Stadium Fire Alarm Systems: The Intelligence Behind Safer Environments


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The unique challenges of stadium fire safety and compliance

Managing high occupancy loads and complex evacuations

Stadiums are purpose-built to accommodate very large crowds. The amount of people within a stadium will often be in the tens of thousands. This poses a big problem for stadium hospitality and event safety due to several factors. Evacuating a stadium is a mammoth task that is simply not possible with the use of standard alarm and exit routes. A more complex approach is required.

There is also the issue of a crowd mentality quickly progressing to panic in the event of a fire. This makes evacuations more difficult to control and requires the consideration of potential stampedes and bottlenecks that could occur within a live evacuation. The unpredictability of how a crowd may behave during an evacuation is further complicated by the presence of alcohol in most stadium environments. This can lead to slower reaction to alarms, and safety instructions being more readily ignored.

Regardless of what event is in progress at a stadium, the clientele is often diverse. This drives the need to consider how fire safety procedures can help to accommodate the elderly, families with young children, and attendees with mobility issues.

Fact: UK sports grounds must comply with the “Green Guide” (Guide to Safety at Sports Grounds), which requires calculation of safe entry, holding, exit and emergency exit capacities, ensuring that fire‑evacuation routes are sized for full‑capacity stadium crowds.​

Source: https://sgsa.org.uk/document/greenguide/

The burden of constant regulatory adherence and audits

Many stadiums host multiple events with different configurations. This can result in temporary obstructions to fire escape routes, the use of special effects that can increase fire risk, and high staff turnover. These issues can make continued stadium fire safety compliance difficult to maintain.

Adhering to fire safety standards on a daily basis for a stadium environment can be extremely difficult to do when relying on manual checks. With the stadium layout changing frequently, rigorous manual checks will need to be completed and recorded effectively every day. This is a lot of work that can become very susceptible to human-error.

Coordinating response across vast, multi-use venues

Due to the complexity involved in the evacuation of a stadium, coordination is key. To allow for a successful evacuation that minimises fire related incidents, one area of a stadium fire alarm system needs to be able to communicate effectively with all other areas. This enables fire safety staff to identify which fire escape routes are viable, and direct evacuees to safety in a safe and efficient way.

Drax Technology: Intelligent systems for autonomous stadium safety

  • Centralised Critical Alarm Management Manage all of the alarms across your portfolio with one intelligent fire risk assessment software.
  • Real-time data shortens emergency response times ‘Always on’ monitoring enables early detection of fire risks, and improved response times.
  • Integrating all manufacturer fire and alarm systems Interlink all of your fire safety assets regardless of manufacturer. Our solution is compatible with over 50 fire alarm brands.
  • Continuous compliance through smart asset management Proactively manage your fire safety assets with real-time statuses, and actionable guidance on how to proceed.
  • Automating detection of non-compliance with British Standards Our intelligent platform continuously monitors all systems, and automatically raises any cases of non-compliance.
  • Asset health scoring and proactive maintenance planning Quickly identify the health level of your fire safety assets via a simple RAG (Red, Amber, Green) assessment, prioritising maintenance with an informed approach.
  • Incident forensics and validated evidence for regulators All alarm data is recorded and stored locally. A full, up to date audit trail is always available for regulators.
  • Detailed, time-stamped logs of all fire incidents Every incident/fire event generates a full report for the benefit of emergency services, regulators, and insurers.
  • Ensuring full accountability and damper detection See issues caused by tampering in real-time, allowing you to act quickly to resolve them.

Compatible with over 50 fire alarm manufacturers

Incident forensics and reporting for insurers and regulators

Our stadium fire safety management system compiles a complete audit trail of critical alarm data from all of your alarms in one place. This documents all fire events including testing and false alarms to keep you fully compliant with British regulators. These reports can also be used to provide information to insurers quickly and easily when required.

Total asset visibility and accountability

Whether you need to monitor fire alarm systems across multiple sites, a single site, or manage multiple fire alarms across one building, our solution can provide in-depth insights from multiple alarm systems in one easy-to-use dashboard. It has been engineered to integrate with over 50 fire alarm manufacturers, allowing your fire alarm systems to be fully interlinked, and provides suitable safety solutions for numerous industry sectors.

Case Study

Villa Park

Drax Technology successfully installed two AMX graphics systems alongside a new network of Advanced Fire Panels at Aston Villa Football Club to enhance safety measures and optimise operational efficiency within the club's facilities.

View Case Study

Why Drax Technology outranks service-led competitors

  • Going beyond service delivery: The end-user advantage With our intelligent, user-friendly solution, control is put in the hands of the end-user (your ‘responsible person’). This allows for full control over all fire safety assets across a portfolio through one centralised platform. Unlike service-led offerings, there is no need to ask for data from a third party service provider, in order for your large venue fire alarm management to run smoothly and successfully.
  • Moving from siloed data to full-stack automation Rather than using siloed data and needing to go to multiple locations to collect reports locally, our software allows you to receive reports from all of your sites automatically. This cuts down on the amount of time it takes to run fire safety maintenance tasks, reduces the amount of paperwork that needs to be completed and collated, and removes the potential for human-error in numerous places.
  • Making safety sticky: integration into your workflow With most service-led fire safety approaches, the act of remaining compliant with fire safety rules is treated as its own separate task that sits outside of your workflow. This can make stadium fire safety compliance clunky with poor integration that can interrupt your day to day tasks.

Outcomes: Faster, simpler, more resilient stadium operations

  • Reducing downtime In a stadium environment, any form of fire alert will lead to downtime and a potential loss of revenue. Even if it is just a false alarm. Many fire safety systems rely on reactive alerts which further exacerbate this problem. Once a false alarm or actual fire has happened, the damage is already done
  • Preventing costly incidents To prevent these costly events from happening, our integrated fire safety solution for stadiums provides real-time data, early fault detection alerts, and predictive analysis. This allows you to catch potential fire risks early, implement remedial maintenance to fix an issue quickly, and avoid costly fire incidents and false alarms.
  • Giving you the confidence of proven reliability and scale At Drax Technology, we have helped numerous clients with large scale operations and properties to improve their fire safety solutions through the integration of our smart fire safety software. An example of where our solution was used within a stadium environment is when we worked with Aston Villa Football Club to enhance safety measures and optimize operational efficiency within their facilities.

Over 4,000 businesses worldwide enhance their Fire Alarm System with Drax Technology

Drax Technology

Discover the intelligence behind safer stadium environments

If you’re interested in improving your emergency alarm systems for stadiums, we can help you to take a proactive approach. Talk to one of our team to book a demo today.

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Stadium Fire Alarm System FAQs

How does Drax Technology manage fire safety for high-occupancy events like matches or concerts?

Our solution manages fire safety for high-occupancy events by providing full critical alarm management in real-time. This enables staff to identify and locate an alarm event, implement segmented evacuations in phases, and removes the need for unnecessary full stadium alerts. 

Does Drax Technology integrate with my existing stadium fire alarm systems?

Yes, our platform is compatible with over 50 fire alarm panel manufacturers, and is capable of interlinking numerous fire safety systems together, regardless of their make and model.

How does the system help with fire safety compliance in stadiums?

Our system uses automated compliance actions and the Compliance Hub to make fire safety compliance in stadiums much easier. It runs automatic compliance reports continuously, provides a full audit trail for all fire safety assets, and flags any cases of non-compliance within a fire safety portfolio. This cuts down on paperwork, removes the chances of reports being missed, and empowers you to take action quickly to remain fully compliant.

What are the main fire safety pain points for stadiums that Drax addresses?

The main fire safety pain points that our technology addresses are:

  • High occupancy load

  • Multi-use facility issues

  • Emergency response coordination difficulties

  • The risk of non-compliance

  • Time-consuming manual checks and maintenance

  • Risks and costs associated with a reactive approach

Is Drax Technology just software or a full solution?

Drax Technology offers a complete, integrated solution for fire safety management. It is the best way to make the most of your current fire safety solution through the use of critical alarm management, asset management, and a proactive approach to stadium fire safety compliance.