Presidential center has Siemens tech

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - When the William J. Clinton Presidential Center opens in Little Rock this fall, the location will include a fire protection, voice evacuation and security system featuring products and monitored services from Buffalo Grove, Ill.-based Siemens Building Technologies. The 30-acre site includes a new library and museum as well as the Choctaw Station, a restored 1899 train terminal where the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service will be based. “It’s got a quite a bit of smoke detection,” explained Scott McCauley, south central district manager at Siemens Building Technologies. One of the major issues the company faced was the protection of documents resulting from fire damage. The installation features Siemens’ XLSV product, an eight-channel digital audio device that can be used to send spoken alerts to individual zones of the site during an emergency or play background music during other times. The system also features a detection monitor that identifies potentially dangerous smoke from non-threatening smoke. “If we get an alarm in an area, we’re going to set that area off in zones,” according to McCauley, who said the first stage of an alarm would be individual areas followed by a general alarm for the entire site. The installation did not require Siemens to specially produce any custom equipment for this site. In addition to the XLSV product, there is also closed circuit monitoring, access control and intrusion detection. Siemens will provide fire and burglar monitoring for the location primarily through its Dallas/Fort Worth central station, with a back-up station in Gaithersburg, Md. The local fire department will also be linked to the site, enabling instant communication in the event of an emergency. A spokesperson for the Presidential Center declined to comment on the security work being done, citing the sensitive nature of protecting the location from any threats.