EST4 is a modular system uniquely designed to easily meet the needs of standalone single panel systems or multi panel networks. Life safety functions including Fire alarm, audio, mass notification all uses the same fundamental components, simplifying system layouts. A powerful Configuration Utility program helps define system operations and thanks to higher speeds download times are a fraction of the time required by previous methods. Virtually all EST4 operating features are software controlled. This gives EST4 great site flexibility and ensures operational changes and upgrades will be possible years after the initial installation.
Highly Flexible Applications
EST4 is a superbly adaptable life safety system, lending itself to medium and large building applications. Cabinets are available with room for system batteries up to 65 Amp hours. With EST4, one 24-volt battery supports up to four power supplies. Each supply will support up to 7 Amp load. With four supplies, 28 Amps of current is available all backed up by a common battery.
Fully-Listed User Interfaces
The user interface layer is made up of a Color Touch Screen Display module and a system of generic control and display modules designed to maximize design flexibility for custom systems. EST4 Control-Display Modules provide first responders and emergency users with easy-to-operate controls and at-a-glance indication when time is of the essence and event information is critical.
Powerful Networking
EST4 life safety platform is built on a self-configuring IPv6 network providing network speeds up to 100Mbps. The EST4 life safety network enables the full support for cybersecurity tested to meet FIPS publication 197. Salted Hashing of passwords, authentication and encryption of sensitive data (user PINs, node authentication) are all standard features. This security applies to a single panel or the full complement of EST4 panels and network annunciators.
EST4 IPv6 network configuration also permits vast distances between panels. Physical interconnections facilitate a range of network capacities. Twisted pair copper at 2 Mbps supports distances of up to 5,000 ft. (1.5 km) between any two panels; up to 50,000 ft. (15 km) at 0.2 Mbps when used with the 4-NET-XT. Single mode, multimode, and even CAT 5 (or better) cable solutions are also available.
A single network cable carries all panel-to-panel services: data, voice audio, and firefighters’ telephone. No separate interconnections are needed. This powerful feature reduces cable costs and installation time.
Audio
Nothing informs building occupants better than the spoken word. EST4 audio design provides the emergency user with a communication package that minimizes switch selections. This facilitates simple, accurate and fast evacuation control announcements. This high-fidelity messaging, across EST4’s impressive capacity of 200 channels, provides the flexibility that responders need to get messages out clearly and concisely.
EST4 live paging capabilities ensure that those messages reach the right people at the right time. In addition to standard paging functions (Page to Evacuation, Page to Alert, All Call, and All Call Minus), EST4 introduces Page to Other and Page to Emergency. Page to Other is a quick way to reach people in stairwells and elevators, while Page to Emergency is for Mass Notification Network purposes. This added live paging capability allows responders to reach occupants based not only on their proximity to danger but also based on their potential to move inadvertently towards specific danger points.
EST4 live paging also lets responders select individual paging groups as well as combinations of groups. This allows them to reach people in Alert and Evacuation zones simultaneously without having to page one group and then page the other.
Taking full advantage of digital technology, all audio is sent over the same panel to panel cabling as network data removing the need for a separate audio riser. Coupling the inherent reliability and performance of zoned amplifiers with EST4 simplified user interfaces makes audio system design and operation both easy and dependable.
EST4 is the right choice for any medium-large application. Its multiplex functions are second to none in the industry today.
Cybersecurity
The security and integrity of the EST4 network is paramount to its ability to maintain systems operations in the face of outside threats. The most vulnerable point of contact for any integrated building system is where it meets the facility owner’s existing TCP/IP network. Ironically it is this gateway, which enhances and expands system capability beyond the communications network, that also exposes the system to some of its most critical vulnerabilities.
To combat outside threats, every EST4 panel can deploy proxy firewalls that effectively insulate the internal fire network from external Intranet or internet connections and the malware, ransom ware, and denial-of-services attacks that may be raging beyond. The EST4 proxy firewall uses Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) encryption and secure protocols making it FIPS Pub 197 certified.
The FIPS, Federal Information Processing Standards, are the most current and most advanced encryption protocols administered
by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
EDWARDS recommends the installation of robust commercial firewall between the facilities intra-net and the Internet. To further enhance network security, an optional tamper switch may be installed on EST4 cabinet doors. This alerts the system when equipment enclosures are accessed.
