General Electric

General Electric is a global infrastructure, finance, and media company taking on the world’s toughest challenges. GE is a company with a great heritage. Founded in 1878 by Thomas Edison, it is the only company on the Dow Jones Index that was in the original list in 1896. Over 100 years of GE global research has earned two Nobel prizes and thousands of patents. GE is imagination at work. From jet engines to power generation, financial services to water processing, and medical imaging to media content, GE employees worldwide are dedicated to turning imaginative ideas into leading products and services that help solve some of the world’s toughest problems.

GE R&D

GE’s R&D centre opened in Munich in June 2004. By 2007, there were more than 100 employees of over 20 different nationalities working in a variety of disciplines including chemistry, physics, engineering sciences and materials research. The six R&D laboratories’ are: Alternative Energy & Environmental Technologies, Hybrid & Renewable Energy Systems, High Power Electronics, Sensor Technology, Advanced Medical Imaging and Composites Manufacturing. This research centre creates a vast source of information for GE, allowing it to develop optimal and innovative products to meet every consumer’s demands.

Pre-existing situation & UTCFS’s role

Since the Munich R&D centre is a site that is continuously developing new technology and improved product applications, it required a total security system that would provide them maximum safety and privacy. Initially, multiple consultants planned a design based upon separate systems for every security application. This plan however, was not meeting the R&D centre’s requirements. Consequently, they were again on the lookout for a security manufacturer that could provide them with a fitting solution.

UTCFS’s solution

R&D centre which consisted of access control, intrusion and fire detection, and video surveillance. The system, based on ATS Master panels, connects both access points and over 50 intrusion detectors. Using the Alliance management software, all security systems, including access control, video surveillance and intrusion and fire detection, can be monitored and operated in an integrated way, and even allowing interaction between the different systems. To ensure reliable, high-speed communication of the entire system, fibre communications and ethernet infrastructure are used to transfer data from one point to another. Security and privacy is vital at GE’s R&D centre. With this comprehensive security package, UTCFS was able to meet the R&D’s high security needs.