
However, the Costco in Norwalk has Simplex QuickAlerts and 2099-series T-Bar (older) pull stations. The panel is some sort of a large Simplex panel (maybe a 4100ES?)
